AEon

Madness and ancient gods

Stef Lernous, director with Abattoir Fermé, and the young composer Daan Janssens have been working with two young singers and two musicians on a study project based on the work of H.P. Lovecraft. The atmosphere is one of chaos, gloom, madness and ancient gods. Lovecraft is well known for his short stories, poetry, essays and manifestos and is one of the ‘grandparents’ of modern science fiction and horror. It was he that dreamt up ‘cosmic horror literature’ and his writing presented the prospect of a horrible world for mankind. In his Cthukhu Mythos he sets out a pantheon of gods and monsters that push humanity to the verge of madness before reclaiming ‘their’ world. Lovecraft himself suffered from so-called ‘night terrors’, nightmares experienced while still awake.