Not since the opening of the tomb of Tutankhamun has the world of cinema seen such a mystery unfold before it’s audience…the holy grail of lost films has chosen this moment in the 21st century to be resurrected with a legendary original score by Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page. The combination of Anger and Page becomes a force of nature invoking the Gods of ancient Egypt.
The myth of Kenneth Anger, not to mention, that of Jimmy Page, is revealed here on film once and for all as a combination of the dark sorcery and demonic grandeur with Anger’s images now embellished by Led Zep’s byronic bad boy’s hypnotic score. The priceless combination of the sounds of Page, a devotee of the wickedest man in the world, Aleister Crowley and that of his greatest disciple, Kenneth Anger, unleashes a force of pure cinema that can no longer be contained.
“Lucifer Rising”, a surviving masterwork from the "Magus of Cinema” Anger has exhumed the unorthodox soundscape of Jimmy Page from the darkness of it's own tomb. The 23-minutes that Anger was given when the pair were in harmony is now restored. The project was near completion when five minutes of soundtrack was still to be composed by Page when this alliance appeared to be not forthcoming, the wrath of Anger was unleashed and not unlike the curse that befell Lord Carnarvon in the 1920s, a series of events took place that ended the lifeblood of the band with Anger's infamous "Curse of King Midas". Page was symbolically turned into gold allowing illness and death to unfold or so it appeared to be at the time.
We are lucky that all curses have a shelf life and now after nearly four decades, audiences can at last experience Page's score as it was meant to be heard, which was once described as "a mad diabolical symphony of beautiful evil". The perverse score has taken on a life of its own as Page explains: "There are four musical elements of Led Zeppelin making a fifth is magick unto itself that's the alchemist’s process.” Kenneth Anger once said "Magick is when you put two and two together and get five". As Led Zeppelin was fond of saying and it holds very true with this masterwork, “the song remains the same.”
In a perfect world, “Lucifer Rising” would’ve been preserved with a Jimmy Page score in the first place, now there’s a possibility it will finally happen. Here's a taste of that soundtrack for your listening pleasure.
It's damned hypnotic, as well as damned. But Bobby Beausoleil's is damned good too, mostly.
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