Johannes Trithemius
Detail of Tomb Relief of Johannes Trithemius by Tilman Riemenschneider
Born	(1462-02-01)February 1, 1462 Trittenheim
Died	December 13, 1516(1516-12-13) (aged 54) Würzburg
Nationality	German
Fields	theology, cryptography, lexicography, history, occultism
Institutions	Benedictine abbey of Sponheim, St. Jakob zu den Schotten
Alma mater	University of Heidelberg
Known for	Steganographia, Polygraphiae

Tomb Relief of Johannes Trithemius by Tilman Riemenschneider

Johannes Trithemius (1 February 1462 – 13 December 1516), born Johann Heidenberg, was a German abbot, lexicographer, historian, cryptographer, polymath and occultist who had an influence on later occultism. The name by which he is more commonly known is derived from his native town of Trittenheim on the Mosel in Germany.

Life[link]

When Johannes was still an infant his father Johann von Heidenburg died. His stepfather, whom his mother Elisabeth married seven years later, was hostile to education - thus Johannes could only learn in secrecy and with many difficulties. He learned Greek, Latin and Hebrew. When he was 17 years old he escaped from his home and wandered around looking for good teachers, travelling to Trier, Cologne, the Netherlands, Heidelberg.

He studied at the University of Heidelberg. Travelling from university to his home town in 1482, he was surprised by a snowstorm and took refuge in the Benedictine abbey of Sponheim near Bad Kreuznach. He decided to stay and was elected abbot in 1483, at the age of twenty-one. He set out to transform the abbey from a neglected and undisciplined place into a centre of learning. In his time, the abbey library increased from around fifty items to more than two thousand. He often served as featured speaker and chapter secretary at the Bursfelde Congregation's annual chapter from 1492 to 1503, the annual meeting of reform-minded abbots. Trithemius also supervised the visitations of the congregation's abbeys.

As a historian, Trithemius wrote extensively as a historian, starting with a chronic of Sponheim and culminating in a two-volume work on the history of Hirsau Abbey. His work was distinguished by mastery of the Latin language and eloquent phrasing, yet it was soon discovered that he inserted several fictional passages into his works. His work as a historian has been tainted ever since, the invented passages proved by several scholars.^[1]

However, his efforts did not meet with praise, and his reputation as a magician did not further his acceptance. Increasing differences with the convent led to his resignation in 1506, when he decided to take up the offer of the Bishop of Würzburg, Lorenz von Bibra (bishop from 1495 to 1519), to become the abbot of St. James's Abbey, the Schottenkloster in Würzburg. He remained there until the end of his life. Trithemius was buried in this abbey's church, a tombstone by the famous Tilman Riemenschneider was erected in his honor. In 1825 the tombstone was moved to the Neumünster church, next to the cathedral. It was damaged in the firebombing of 1945 and subsequently restored by the workshop of Theodor Spiegel.

Among his pupils were Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa (1486–1535) and Paracelsus (1493–1541).

Steganographia[link]

Polygraphiae (1518) — the first printed book on cryptography

Trithemius' most famous work is Steganographia (written c.1499; published Frankfurt, 1606, placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum in 1609)^[2] removed in 1900^[3] This book is in three volumes, and appears to be about magic - specifically, about using spirits to communicate over long distances. Since the publication of the decryption key to the first two volumes in 1606, they have been known to be actually concerned with cryptography and steganography. Until recently, the third volume was widely still believed to be solely about magic, but the "magical" formulae have now been shown to be covertexts for yet more cryptography content.^[4] However, mentions of the magical work within the third book by such figures as Agrippa and John Dee still lend credence to the idea of a mystic-magical foundation concerning the third volume.^[5][6] Additionally, while Trithemius's steganographic methods can be established to be free of the need for angelic-astrological mediation, still left intact is an underlying theological motive for their contrivance. The preface to the Polygraphia equally establishes, the everyday practicability of cryptography was conceived by Trithemius as a "secular consequent of the ability of a soul specially empowered by God to reach, by magical means, from earth to Heaven."^[7]

The work has lent its name to the modern field of steganography.

