PHANTASMAGORIA – THE SECOND COMING
IRMA VICTORIA & THE HATEBOX EXPERIENCE
CD
OCTOBER 1994
MIND AND MEDIA (MM3000)
Phantasmagoria – The Second Coming was the follow-up to Irma Victoria’s Grammy nominated debut album The Rainbow Theatre from 1990.
Being issued in October 1994, Irma Victoria was 72 years old at the time of the album release. She had just received The Medal for Meritorious Service, a distinction given for forty years of loyal service in the Danish Department of Defence handed to her personally by The Queen of Denmark, Margrethe II.
1. Everything Is an Illusion (3:26)
2. The Voices of the Dead (1:25)
3. Moon over Golgatha (1:06)
4. The Gospel According to Anti-Christ (1:01)
5. Heart of Darkness (3:17)
6. The Iron Ring of Ignorance (1:03)
7. Silent Rage (1:59)
8. The Beauty of Emptiness (4:40)
9. Metamorphosis (1:57)
10. The Devil in the Flesh (0:44)
11. September Song (0:45)
12. Where Nothing Is Sacred (2:01)
13. A Touch of Evil (2:42)
14. Forget Me Not 1:48)
15. The 49 Days of Truthfulness 1:09)
16. Once There Was a Rose 1:04)
17. Nothingness 0:55)
18. Circus of Bottomless Stupidity (1:18)
19. Eternalized in a Godless World (1:58)
20. The Endless Sea (0:49)
21. Paradise Lost in the Shadow Of Satan (0:52)
22. There Is No Hope (0:27)
23. River of Night (1:22)
24. The Sun Is Shining (1:24)
25. Bittersweet the Pain (1:28)
26. The Voice of Truth (0:15)
27. All the World Is a Stage (0:41)
28. The Promised Land (0:33)
29. Gargoyles and Weltschmerz (0:53)
30. The World Is on Fire Forever (5:48)
31. Like Tears in the Rain (0:21)
32. The Last Dream (3:24)
INTRODUCING PHANTASMAGORIA
“… where dogs and ravens mate, the frozen fields of the naked eye, arising I. Victoria, born in Splendour, Degraded, Arisen, in Wisdom Slumber; She, from Jericho to Armageddon, bereft of fever, Mournful She, Wasteland Witness, the Seeress, Sea, and Sea after Sea of Sand, such Oblivion. Her visions cruel and brittle, the mystic’s mission, in Irma’s dream, beyond, beyond, in solid silence.”
Laureate in Lily Fields, Ken Rivad (1994)
Aud Wilken: Backing vocals
Christian Skeel: Synthesizers
Henrik Marstal: Bass
Irma Victoria: Vocals
Jens Brygmann: Drums
Lars Top-Galia: Guitar
Martin Hall: Instruments
Ole Hansen: Horns
Thomas Li: Keyboards
Torben Engberg: Organ
Design: Jens Kruse
Photo: Robin Skjoldborg
The release of Phantasmagoria was surrounded by quite a lot of media coverage due to the singer’s age and earlier Grammy nomination as well as Martin Hall’s recent achievement with his hugely popular album A Touch of Excellence. Among the promotion stunts involved in the launch of the record, Carlsberg financed a poster campaign for the album in Copenhagen, the capitol of Denmark. Phantasmagoria even managed to produce a minor airplay scoop with the track “Everything Is an Illusion”.
The album was subsequently released on import basis in England, France and Spain and has in time achieved a cult-like status in several European countries and artistic communities.
When Irma Victoria died in 2000, 77 years old, several international artists expressed their grief with her passing. Among names such as Jean Pierre Turmel from the French avant-garde label French Sordide Sentimental and Martyn Jacques from the renowned English cabaret band The Tiger Lillies, the most fierce appraisal of her talent probably came from Douglas P., singer and front figure in the British neofolk group Death in June, who wrote the following in the cover notes for the posthumously released compilation album Memorial – Finest Moments and Famous Last Words:
“Her work was fantastic. May her soul live forever.”