![\"utpatel.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/utpatel.jpg\")
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Illustration by Frank Utpatel from the 1947 Arkham House edition of Carnacki, the Ghost-Finder.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cPresently I got hold of myself a bit, and marked out a pentacle hurriedly with chalk on the polished floor; and there I sat in it almost until dawn. And all the time, away up the corridor, the door of the Grey Room thudded at solemn and horrid intervals. It was a miserable, brutal night.\u201d<\/p>\n The Gateway of the Monster (1913) by William Hope Hodgson<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cWord falling \u2013 Photo falling \u2013 Time falling \u2013 Break through in Grey Room\u201d<\/p>\n The Ticket That Exploded (1962) by William S. Burroughs<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Among other things, 2013 is the centenary of the first book publication of William Hope Hodgson\u2019s collection of weird tales, Carnacki, the Ghost-Finder<\/em>, and while I don\u2019t believe that William Burroughs was referring to the supernatural eruption that occurs in Hodgson\u2019s Grey Room it would be remiss of me to ignore the connection. Listening this week to Music for Thomas Carnacki<\/em> by Jon Brooks (he of The Advisory Circle<\/a>) had me wondering whether there\u2019s any other Hodgson-derived music of note. Lovecraft has inspired hours of musical endeavour while Hodgson\u2019s weird contemporaries, Algernon Blackwood and Arthur Machen, are referenced on some of the Ghost Box<\/a> releases. Hodgson is the poor relation in these celebrations, often passed over despite the sonic potential of Carnacki stories such as The Whistling Room<\/em>, The Horse of the Invisible<\/em>, and especially The Hog<\/em>, a tale whose manifestations are almost wholly perceived through the medium of sound. Searching around turned up the following examples.<\/p>\n Borderlands (1999) by Tactile.<\/em><\/p>\n The House on the Borderland<\/em> is the big favourite in this list, this album being a series of tracks by John Everall based on Hodgson\u2019s novel. John Balance of Coil appears on the first track, Grief<\/em><\/a>, reading the poem which opens the book.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The House On The Borderland (2005) by Nostalgia.<\/em><\/p>\n The same novel becomes twelve tracks of doomy ambience by an Italian group. On the strength of In The Cellar<\/em><\/a> I wouldn\u2019t mind hearing the rest of this.<\/p>\n The House On The Borderland (2008) by Electric Wizard.<\/em><\/p>\n The novel again given the maximum heaviosity<\/a> treatment by this British group. One thing you don’t find in Hodgson’s stories is bare-breasted witches, that was Dennis Wheatley’s department.<\/p>\n Borderland (2010) by Flesh Coffin.<\/em><\/p>\n A two-track mini-CDr by a noise outfit whose titles\u2014Swine Thing<\/em> and The Arena<\/em>\u2014allude to Hodgson\u2019s novel. The latter can be heard on the Flesh Coffin Myspace page<\/a>.<\/p>\n Music for Thomas Carnacki (2011) by Jon Brooks.<\/em><\/p>\n Originally a soundtrack recording for a Resonance FM reading of Hodgson\u2019s The Gateway of the Monster<\/em>, Jon Brooks expanded his piece into a complete album which is available for purchase<\/a> at his Bandcamp pages. I like this a great deal but then given how much I like The Advisory Circle that\u2019s not so surprising.<\/p>\n While we’re on the subject, Hodgson’s Dying Earth magnum opus, The Night Land<\/em>, is published this month in a new edition<\/a> with an introduction by Erik Davis. The John Martin-scale nightmares of that novel ought to have inspired some suitably apocalyptic soundtracks. As usual, if anyone knows of any other Hodgsonian music then please leave a comment.<\/p>\n Update:<\/strong> Andy Robertson in the comments directs our attention to his page of links<\/a> to music inspired by The Night Land<\/em>.<\/p>\n Previously on { feuilleton } Illustration by Frank Utpatel from the 1947 Arkham House edition of Carnacki, the Ghost-Finder. \u201cPresently I got hold of myself a bit, and marked out a pentacle hurriedly with chalk on the polished floor; and there I sat in it almost until dawn. And all the time, away up the corridor, the door of the … Continue reading “Hodgsonian vibrations”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[42,29,22,3,16],"tags":[182,1957,2788,197,4104,2272,3710,4674,1686,4675,4670,172,1989,4672,1017,4673,4671,1253,1190,1951],"class_list":["post-13613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-electronica","category-horror","category-music","category-occult","tag-algernon-blackwood","tag-andy-robertson","tag-arkham-house","tag-arthur-machen","tag-carnacki","tag-coil-group","tag-dennis-wheatley","tag-electric-wizard","tag-erik-davis","tag-flesh-coffin","tag-frank-utpatel","tag-ghost-box","tag-john-balance","tag-john-everall","tag-jon-brooks","tag-nostalgia-group","tag-tactile-group","tag-the-advisory-circle","tag-william-burroughs","tag-william-hope-hodgson"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pq7rV-3xz","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13613\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"tactile.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/tactile.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"nostalgia.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/nostalgia.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"electricwizard.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/electricwizard.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"fleshcoffin.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/fleshcoffin.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"brooks.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/brooks.jpg\")
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\n\u2022 The Horse of the Invisible<\/a>
\n\u2022 Tentacles #2: The Lost Continent<\/a>
\n\u2022 Tentacles #1: The Boats of the \u2018Glen Carrig\u2019<\/a>
\n\u2022 Hodgson versus Houdini<\/a>
\n\u2022 Weekend links: Hodgson edition<\/a>
\n\u2022 Druillet meets Hodgson<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"