Other works[link]

Other works include De Laude Scriptorum (In Praise of Scribes) (written 1492, printed 1494), De septum secundeis (The Seven Secondary Intelligences, 1508), a history of the world based on astrology; Annales Hirsaugiensis (1514); and Polygraphiae (1518).

• Annales Hirsaugiensis. The full title is Annales hirsaugiensis...complectens historiam Franciae et Germaniae, gesta imperatorum, regum, principum, episcoporum, abbatum, et illustrium virorum, Latin for "The Annals of Hirsau...including the history of France and Germany, the exploits of the emperors, kings, princes, bishops, abbots, and illustrious men". Hirsau was a monastery near Württemberg, whose abbot commissioned the work in 1495, but it took Trithemius until 1514 to finish the two volume, 1400 page work. It was first printed in 1690. Some consider this work to be one of the first humanist history books.

Influences[link]

The Cipher Manuscripts were encrypted using the Trithemius cipher, a simple^{[contradictory]} substitution that Trithemius describes in his book Polygraphiae. The Cipher Manuscripts were used to found the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, an initiatory secret society that heavily influenced Victorian and modern European occultism.

Works[link]

• Annales Hirsaugienses, 1509–1514
• Antipalus maleficiorum, 1508;
• Catalogus illustrium virorum Germaniae, 1491–1495
• Chronicon Hirsaugiense, 1495–1503
• Chronicon Sponheimense, ca. 1495-1509 - Chronik des Klosters Sponheim, 1024-1509; Eigenverlag Carl Velten, Bad Kreuznach 1969 (German)
• Chronicon successionis ducum Bavariae et comitum Palatinorum, ca. 1500-1506
• Compendium sive breviarium primi voluminis chronicarum sive annalium de origine regum et gentis Francorum, ca. 1514
• De cura pastorali, 1496
• De duodecim excidiis oberservantiae regularis, 1496
• De institutione vitae sacerdotalis, 1486
• De laude scriptorum manualium, 1492 - Zum Lob der Schreiber; Freunde Mainfränkischer Kunst and Geschichte e. V., Würzburg 1973, (Latin/German)
• De laudibus sanctissimae matris Annae, 1494
• De origine gentis Francorum compendium, 1514 - An abridged history of the Franks / Johannes Trithemius; AQ-Verlag, Dudweiler 1987; ISBN 978-3-922441-52-6 (Latin/English)
• De origine, progressu et laudibus ordinis fratrum Carmelitarum, 1492
• De proprietate monachorum, before 1494
• De regimine claustralium, 1486
• De scriptoribus ecclesiasticis, 1494^[8]
• De septem secundeis id est intelligentiis sive spiritibus orbes post deum moventibus, ca. 1508
• De triplici regione claustralium et spirituali exercitio monachorum, 1497
• De vanitate et miseria humanae vitae, before 1494
• De visitatione monachorum, about 1490
• De viris illustribus ordinis sancti Benedicti, 1492
• Exhortationes ad monachos, 1486
• In laudem et commendatione Ruperti quondam abbatis Tuitiensis, 1492
• Liber de scriptoribus ecclesiasticis 1494
• Liber octo quaestionum, 1515
• Liber penthicus seu lugubris de statu et ruina ordinis monastici, 1493
• Nepiachus, 1507
• Polygraphiae, 1508
• Steganographia, ca. 1500

Compilations

• Marquard Freher, Opera historica, Minerva, Frankfurt/Main, 1966
• Johannes Busaeus, Opera pia et spiritualia (1604 and 1605)
• Johannes Busaeus, Paralipomena opuscolorum (1605 and 1624)

See also[link]

• Humanism in Germany
• Minuscule 96 – written by the hand of Trithemius
• Tabula recta

Notes[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Steganographia (Latin). Digital Edition, 1997
• Steganographia (Latin). Google Books, 1608 edition
• Steganographia (Latin). Google Books, 1621 edition
• Solved: The Ciphers in Book iii of Trithemius's Steganographia, PDF, 208 kB
• Hill Monastic Manuscript Library article on Trithemius (includes links to photographs of various Trithemius first editions.)
• (Italian)The complete and solved Steganography books
•  "John Trithemius". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913. 

