Ian Read (musician)

Ian Read is an English neofolk and traditional folk musician, and occultist active within chaos magic and Germanic mysticism circles.

Ian Read
Background information
Genres
Occupation(s)Musician, occultist
Associated actsSol Invictus, Fire + Ice

Early life

Read left school at 16, and at the age of 17, he became an adherent of Germanic neopaganism and began studying Germanic paganism.[1]

Music career

In 1987, Read joined Tony Wakeford's Sol Invictus along with Karl Blake.[2] Read recorded three albums and an EP with Sol Invictus before leaving to form the band Fire + Ice[3] in 1991.

Ian Read founded an all traditional folk band named Figg's Academy that played a couple of gigs, notably in 2008 at the Wave-Gotik-Treffen in Leipzig.[4]

Fire + Ice

Read founded Fire + Ice in 1991 after several years as a member of Sol Invictus. According to their sole website, "The heartlessness of the modern commercial consumer society ruins the lives of many. FIRE + ICE takes the purity and philosophy of early music and melds it into a message redolent with powerful seeds of honour, truth, loyalty and the bond of true friendship." [5]

His work as Fire + Ice have had a large amount of influence on neofolk music.[6]

The band played Wave-Gotik-Treffen in Leipzig in 1999 with a lineup that included Ysanne Spevack and Julia Kent.[7] The festival also featured performances by Rose McDowall, Lydia Lunch, HIM (Finnish band) and Diamanda Galas among more celebrated goth subculture glitterati.

The band followed up by releasing a split 7" single with the neofolk song The Unquiet Grave recorded in London in 2000, featuring vocals and viola by Ysanne Spevack as a duet with Ian Read. It was released in Germany by Tesco Distribution on blue vinyl with a letterpress foil gatefold cover.[8]

Other pursuits

In 1996, Read was named as a Rune-Master within the Rune-Gild. His master work was the Fire + Ice album Rûna that included a self-written and sung galdor (or galdr) of the Rune poem.[2] Read presently holds the position of Drighten in the Rune Gild and co-publishes the periodical Rûna.[9]

Read became the leader of the English branch of the Illuminates of Thanateros (IOT), in the early 1990s after founder Peter Carroll stepped down as leading Magus. Read is currently the editor of the IOT's Chaos International.[10]

Discography

With Current 93

He participated to the sessions of Current 93's album Swastikas For Noddy, therefore he appears on this album and some subsequent albums containing remixes of this material:

With Death In June

He participated to Death in June's album Brown Book and the tracks have appeared in subsequent Death In June's releases as well:

With Sol Invictus
For a more comprehensive list, see Sol Invictus (band).

Albums
Year Title Format, Special Notes Label
1992 Gilded By The Sun CD New European Recordings
1994 Hollow Ways CD Fremdheit
1994 California Daze Live CD with Charlie MacGowan Discordia
1995 Midwinter Fires CD Fremdheit
1996 Rûna CD Fremdheit
1998 Seasons Of Ice CD, compilation of rarities and unreleased tracks Fremdheit
2000 Birdking CD Fremdheit
2012 Fractured Man CD and Vinyl Fremdheit

EPs
Year Title Format, Special Notes Label
1993 Blood On The Snow CD Single Fremdheit
1996 Reyn Again 7" Fremdheit
2000 We Said Destroy Split 7" with Death In June Fremdheit

Videos

Compilations
Year Tracks Title Format, Special Notes Label
1996 Seeker's Prayer, Purity The Pact: Flying In The Face... CD Fremdheit
1998 Noxialicht The Nitha Fields CD Ultra!
2000 Harry the sun The Pact: ...Of The Gods CD Fremdheit
2004 Michael Tyr II CD included with magazine. Ultra!
2005 Dragons in the sunset Looking For Europe 4xCD set. Auerbach Tonträger

See also

References
  1. Do Vale, Miguel (2001). "An interview with Ian Read". Heimdallr. Retrieved 26 March 2020.
  2. Interview with Ian Read Archived 19 October 2004 at the Wayback Machine by Gary Parsons on 2 June 1997 - appeared in Flux Europa.
  3. Webb, Peter (13 December 2007). Exploring the networked worlds of popular music: milieu cultures. Psychology Press. pp. 92–. ISBN 978-0-415-95658-1. Retrieved 14 July 2011.
  4. Some concerts are mentioned on Fire+Ice official webpage Archived 11 June 2008 at the Wayback Machine.
  5. The band website Archived 11 June 2008 at the Wayback Machine hosted by Runa-Raven Press News Magazine.
  6. As stated in the Live at the Hollywood Moguls review on Heathen Harvest
  7. "~ Official Website Wave-Gotik-Treffen Leipzig ~". www.wave-gotik-treffen.de.
  8. "Death In June / Fire + Ice - We Said Destroy". Discogs.
  9. Ian Read is mentioned as the author of Rûna magazine issues 15 to 23 on Rûna-Raven Press website Archived 30 November 2007 at Archive.today
  10. An interview with Ian Read from Neo-Form Magazine, 2006.
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