Ian_Read_(musician)
Ian Read (musician)
English musician
Ian Read is an English neofolk and traditional folk musician, and occultist active within chaos magic and Germanic mysticism circles.
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Read was a member of Sol Invictus, and founded Fire + Ice in 1991.
Read left school at 16, and at the age of 17, he became an adherent of Germanic neopaganism and began studying Germanic paganism.[1]
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[3] in 1991.
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]
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."[5]
His work as Fire + Ice have had a large amount of influence on neofolk music.[6]
The band played Wave-Gotik-Treffen in Leipzig in 1999 with a lineup that included Ysanne Spevack and Julia Kent.[7]
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.[8]
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.[9]
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.[10]
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:
- Swastikas For Noddy, 1987
- Looney Runes, 1988
- Earth Covers Earth, 1988
- Crooked Crosses For The Nodding God, 1989
- Swastikas For Goddy, 1993
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:
- Brown Book, 1987
- The Cathedral Of Tears , 1991
- Braun Buch Zwei, 2009
With Sol Invictus
- Lex Talionis, 1990
- Sol Veritas Lux, 1990, compilation of the tracks from the EPs Against the Modern World (1988) and In The Jaws Of The Serpent (1988)
- Trees In Winter, 1990
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 |
- Do Vale, Miguel (2001). "Fire + Ice, interview with Ian Read". www.heimdallr.ch. Heimdallr. Retrieved 14 June 2021.
- Parsons, Gary (2 June 1997). "Interview with Ian Read of Fire + Ice". Quiette magazine. Flux Europa. Archived from the original on 19 October 2004. Retrieved 14 June 2021.
- 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.
- Some concerts are mentioned on Fire+Ice official webpage Archived 11 June 2008 at the Wayback Machine.
- The band website Archived 11 June 2008 at the Wayback Machine hosted by Runa-Raven Press News Magazine.
- As stated in the Live at the Hollywood Moguls review on Heathen Harvest
- "~ Official Website Wave-Gotik-Treffen Leipzig ~". www.wave-gotik-treffen.de.
- "Death In June / Fire + Ice - We Said Destroy". Discogs. 2000.
- Ian Read is mentioned as the author of Rûna magazine issues 15 to 23 on Rûna-Raven Press website Archived 30 November 2007 at archive.today
- An interview with Ian Read from Neo-Form Magazine, 2006.