Ian Read is an English

neofolk Neofolk, also known as apocalyptic folk, is a form of experimental music blending elements of folk and industrial music, which emerged in punk rock circles in the 1980s. Neofolk may either be solely acoustic or combine acoustic folk instrumen ...

and traditional

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Folk Plus or Fol ...

musician, and

occult The occult, in the broadest sense, is a category of esoteric supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving otherworldly agency, such as magic and mysticism ...

ist active within

chaos magic Chaos magic, also spelled chaos magick, is a modern tradition of magic. It initially emerged in England in the 1970s as part of the wider neo-pagan and magical subculture. Drawing heavily from the occult beliefs of artist Austin Osman Spar ...

and Germanic mysticism circles. Read was a member of

Sol Invictus Sol Invictus (, "Unconquered Sun"), sometimes simply known as Helios, was long considered to be the official Solar deity, sun god of the later Roman Empire. In recent years, however, the scholarly community has become divided on Sol between tradi ...

, and founded Fire + Ice in 1991.

Early life

Read left school at 16, and at the age of 17, he became an adherent of

Germanic neopaganism Heathenry, also termed Heathenism, contemporary Germanic Paganism, or Germanic Neopaganism, is a modern Pagan religion. Scholars of religious studies classify it as a new religious movement. Developed in Europe during the early 20th cent ...

and began studying

Germanic paganism Germanic paganism or Germanic religion refers to the traditional, culturally significant religion of the Germanic peoples. With a chronological range of at least one thousand years in an area covering Scandinavia, the British Isles, modern Germ ...

Music career

In 1987, Read joined Tony Wakeford's

along with Karl Blake. Read recorded three albums and an EP with Sol Invictus before leaving to form the band Fire + Ice 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 The Wave-Gotik-Treffen (WGT; ) is an annual world festival for "dark" music and "dark culture" in Leipzig, Germany. 150+ bands and artists from various backgrounds (gothic rock, gothic metal, Electronic body music, EBM, Industrial music, industr ...

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

.Some concerts are mentioned o
Fire+Ice official webpage
.

Fire + Ice

Read founded Fire + Ice in 1991 after several years as a member of

. According to their sole website, "The heartlessness of the modern

commercial Commercial may refer to: * a dose of advertising conveyed through media (such as - for example - radio or television) ** Radio advertisement ** Television advertisement * (adjective for:) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and s ...

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 Honour (British English) or honor (American English; see spelling differences) is the idea of a bond between an individual and a society as a quality of a person that is both of social teaching and of personal ethos, that manifests itself as a ...

truth Truth is the property of being in accord with fact or reality.Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionarytruth 2005 In everyday language, truth is typically ascribed to things that aim to represent reality or otherwise correspond to it, such as beliefs ...

loyalty Loyalty, in general use, is a devotion and faithfulness to a nation, cause, philosophy, country, group, or person. Philosophers disagree on what can be an object of loyalty, as some argue that loyalty is strictly interpersonal and only anothe ...

and the bond of true

friendship Friendship is a relationship of mutual affection between people. It is a stronger form of interpersonal bond than an "acquaintance" or an "association", such as a classmate, neighbor, coworker, or colleague. In some cultures, the concept of ...

."Th
band website
hosted b
Runa-Raven Press News Magazine
His work as Fire + Ice have had a large amount of influence on neofolk music.As stated in th
Live at the Hollywood Moguls review
o
Heathen Harvest
/ref> The band played

in 1999 with a lineup that included Ysanne Spevack and

Julia Kent Julia Kent is a Canadian cellist and composer from Vancouver, Canada, and based in New York City, United States. She has performed as a member of Rasputina and with Antony and the Johnsons. Musical career Kent creates music using looped cell ...