Jam & Spoon was a German trance duo from Frankfurt. The group consisted of composers and producers Rolf Ellmer (aka Jam El Mar - classically trained composer) and Markus Löffel (a DJ, stage name: Mark Spoon). They also worked under the pseudonyms Tokyo Ghetto Pussy, Storm and Big Room. Under these pseudonyms, the credits on the albums are listed as Trancy Spacer and Spacy Trancer.

Biography[link]

Jam & Spoon's first album, BreaksUnit1, was released in 1991. They had their first hit with the 1992 song "Stella". It was widely played, remixed and bootlegged in the dance club community for years after its release. The pair also remixed the singles "The Age of Love" and "Go". Their first international and commercial success came in 1994, with the singles "Right In the Night" "Find Me" and "Angel". These tracks featured vocals by the singer, Plavka Lonich. The albums Tripomatic Fairytales 2001 and Tripomatic Fairytales 2002 were released in 1994, followed by Disco 2001 (1995) as Tokyo Ghetto Pussy, Kaleidoscope (1997), Stormjunkie (2000) as Storm, and finally Tripomatic Fairytales 3003 (2005).

In 2000 they remixed "The Chase," a 1979 Giorgio Moroder track. Credited to 'Giorgio Moroder vs. Jam & Spoon', the song reached number 1 on the US Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart. In June 2002, "Be.Angeled" peaked at #4 on that chart.

Markus Löffel died of a heart attack in his Berlin flat, on 11 January 2006 at the age of 39.^[1]

In September 2006, a two compact disc set entitled Remixes & Club Classics was released to celebrate Mark Spoon. It is the first compilation of the duo's collected works, and featured an exclusive track "Be.Angeled - Tribute to Mark Spoon", performed live at the 2006 Love Parade in Berlin.

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

• Breaks Unit 1 (1991)
• Tripomatic Fairytales 2001 (1993) - UK #71^[2]
• Tripomatic Fairytales 2002 (1993)
• Kaleidoscope (1997)
• Tripomatic Fairytales 3003 (2004)
• Remixes & Club Classics (2006)

Singles[link]

See also[link]

• List of number-one dance hits (United States)
• List of artists who reached number one on the US Dance chart

References[link]

External links[link]

• Jam & Spoon Discography at Discogs
• Jam & Spoon Unofficial Discography

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2011)

Harold Budd
Harold Budd in Japan Photo: Masao Nakagami
Background information
Born	(1936-05-24) May 24, 1936 (age 76) Los Angeles, CaliforniaUnited States
Genres	Ambient, drone
Occupations	Musician, composer, poet, professor
Instruments	Piano, guitar
Years active	1962–present
Labels	Opal Records, Land Records, Darla Records, Samadhi Sound, New World Records, All Saints Records, E.G. Records, 4AD

Harold Budd (born May 24, 1936) is an American ambient/avant-garde composer and poet. Born in Los Angeles, he was raised in the Mojave Desert, and was inspired at an early age by the humming tone caused by wind blown across telephone wires.^{[citation needed]}

Education and academic career[link]

Budd's career as a composer began in 1962. In the following years, he gained a notable reputation in the local avant-garde community.^{[citation needed]} In 1966 he graduated from the University of Southern California (having studied under Ingolf Dahl) with a degree in musical composition. As he progressed, his compositions became increasingly minimal. Among his more experimental works were two drone music pieces, "Coeur d'Orr" and "The Oak of the Golden Dreams". After composing a long-form gong solo titled "Lirio", he felt he had reached the limits of his experiments in minimalism and the avant-garde. He retired temporarily from composition in 1970 and began a teaching career at the California Institute of the Arts.^{[citation needed]}

"The road from my first colored graph piece in 1962 to my renunciation of composing in 1970 to my resurfacing as a composer in 1972 was a process of trying out an idea and when it was obviously successful abandoning it. The early graph piece was followed by the Rothko orchestra work, the pieces for Source Magazine, the Feldman-derived chamber works, the pieces typed out or written in longhand, the out-and-out conceptual works among other things, and the model drone works (which include the sax and organ "Coeur d'Orr" and "The Oak of the Golden Dreams", the latter based on the Balinese "Slendro" scale which scale I used again 18 years later on "The Real Dream of Sails").^{[1][citation needed]}

"In 1970 with the "Candy-Apple Revision" (unspecified D-flat major) and "Lirio" (solo gong "for a long duration") I realized I had minimalized myself out of a career. It had taken ten years to reduce my language to zero but I loved the process of seeing it occur and not knowing when the end would come. By then I had opted out of avant-garde music generally; it seemed self-congratulatory and risk-free and my solution as to what to do next was to do nothing, to stop completely."

