Weekly Weird: Freedom To Spend to release remastered recordings of an Australian nun
It’s not unusual for those who have dedicated their lives to worship to turn to music as a form of personal expression, especially when it comes to using it as a vehicle for evangelising the teachings of their god.
However, considering how those who have taken a vow of poverty, chastity and obedience to the Lord sometimes live in cloistered communities that shield them from external influences, it could be considered unusual when someone living in a convent ends up dedicating themselves to creating otherworldly psychedelic records. Psychedelic pop is secular music, and so for Sister Irene O’Connor to have come out with Fire of God’s Love in 1973 without having heard all of the music it bears resemblance to is quite an astonishing feat.
Playing guitar, electric organ, drum machine, and adding her choral experience, O’Connor attempted to put together an album of spiritual and devotional songs, but ended up creating an early exploration of what we might now refer to as freak-folk or ‘hauntology’. Based in Australia and assisted by her fellow nun, Sister Marimil Lobregat, on production, the record is remarkably forward-thinking for its time, yet wasn’t exactly well-known at the time of its release, and has been out of circulation since 1976.
Thanks to the restoration of producer Jessica Thompson, the record has now found its way into the hands of Freedom to Spend, the RVNG Intl. imprint known for reissuing various out-of-print avant-garde releases from the era such as Ernest Hood’s Neighbourhoods, meaning Fire of God’s Love will receive its first repressing in almost 50 years later this year.
The first offering from Thompson’s remaster was shared alongside the announcement, with the opening track, ‘Fire (Luke 12:49)’ being the first taste that listeners have had of the repressing. The title itself refers to a verse in the New Testament book which reads “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled,” providing an introduction to the spiritual themes that the record offers up across its half-hour runtime.
Of course, given the work that Thompson has done to Lobregat’s original recording, the crackles heard on the 1973 release are missing, but all of the naivete is still present on the record, which veers stylistically from ‘60s pop-inspired songs akin to fellow Australians The Seekers, to riffing on the same sounds of Moogsploitation records like The Space Lady Sings. As peculiar as all of the combined references that we as listeners can make are, the likelihood of these having been genuine points of reference for O’Connor are slim. Yet, by miraculously evoking the sounds of these two disparate points of cultural interest, this offering ends up being a gloriously spiritual yet singular collection of songs.
Spiritual music can often feel like it was made in a bubble untouched by popular culture, but with small slivers of contemporary sensibility finding their way into the mind of someone completely immune to following trends. Take, for example, the minimal synth musings of Otis G Johnson’s Everything: God Is Love 78, which arrived five years after O’Connor first released Fire; its devotional qualities are unwavering, but it’s a presentation of gospel music as you’ve never heard it before. What O’Connor shares with this is a singular focus on making devotional music, and with that comes no pretence or exhibits of self-consciousness.
Initially printed with a tagline of “songs to ignite the spirit”, Fire of God’s Love has the power to do just as it promises, but possesses a charm far beyond its heavenly inspiration. These unaffected gems will ignite more than just holiness, they’ll help you believe that music can be beautiful no matter how unaware it is of cultural trends.
