NEWS ARC-HIVE
(from 1st December 2003)
Brian's latest book, 'The Road to Tir na n'Og - the Journal of a Psychedelic Archaeologist', has been published by Grooved Ware.
Psychedelic Archaeology, the 'Happy Discipline', is an investigation into the past through serendipity, divine inspiration, accident and blunder. It involves looking for clues to the consciousness of past cultures in the art that they left behind and exploring their world in the same state of consciousness - by taking whatever drugs necessary. Although wildly inaccurate and dangerous when practised by a layman, in the hands of an expert Psychedelic Archaeology produces results that are illuminating, fascinating, hilarious and, who knows, very possibly accurate.
In 'The Road to Tir na n'Og', the first published paper in this newly acknowledged field, Brian drops acid in the Neolithic cairns of Loughcrew, Ireland, and brings back a tale of dwarves, art, fucking, and a stone computer that hasn't stopped working for 5000 years.
The book comes with a DVD of the short movie 'Cairn T' by Flinton Chalk. This beautiful film shows the equinox sunrise illuminating entoptic carvings on the backstone of the cairn. It is accompanied by a trance-inducing 111Hz chant by the Barrittones. The 111Hz chant is based on the work of Paul Devereux, who discovered that Cairn T, and many other Neolithic buildings, resonate at a standing wave of between 110 and 112Hz. Devereux's subsequent investigations have discovered that this exact audio frequency range, and no other, has a marked and unmistakable effect on the human brain, in particular the pre-frontal cortex and the temporal lobes. Watching the 'doorway of light' in the film while listening to the soundtrack will help nudge the viewer towards the states described in the book. One day, I like to think, all history will be studied this way.
The book is limited to 111 copies, of which numbers 1, 11, 69 and 111 were the first to go. 111 is, of course, a very significant number for Brian. He's run the 111 Club, lives at number 111, and he is namechecked on page 111 of Robert Anton Wilson's 'Cosmic Trigger'.
In other news, Brian's writing about the Bou Saada incident is featured in The Book of Lies - the Disinformation Guide to Magick & the Occult. The book is the size of a tomb and will destroy the minds of generations to come. Highly recommended.
And finally, video footage of Brian and other notables, including Lee Harris, Youth and Howard Marks at the launch of the Alchemy CD, is up on Lee Harris' site.
(from 23rd Sept 2002)
From the programme notes for Megalithomania (12th Oct 2002, Conway Hall, London):
Brian
Barritt presents
Psychedelic Archaeology
Flinton Chalk's film records the movement of rays of the Equinox sun across
rock art within a temple/tomb at the Loughcrew complex of Neolithic chambered
cairns in County Meath, Ireland. It will be introduced by Brian Barritt and
accompanied by a specially prepared soundtrack of trance-inducing 111Hz chants
by the BarritTones.
The film will appear on a free DVD with Brian's forthcoming pyschedelic archaeology paper, 'The Road to Tir-Nan-Og'. For more details go to www.tir-nan-og.org.
The excellent track Brian recorded with Youth for the compilation album 'Alchemy - 30 Years Of Counter Culture' is now called 'Quantum Soup'. The album, put together by Lee Harris to mark 30 years of his Portobello Road head shop, will be available soon...
Brian is appearing at the Human Be-in, a 12 hour party organised by Fraser Clark (Megatripolis, The Warp). It is runs from 7pm-7am on Sept 27th at Ocean, Hackney, London, and is linked via the Internet to a San Francisco Be-In. Brian will be interviewed in 'The Youman Room'. I can't even begin to give a flavour of what else is happening at this massive event - head over to www.humanbe-in.com to find out more.
And finally, an article about the making of the Ash Ra Tempel & Timothy Leary album 'Seven-Up' will appear in the Mojo magazine towards the end of the year.
(from 25th April 2002)
Brian will be appearing at the launch of 'East of the River Ganges', a CD inspired by the Kumba Mela festival and featuring Alex Patterson, Klaus Schulze & Uri Geller. He appears on the track 'Interstella Hiss (Sky Is On Fire dub)', which he will perform live at the launch with the project producer Youth. The CD is available from Liquid Sound Design. The launch will be in the West End of London in early May - more details will be added to this page soon.
Brian will be returning to the studio around that time to record another track with Youth, 'The Portobello Triangle', for a compilation CD celebrating 30 years of Alchemy, the head shop on the Portobello Road. The CD is being put together by Alchemy's Lee Harris and will feature tracks from artists connected to the Portobello Road. It will be the first release on his Alchemy Records label and will appear later in the year.
Excerpts from Brian's depraved and obscene sci-fi story The Nabob of Bombasta have been added to this site.
(from 14th June 2001)
There has been a lot of specualtion recently about whether or not Brian is an evil lizardman. Click here for more details... A new CD by TC Lethbridge, 'Mina', will be available from www.tclethbridge.org from June 23rd. The album, which Brian produced, features Doggen and Kev from Spiritualized and the enigmatic Flinton Chalk.
(from 28th Sept 2000)
Brian has just returned from Loughcrew, Co. Meath, Ireland, where he filmed the dawn sunshine entering a neolithic cairn on the equinox. More details in his forthcoming book 'Psychedelic Archaeology: The Road to Tir Nan Og'... He was interviewed earlier this year by C4 for a forthcoming documentary about Alastair Crowley. 'I was bloody awful', he explained later... After Ash Ra Temple performed in the South Bank Centre, London, in April, Brian whisked Klaus Schulze away and locked him in a studio with Youth, hopefully the resulting music will appear shortly.
This site also has a new address - www.brianbarritt.com
(from 13th December 99)
Recent additions to the site include information on the history of the name 'Barritt', a fine photo with Julian Cope and a radio interview about the 50th anniversary of LSD celebrations.
(from 27th July 99)
Two pieces of Brian's writing appear in 'Wildest Dreams: An Anthology of Drug-Related Literature', by Richard Rudgley. Other authors featured include Hunter S. Thompson, Edgar Allan Poe, William S. Burroughs, Marco Polo, H. G. Wells, King James I, Jean Cocteau, Howard Marks, Aldous Huxley, J.M. Barrie and Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle. (Published July '99 by Little, Brown & Company, ISBN 0 316 64811 6).
(from 10th July 99)
The Kosmische 2000 website features a video clip of Brian explaining how the '7-Up' album was named, with an introduction by Julian Cope. A book reviews section has now been added to this site. Brian spoke at the inaugural event of the Society for the Reformation of Ancient Enchantment on June 11th.
(from 25th April 99)
One of the oldest pieces of British Acid art, Brian's 'Self Portrait with Orgasm', has been added to the 'Gallery' section. Brian has also been quoted a couple of times in the April 99 edition of 'Ministry' magazine.
(from 5th April 99)
Details of 'Whisper', Brian's first book, have been added to the site.
(from 15th Jan 99)
An extensive interview with Brian is featured in the January 1999 issue of 'Wax' - a UK dance music magazine (£3.50)
(from 26th Oct 98)
Brian will be interviewed about drugs on Channel 4 (UK). The programme - 'Rush: 50 Years of Drugs in Britain' - will be aired at 9pm on Monday 2nd November 98, and was produced by Windfall Films Ltd.
Brian has been invited by Brit-award winning producer Youth to speak in Glastonbury on Halloween.