"A Shimmering Darkness of Esoteric Pleasure" - the World of Jim Kirkwood

A brilliant and interesting new website has recently been published by former ASH Magazine editor Jim Kirkwood. I have spent the past few weeks browsing the different galleries of art, music and literature and I have been thoroughly entertained!

For many years Jim produced artwork and articles for ASH, before leaving the magazine to pursue his musical career. Something he clearly has been doing, as a quick perusal of his back catalogue of 36 albums shows. Where Shadows Lie was the first album, and I still posses a cassette copy that Jim gave me back in 1989, when he was still part of the ASH Magazine publishing team.

Aside from being a prolific composer, Jim has written an online story called the Midnight Tree, a whimsical esoteric extravaganza, full of inspirational vision and ancient mythologies. For a brief overview of the tale see here. It is the story of how a world, very much like our own, came to be changed by the planting of a small seed by the side of a village green in the heart of Foxhalt Edge, a reclusive and sleepy village that sits atop a plateau on the Welsh border with Herefordshire. It is a complex story that leaps back and forward in time and place and dimension. There is no one central character. Instead, there are dozens of characters, gods, faery, mortals, the living and the dead, and a few animals and birds with more intelligence than any would believe possible, who are linked by a web of events that reaches beyond time itself.

It is the artwork, however which I find the most interesting aspect of this website. Intrinsically linked to The Midnight Tree, they do however stand-alone as each piece of art is hauntingly beautiful, and the creatures leap off the screen as living entities from the 'world of Kirkwood!'

This website is intriguing and ethereal. Full of ideas and concepts that may lead you to something new and undiscovered, including web-links for free downloads of Jim's music, write-ups on the background ideas for the albums and superb art galleries. The future is a "shimmering darkness of esoteric pleasure", a future that I can thoroughly recommend!

Visit the website here: www.jimkirkwood.com

The Featured Illustrations by Jim Kirkwood:
Top - "Even the Very Small Can Make a Difference" from "The Hidden Nature of Eden" gallery.
Below - "When Shall We Three Meet Again" from "The Apocalypse of the Crow Messiahs" gallery.