Spoken arts label, Cadabra Records, prepares to issue the first in a series of vinyl releases celebrating the timeless works of H.P. LOVECRAFT, marking the first time the author’s works have been read on vinyl in over thirty-five years, with most of the works appearing on vinyl for the first time ever. The first in the series is The Hound & The Music Of Erich Zann.
The A-side of the LP, The Hound contains the first allusion to The Necronomicon — H.P. LOVECRAFT‘s infamous book of madness-inducing magic and cosmic terror – and on the B-side, is The Music Of Erich Zann. one of the author’s most original and reprinted stories; any story in which one finds a seemingly dead body, playing a viol should draw one’s interest. Both stories are read by Andrew Leman, a partner of the H.P. LOVECRAFT historical society, a professional actor with years of stage, screen, and audio performances, his voice capturing the proper terror, dread, suspense, and madness of LOVECRAFT’s stories. The liner notes were written by S.T. Joshi, a leading scholar on the writer responsible for a plethora of critical and biographical works. The pristine auditory delivery of the ominous tales includes sound and effects handled by Teratoma Sound Lab, with its ominous artwork handled by Alan Brown. On this first edition, the background sounds were left as minimal as possible, to assure the listener will use their own imagination to visualize the beings of the abyss, the way Zann would see it.
Horror portal Shock Til You Drop has interrogated Cadabra Records founder Jonathan Dennison on the inception of the label and the now ongoing mighty H.P. LOVECRAFT vinyl series, the feature joined by an exclusive, harrowing audio clip from the eerie Zann side of the LP.
Explore H.P. LOVECRAFT’s The Music Of Erich Zann and the corresponding interview at THIS LOCATION.
A sample of The Hound from the LP’s A-side is also playing at Rue-Morgue Magazine HERE.
Set for release on February 19th, 2016, the initial pressing of The Hound & The Music Of Erich Zann will see a run of 500 copies on 150-gram vinyl and housed in a gatefold tip-on “old style” jacket, including an 8-page booklet with extensive liner notes and more. Preorders are available through Cadabra Records RIGHT HERE.
Production on the next installment of the series, the amazingly portentous The Lurking Fear, is nearly complete. Stand by for full info on the album to be issued in the days ahead. Additional stories including Pickman’s Model, The Picture In The House, and more will see release through Cadabra over the coming months. A 7″ EP, Hallowe’en In A Suburb & Others will be available in the coming weeks as well in a very limited edition of 150 copies.
H.P. LOVECRAFT remains a master of the weird tale, his influence has spanned through generations of film makers, musicians, artists, and authors alike. Whether you’ve already read his work or are new to it, you will gasp in wonder to the horrors within. Dim the lights, close your eyes, and listen to some of the greatest tales of horror ever told.
An excerpt from S.T. Joshi’s liner notes on The Music of Erich Zann: “The story justifiably remained one of LOVECRAFT‘s own favorite stories, for it reveals a restraint in its supernatural manifestations (bordering, for one of the few times in his entire work, on obscurity), a pathos in its depiction of its protagonist, and a general polish in its language that LOVECRAFT rarely achieved in later years. Late in life he wrote, with characteristic self-deprecation: ‘My regard for ‘Erich Zann’ is negative rather than positive…’ I place it second [after The Colour Out Of Space as his favorite] merely because it isn’t as bad as most of the rest. I like it for what it hasn’t more than for what it has.”
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