A lecture on the English Romantic poet William Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell is taking place at Arthall, Gozo, on March 3 at 7.30pm.

The talk will be given by Mikolaj “Nick” Kubera and will use music by the Norwegian music collective Ulver to elucidate themes and motifs in Blake’s work.

The English mystic, artist, poet and printmaker Blake wrote his 27-pages long opus The Marriage of Heaven and Hell in 1790.

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell is a series of texts written in imitation of biblical prophecy and features printed sheets from etched plates containing prose, poetry and illustrations.

The speaker Mikolaj “Nick” Kubera

The work offered one of the most radical and unique interpretations of Jesus, Milton and selected biblical stories.

 

It expresses Blake’s own Romantic and revolutionary beliefs, revealing his highly personal vision of reality

 

It expresses Blake’s own Romantic and revolutionary beliefs, revealing his highly personal vision of reality, where “if the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite”.

In 1998, the experimental collective Ulver released a double CD album entitled Themes from William Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.

Portrait of William Blake by Thomas Phillips. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

The album, produced with Kristoffer Rygg together with Knut Magne Valle and Tore Ylwizaker, was issued via Jester Records.

It adapted Blake’s book in its entirety against the backdrop of trip hop, art rock, electronica, avant-garde, industrial, folk, ambient and progressive metal music, following Blake’s plates as track indexes.

Kubera runs an e-company offering IT mentoring and personal coaching services and composes experimental and alchemical music developing different aesthetics under the name therainwillcome.

The poster of the event.

He also writes poetry and short stories, translates lyrics from English to Polish, and doodles on occasion.

He intends his upcoming mixed media talk to introduce participants to Blake’s book through the gates of Ulver’s music.

The talk William Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell by Mikolaj “Nick” Kubera is taking place on March 3 at 7.30pm at Arthall, Gozo. For more information, contact Marta Obiols Fornell at arthallgozo@gmail.com or 7705 1564. Visit arthallgozo.com or facebook.com/ArtHallGozo for more information.