Absinthe: La Folie Verte (Absinthe: The Green Madness) is a concept album

Concept album

In music, a concept album is an album that is "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical." Commonly, concept albums tend to incorporate preconceived musical or lyrical ideas rather than being improvised or composed in the studio, with all songs contributing...

 by Blood Axis

Blood Axis

Blood Axis is an American Neofolk/Post-industrial band consisting of journalist and author Michael Moynihan, music producer Robert Ferbrache and musician and author Annabel Lee.-Early Blood Axis :...

 and Les Joyaux De La Princesse

Les Joyaux De La Princesse

Les Joyaux De La Princesse is a French industrial band, founded in 1986 by Erik Konofal. The musical style is a mixture of ambient and neo-classical, often utilizing samples from original works in tandem with French chansons, operatic works, and historical speeches...

. It is an homage

Homage

Homage is a show or demonstration of respect or dedication to someone or something, sometimes by simple declaration but often by some more oblique reference, artistic or poetic....

 to the cordial

Cordial

Cordial may refer to:* Squash , a non-alcoholic fruit drink concentrate* Elderflower cordial, a non-alcoholic beverage* Cordial , a medicinal beverage* Cordial , a type of candy that has a fruit filling inside a chocolate shell...

 absinthe

Absinthe

Absinthe is historically described as a distilled, highly alcoholic beverage. It is an anise-flavoured spirit derived from herbs, including the flowers and leaves of the herb Artemisia absinthium, commonly referred to as "grande wormwood", together with green anise and sweet fennel...

.

It was released by Athanor

Athanor

In alchemy, an athanor is a furnace used to provide heat for alchemical digestion. An athanor is a self-feeding furnace, designed to maintain a uniform temperature....

 (Poitiers, France) in 2001 as a digipack CD. In 2002, Athanor released a special limited edition boxset of the same name.

Boxset contents

The boxset contained two 10" picture discs (with remixes of the CD's material on one disk; live recordings from the only performance of the material, in Sintra, Portugal, October 2001, on the other), an absinthe spoon with the album title punched in it, a dozen different inserts, color postcard

Postcard

A postcard or post card is a rectangular piece of thick paper or thin cardboard intended for writing and mailing without an envelope....

s, flyers

Flyer (pamphlet)

__notoc__A flyer or flier, also called a circular, handbill or leaflet, is a form of paper advertisement intended for wide distribution and typically posted or distributed in public place....

, and a re-print of the 19th century book titled De la Liqueur d'Absinthe et des ses effets [The Liquor of Wormwood and its effects] by J. M. Ferdinand Moreau.

Precedent

Blood Axis' Gospel of Inhumanity (1996) contained the track "Absinthe" which used the same text as "Folie Verte (I Am The Green Fairy)."

The music was created by Blood Axis and LJDLP, with the participation of Eugénie Tudy (on piano

Piano

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

, organ

Organ (music)

The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...

, and limonaire). All aspects of the album (including instrumentation, spoken recitations, and mixing) were executed under the influence of absinthe.

The collaboration of the Musée de l'Absinthe ([Absinthe Museum], Auver-sur-l'Oise) is credited. A point is made of recognizing Madame Marie-Claude Delahaye, the museum's conservatrix.

The album combines musical soundscapes derived from Absinthe songs of the past (using elements derived from old cylinder recordings and 78s

78 (number)

78 is the natural number following 77 and followed by 79.-In mathematics:78 is a triangular number, and its factorization makes it a sphenic number...

) and recitations of Absinthe-inspired poems of the fin-de-siècle (by Marie Corelli

Marie Corelli

Marie Corelli was a British novelist. She enjoyed a period of great literary success from the publication of her first novel in 1886 until World War I. Corelli's novels sold more copies than the combined sales of popular contemporaries, including Arthur Conan Doyle, H. G...