"I resurfaced as an artist in 1972 with "Madrigals of the Rose Angel", the first of what would be a cycle of works under the collective title The Pavilion of Dreams. Madrigals refused to accommodate or even acknowledge any issues in new music. The entire aesthetic was an existential prettiness; not the Platonic "to Kalon", but simply pretty: mindless, shallow and utterly devastating. Female chorus, harp and percussion seemed like a beautiful start. Its first performance was at a Franciscan church in California conducted by Daniel Lentz." ^{[2][citation needed]}

Composer and recording artist[link]

Two years later, while still retaining his teaching career, he resurfaced as a composer. Spanning from 1972-1975 he created four individual works under the collective title "The Pavilion of Dreams". The style of these works was an unusual blend of popular jazz and the avant-garde. In 1976 he resigned from the institute and began recording his new compositions, produced by British ambient pioneer Brian Eno.^{[citation needed]} Two years later, Harold Budd's debut album The Pavilion of Dreams was released.

Since then he has developed a style of ambient music. His two collaborations with Brian Eno, The Plateaux of Mirror and The Pearl, established his trademark atmospheric piano style. On Lovely Thunder he introduced subtle electronic textures. His thematic 2000 release The Room saw a return to a more minimalist approach. In 2003, Daniel Lanois, the renowned producer of U2 and Bob Dylan, and occasional collaborator of Brian Eno, recorded an impromptu performance of Harold playing the piano in his Los Angeles living room, unaware, and thus realized the album La Bella Vista.

His album Avalon Sutra from 2004 was billed as "Harold Budd's Last Recorded Work" by the record label Samadhi Sound. Their press release continued: "Avalon Sutra brings to a conclusion thirty years of sustained musical activity. Asked for his reasons, Budd says only that he feels that he has said what he has to say. With characteristic humility, he concludes, "I don’t mind disappearing!"^{[citation needed]} A special celebration concert featuring Budd and guest-starring many of the musicians he had worked with throughout his career was presented at Brighton Dome in May 2005, also billed as being Budd's last public performance. In spite of this, Budd's soundtrack to the film Mysterious Skin (a collaboration with Robin Guthrie) and Music for 'Fragments from the Inside' (with Eraldo Bernocchi) were both released in 2005.

David Sylvian's independent record label Samadhisound released Perhaps in February 2007, a live recording of Budd's improvised performance in tribute to his late friend (and associate teacher at the then newly formed California Institute of Arts) James Tenney. Recorded at CalArts on December 6, the album is only available as a digital download.

Samadhisound released a podcast of Harold Budd in conversation with Akira Rabelais in April 2007. In this (Samadhisound Podcast #2), Harold said although he had believed at the time of recording Avalon Sutra that it would be his last album, he no longer felt that way. "It was a time in my life when things weren't just falling together for me, and I thought that I was just going to let it all slide ... and I was sincere about it but if I had been more conscious of my real feelings and had explored my inner sanctum more I would've seen that it was a preposterous thing to do ... I was dreadfully lonely; I was living alone in the desert and had been for too long, really, and I felt that isolation very severely after a while, and it's probably a version of self-pity, I'm sorry to say, to have publicly said something like that, but there it is, I said it, turns out I wasn't telling the truth - I didn't know it at the time."

Darla Records released two CDs by Robin Guthrie and Harold Budd in June 2007, After the Night Falls and Before the Day Breaks. Recorded in Spring 2006, each features nine tracks with linked titles, e.g. "How Distant Your Heart"/"How Close Your Soul" and "I Returned Her Glance"/"And Then I Turned Away".

