Direct experience of the divine, and the institutions that distrust it.
Hesse argues wisdom is unteachable and must be lived. Siddhartha abandons Brahmanism, rejects the Buddha’s doctrine, and awakens only when he stops seeking answers. The brief isolates these claims, names what the book omits, and tells you which ideas land—and which evaporate on contact with the page.
Gris-Gris is Dr. John’s 1968 debut album, produced by Harold Battiste at Gold Star Studios in Los Angeles. It introduced his Dr. John persona—a voodoo-inspired frontman—and fused traditional New Orleans R&B with psychedelia. Though recorded in California, it featured numerous native New Orleans musicians. The sessions occurred under unusual circumstances: Dr. John secured studio time originally booked for Sonny & Cher due to an impending deadline and lack of a prepared lead singer. The album’s personnel included a cast of New Orleans players credited with elaborate, ritualistic titles, and its sound was described in original liner notes as steeped in bayou mysticism, voodoo chants, and studio experimentation rooted in post-Spector LA techniques. Initial commercial reception was poor—failing to chart in the US and UK—but later critical reassessment hailed it as a psychedelic landmark and one of the most enduring recordings of its era.
Triangle is the Beau Brummels’ fourth studio album, released in July 1967 and produced by Lenny Waronker. It marks their first collaboration between vocalist Sal Valentino and guitarist Ron Elliott as co-writers. Recorded by a trio—Valentino, Elliott, and Ron Meagher—after the departure of Don Irving and John Petersen, and during Meagher’s exit to Army Reserves, the album embraces psychedelic musical style, fantasy-themed lyrics, and surreal characters. Session musicians including James Burton, Jim Gordon, Carol Kaye, and Van Dyke Parks (on harpsichord for 'Magic Hollow') contributed. Arrangements feature strings, brass, woodwinds, harpsichord, and unique percussion. Ron Elliott described the album as 'ethereal, mystic, and mysterious', reflecting the drug culture of 1967. Though commercially modest, it received critical acclaim and later gained recognition as a cult classic.
No Other is Gene Clark’s 1974 Asylum Records album, produced by Thomas Jefferson Kaye in Los Angeles. Thirteen or fourteen songs were demoed acoustically; nine were recorded with a large ensemble of elite session musicians — including members of The Section and the Allman Brothers Band — and backing singers. Kaye’s production features intricate vocal harmonies and heavily overdubbed, vertiginous arrangements intended as his 'answer to Brian Wilson and Phil Spector'. The title track has a pronounced R&B/funk feel, often attributed to Sly Stone’s presence. Clark composed much of the album while gazing at the Pacific Ocean from his home’s picture window. Though critics praised its ambition and unconventional arrangements — which anticipated later innovations by Fleetwood Mac members — the album stalled at No. 144 on the Billboard chart due to high production costs (over $100,000), minimal promotion, and its demanding sonic density. Its legacy grew over time, culminating in a 2013 tribute performance and a 2019 remastered/remixed reissue.
Peter Weir’s 1975 drama follows the unexplained disappearance of three schoolgirls and their teacher during a Valentine’s Day picnic at Hanging Rock, Victoria, in 1900. Using soft-focus cinematography, restrained performances, and a haunting pan flute score, it sustains a mood of suspended time and quiet disintegration. Rather than solving the mystery, it traces its ripple effects across a rigid boarding school and the surrounding community — making absence the film’s central, unyielding presence.
Roberto Rossellini’s 1950 film adapts nine parables from medieval Franciscan texts into a series of quiet, unadorned episodes. Shot in rural Italy with monks and one professional actor, it forgoes narrative for ritual, psychology for posture, and explanation for repetition. Its power lies in stillness, humility, and the radical simplicity of its vision.
Tod Browning’s 1925 silent drama The Mystic follows a Hungarian carnival troupe recruited to run a fraudulent spiritualist act in New York. With Aileen Pringle and Conway Tearle, it explores belief as craft and deception as labour — avoiding horror tropes for moral ambiguity, slow pacing, and quiet performances. Shot by Ira H. Morgan and edited by Frank Sullivan, it sustains tension through restraint, not revelation. A surviving print was restored by Criterion in 2023 with a new score by Dean Hurley.
The Seventh Victim (1943) is a Val Lewton-produced RKO horror film directed by Mark Robson, following a young woman’s search for her missing sister in New York City, which leads her to a secretive Satanic cult called the Palladists. Shot in 24 days with restrained performances, Nicholas Musuraca’s shadow-heavy cinematography, and Roy Webb’s dissonant score, it sustains unease through implication and omission. Four scenes were cut in post-production, leaving narrative gaps that critics have long noted. Though commercially unsuccessful on release, it gained stature as a moody, morally ambiguous precursor to modern psychological horror.
Federico Fellini’s 1965 Juliet of the Spirits is his first feature-length colour film, starring Giulietta Masina as a Roman housewife whose repressed inner life erupts in visions, memories and surreal encounters. Shot at Safa Palatino and Cinecittà Studios, it uses colour, costume and set design as primary tools to map a woman’s slow, non-linear path toward self-perception. Though nominated for two Academy Awards and widely acclaimed abroad, its reception in Italy was divided — some critics finding its baroque surfaces overwhelming its human core.