, Ernest Dowson

Ernest Dowson

Ernest Christopher Dowson , born in Lee, London, was an English poet, novelist and writer of short stories, associated with the Decadent movement.- Biography :...

, and Charles Cros

Charles Cros

Charles Cros was a French poet and inventor. He was born in Fabrezan, Aude, France, 35 km to the East of Carcassonne....

).

Liner notes

The liner notes

Liner notes

Liner notes are the writings found in booklets which come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for vinyl records and cassettes.-Origin:...

 are replete with images of artistic representations of absinthe: advertisements for it, sheet music

Sheet music

Sheet music is a hand-written or printed form of music notation that uses modern musical symbols; like its analogs—books, pamphlets, etc.—the medium of sheet music typically is paper , although the access to musical notation in recent years includes also presentation on computer screens...

 of absinthe-related songs, and anti-absinthe propaganda

Propaganda

Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....

.

Quotation

"Life without absinthe? I cannot imagine it! For me it would be impossible! I should hang, drown or shoot myself into infinitude, out of sheer rage at the continued cruelty and injustice of the world — but with the divine nectar of Olympus

Mount Olympus

Mount Olympus is the highest mountain in Greece, located on the border between Thessaly and Macedonia, about 100 kilometres away from Thessaloniki, Greece's second largest city. Mount Olympus has 52 peaks. The highest peak Mytikas, meaning "nose", rises to 2,917 metres...

 I can defy misfortune and laugh at poverty, as though they were the merest bagatelles! Come! —to your health, mon brave! Drink with me! " —Marie Corelli

Marie Corelli

Marie Corelli was a British novelist. She enjoyed a period of great literary success from the publication of her first novel in 1886 until World War I. Corelli's novels sold more copies than the combined sales of popular contemporaries, including Arthur Conan Doyle, H. G...

, Wormwood (1890). Recited in "Variations Sur Le Thème De Corelli (By Venus And Cupid)."

CD

1. "Folie Verte (I Am The Green Fairy)"
2. "Symphonie Verte (And Here I Am, An Absintheur...)"
3. "Minutes D'Absinthe (Let Me Be Mad, Mad With Absinthe)"|Wormwood]], 1890)
4. "Absinthia Tetra (Opaline)"
5. "Poison Vert (D'Après Frédéric Barbier)"
6. "Avec Les Fleurs... Avec L'Absinthe (With Flowers And With Women)"
7. "Absinthine (D'Après Émile Duhem)"
8. "Variations Sur Le Thème De Corelli (By Venus And Cupid)"|Wormwood]], 1890)
9. "Variations Sur Le Thème De Corelli (That Night, I Drank Deeply)"
10. "Princesse Verte (D'Après Emile Spencer)"
11. "Fée Verte, Vous Êtes Jolie (Chanté Par Affre)"])

Vinyl

Studio Tracks

1. "La Folie Verte"
2. "Variations Musicales"
3. "Au Fond Du Verre"
4. "Absinthe Patriote"
5. "Minutes D'Absinthe"
6. "Avec Les Fleurs, Avec Les Femmes...Avec L'Absinthe"
7. "L'Oxygenee C'est Ma Sante"
8. "Absinthe Eternelle"
9. "Folie Verte"
10. "La Buveuse D'Asinthe"

Live Tracks

1. "La Folie Verte"
2. "Absinthia Taetra"
3. "Avec Les Fleurs, Avec Les Femmes..."
4. "Sur Le Thème De Corelli, Variations Musicales"
5. "Bois Ton Absinthe (De Francis Marty)"
6. "A Ta Santé Mon Brave"
7. "Fée Verte, Vous Êtes Jolie (D'Après Affre)"

External links

• Absinthe: La Folie Verte limited box-set at the label's website.
• Absinthe: La Folie Verte CD at Discogs
  Discogs
  Discogs, short for discographies, is a website and database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. The Discogs servers, currently hosted under the domain name discogs.com, are owned by Zink Media, Inc., and are...
  
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