. The band followed up by releasing a split

7-inch single In music, a single is a type of release, typically a song recording of fewer tracks than an LP record or an album. One can be released for sale to the public in a variety of formats. In most cases, a single is a song that is released separat ...

with the neofolk song

The Unquiet Grave "The Unquiet Grave" is an English folk song in which a young man's grief over the death of his true love is so deep that it disturbs her eternal sleep. It was collected in 1868 by Francis James Child as Child Ballad number 78. One of the more comm ...

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.

Other pursuits

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 A (plural ') or (plural ) refers to a spell or incantation in Old Norse and Old English respectively; these were usually performed in combination with certain rites.The article ''Galder'' in ''Nationalencyklopedin'' (1992) Etymology non, ...

) of the

Rune poem Rune poems are poems that list the letters of runic alphabets while providing an explanatory poetic stanza for each letter. Three different poems have been preserved: the Anglo-Saxon Rune Poem, the Norwegian Rune Poem, and the Icelandic Rune Poem ...

. Read presently holds the position of Drighten in the Rune Gild and co-published the periodical ''Rûna'', which ceased after 24 issues.Ian Read is mentioned as the author of Rûna magazine issues 15 to 23 o
Rûna-Raven Press website
Read became the leader of the English branch of the

Illuminates of Thanateros The Illuminates of Thanateros () is an international magical organization that focuses on practical group work in chaos magic. The idea was first announced in 1978, while the order proper was formed in 1987. This fraternity, fraternal magical so ...

(IOT), in the early 1990s after founder Peter Carroll stepped down as leading

Magus Magi (; singular magus ; from Latin '' magus'', cf. fa, مغ ) were priests in Zoroastrianism and the earlier religions of the western Iranians. The earliest known use of the word ''magi'' is in the trilingual inscription written by Darius th ...

. Read is currently the editor of the IOT's '' Chaos International''.An interview with Ian Read
from Neo-Form Magazine, 2006.

Discography

With Current 93

He participated to the sessions of

Current 93 Current 93 are an English experimental music group, working since the early 1980s in folk-based musical forms. The band was founded in 1982 by David Tibet, who has been Current 93's only constant member. Background Tibet has been the only cons ...

'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 Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surf ...

'', 1988 * ''

Crooked Crosses For The Nodding God Current 93 are an English experimental music group, working since the early 1980s in folk-based musical forms. The band was founded in 1982 by David Tibet, who has been Current 93's only constant member. Background Tibet has been the only const ...

'', 1989 * '' Swastikas For Goddy'', 1993

With Death In June

He participated to

Death in June Death in June are a neofolk group led by English musician Douglas P. (Douglas Pearce). The band was originally formed in the United Kingdom in 1981 as a trio, but after the other members left in 1984 and 1985 to work on other projects, the gro ...

'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 "An eye for an eye" ( hbo, עַיִן תַּחַת עַיִן, ) is a commandment found in the Book of Exodus 21:23–27 expressing the principle of reciprocal justice measure for measure. The principle exists also in Babylonian law. In Roman c ...

'', 1990 * ''

Sol Veritas Lux ''Sol Veritas Lux'' is an album by the English neofolk band Sol Invictus. It combines the first Sol Invictus release, the mini-LP '' Against the Modern World'', with the second release, the live album '' In the Jaws of the Serpent'', onto one CD ...

'', 1990, compilation of the tracks from the EPs ''

Against the Modern World Sol Invictus are an English neofolk band fronted by Tony Wakeford. Wakeford has been the sole constant member of the group since its inception, although numerous musicians have contributed and collaborated with Wakeford under the Sol Invictus ...

'' (1988) and ''In The Jaws Of The Serpent'' (1988) * ''Trees In Winter'', 1990

With Fire + Ice

Albums

EPs

Videos

Compilations

References

External links

Detailed Ian Read discography
at discogs.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Read, Ian Living people Chaos magicians English folk musicians English occultists Year of birth missing (living people) English modern pagans Adherents of Germanic neopaganism Performers of modern pagan music Sol Invictus (band) members