Ian Read (musician)

Ian Read
Background information
Genres
Occupation(s)Musician, occultist

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

Read was a member of Sol Invictus, and founded Fire + Ice in 1991.

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 in 1991.[3]

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][verification needed]

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."[4]

His work as Fire + Ice have had a large amount of influence on neofolk music.[5]

The band played Wave-Gotik-Treffen in Leipzig in 1999 with a lineup that included Ysanne Spevack and Julia Kent.[6]

The band followed up by releasing a split 7-inch 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.[7]

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-published the periodical Rûna, which ceased after 24 issues.[citation needed]

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.[8]

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).

With Fire + Ice

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
2018 Wanderer 10-inch Vinyl Autre Que

EPs

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

Videos

Year Title Label
1992 Live At Hammersmith Chaos International
1995 Live At The Hollywood Moguls Fremdheit

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 4×CD set. Auerbach Tonträger

See also

References

  1. ^ Do Vale, Miguel. "An interview with Ian Read". Heimdallr. Archived from the original on 6 July 2011. Retrieved 14 June 2021.
  2. ^ a b Parsons, Gary (2 June 1997). "Interview with Ian Read of Fire + Ice". Quiette magazine. Archived from the original on 19 October 2004. Retrieved 14 June 2021 – via Flux Europa.
  3. ^ Webb, Peter (13 December 2007). Exploring the Networked Worlds of Popular Music: Milieux Cultures. Psychology Press. pp. 92–. ISBN 978-0-415-95658-1. Retrieved 14 July 2011.
  4. ^ a b "Fire + Ice home page". Archived from the original on 11 June 2008.
  5. ^ "Live at the Hollywood Moguls (review)". Heathen Harvest. Archived from the original on 3 March 2006.
  6. ^ "~ Official Website Wave-Gotik-Treffen Leipzig ~". www.wave-gotik-treffen.de.
  7. ^ "Death In June / Fire + Ice - We Said Destroy". Discogs. 2000.
  8. ^ "An interview with Ian Read". Neo-Form Magazine. 2006. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007.