In October 2008, a collaboration with Clive Wright entitled Song for Lost Blossoms was released by Darla Records. It includes recordings that were done live and in-studio at different locations, including both artists' homes. The album features some of their work done together between 2004 and 2006. A second collaborative effort with Wright, Candylion followed in 2009, again on Darla Records.

It was announced that Harold Budd will appear as one of the featured composer/performers at San Francisco's Other Minds festival in March, 2012.^[3]

Discography[link]

Studio albums

• The Oak of the Golden Dreams / Coeur D'Orr (1971), Advance Recordings
• The Pavilion of Dreams (1978), E.G. - Produced by Brian Eno
• Abandoned Cities (1984), Cantil
• Lovely Thunder (1986), E.G. - Produced by Michael Hoenig
• The White Arcades (1988), Opal - Produced by Brian Eno
• By the Dawn's Early Light (1991), Opal - With Bill Nelson
• She is a Phantom (1994), New Albion - With Zeitgeist
• Luxa (1996), All Saints
• The Room (2000), Atlantic
• La Bella Vista (2003), Shout Factory
• Avalon Sutra / As Long as I Can Hold My Breath (2005), Samadhi Sound - Produced by Harold Budd
• Perhaps (2007), Samadhi Sound
• In The Mist (2011), Darla

See also[link]

• Electronic music
• Ambient music
• Brian Eno

References[link]

External links[link]

• Harold Budd Home page
• New Albion Records Harold Budd page
• Samadhisound Harold Budd page
• Ambience for the Masses Harold Budd page
• Harold Budd: American Vision article from Sound On Sound magazine
• soundNET Concert Archives A rare live performance of works by Harold Budd (September 18, 2004) [streaming Quicktime audio]
• Somnambule Review of Harold Budd "Farewell Concert" at Brighton Dome (May 21, 2005)
• Harold Budd: Harold in May article from The Independent (May 8, 2005)

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (August 2009)

Robin Guthrie (born 4 January 1962, Grangemouth, Stirlingshire, Scotland) is a musician best known as co-founder of the Cocteau Twins.^[1] During his career Guthrie has played guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, drums and other musical instruments, in addition to programming, sampling and sound processing. Guthrie also works extensively as a producer and engineer.

Career[link]

Following the break-up of the Cocteau Twins in 1998, Guthrie released his first solo record, Imperial, in 2003 on Bella Union Records. Guthrie's next release, which was co-written with Harold Budd, was the film score for Gregg Araki's Mysterious Skin.^[2] The soundtrack was released in May 2005 by Commotion and consists of fifteen complete songs based on the short pieces used in the film.

In 2006, Guthrie signed a four-album solo deal with Darla Records, the first product of which was the album Continental. He subsequently released two four-track EPs, Everlasting and Waiting for Dawn.

Two more collaborations with Harold Budd (who had previously announced his musical retirement) were released simultaneously in 2007. After The Night Falls and Before The Day Breaks were both co-composed, co-produced and played with Budd. Like the soundtrack to Mysterious Skin, both albums are slow, drifting pieces primarily utilising treated guitar and piano.

Guthrie has also collaborated with singer Siobhan de Maré (formerly of Mono) as the band Violet Indiana. Their first full-length album, Roulette, was released in 2001. A second album, Russian Doll, followed in 2004. In March 2006 Guthrie reported on his weblog that the group had started work again on new material.

A new solo album, Carousel, was released on Darla Records on 15 September 2009. Additionally, Guthrie issued the Angel Falls EP in early 2009, and the Songs To Help My Children Sleep EP in October 2009. A further EP Sunflower Stories has been recorded but a release date has not yet been given.

Guthrie's most recent releases are Emeralds (2011) and two collaboration albums with Harold Budd, Bordeaux and Winter Garden (with Eraldo Bernocchi) (both 2011). He played guitar on the Telefon Tel Aviv track "The Sky is Black", from The Birds EP (2012).^[3]

He currently works and lives in France with his wife Florence, their daughter Violette, and Lucy Belle, his daughter with Elizabeth Fraser.

Discography[link]

Studio albums

• Imperial (2003)
• Continental (2006)
• Carousel (2009)
• Emeralds (2011)

References[link]

External links[link]

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