Tag Archives: music

Soviet synthesizer bridged occultism and electronic music

Apples, Lummi Island, WA. Photo by Scarlett Messenger
Apples, Lummi Island, WA. Photo by Scarlett Messenger

Soviet synthesizer bridged occultism and electronic music

In his final symphony, Prometheus: Poem of Fire, Scriabin used tool he built himself, called the “tastiera per luce” to project colors in sync with the music. He used tables of correspondence from Theosophy that associated different colors and tones with different planes of reality, such as spirituality and reason. Scriabin’s obsession with associating colors with particular tones lead to suggestions that he had synesthesia. But after Prometheus, he abandoned Theosophy’s tables of correspondence and created his own, leading scholars B. M. Galeyev and I. L. Vanechkina to conclude that Scriabin did not actually have the condition. Yet a drive to synthesize aspects of the occult with sound, light and other senses into a single art form remained.

The Devil’s Daughters: 5 Women in Occult Rock You Should Be Worshiping Right Now

Pioneer Church, Ferndale, WA. Photo by Scarlett Messenger
Pioneer Church, Ferndale, WA. Photo by Scarlett Messenger

The Devil’s Daughters: 5 Women in Occult Rock You Should Be Worshiping Right Now

Thanks to these pioneers of pagan soundscapes and occult rock evangelism, nearly 50 years later the “sonic iconography of the fantastic and satanic” still resonates; wicked women rock-n-rollers traversing the left-hand path continue the tradition of seeking, questioning, and thrilling audiences with their bewitching aural spells and diabolical anthems.