Psychic TV to reissue ‘A Prayer For Derek Jarman’ album via Cold Spring
Psychic TV (Spanish TV Performance)
Side-Line stands with Ukraine - Show your SupportExperimental group Psychic TV will re-release the archival album collection “A Prayer For Derek Jarman” on 23 June 2025. The set arrives via UK-based label Cold Spring in CD and digital formats, with pre-orders available on Bandcamp.
Unavailable for nearly three decades, the reissue has been newly remastered by Martin Bowes at Cage Studios and features revised artwork. The release documents soundtrack work by Psychic TV – primarily Genesis P-Orridge, John Gosling, and Larry Thrasher – created for the late British filmmaker and artist Derek Jarman. Many of the pieces were composed for his video journal “Home Movies” and the 1976 film “Sebastiane”.
The centrepiece of the album is “Prayer For Derek”, described by Cold Spring as “an invocationary prayer” based on Tibetan ritual. Constructed from field recordings captured on the Dungeness coast near Jarman’s Prospect Cottage, the piece incorporates birdsong, ambient wave noise, children’s cries, and ritual chants. The track was created to guide Jarman “in his after-life journeys.”
Additional compositions include “Mylar Breeze”, built around themes for early Jarman footage; “Rites Of Reversal”, initially conceived for a G. P-Orridge/W.S. Burroughs collaboration filmed by Jarman; and two movements titled “Loops Of Mystical Union” and “Elipse Of Flowers” drawn from the “Home Movies” project.
The whole was produced by Genesis P-Orridge – with track 6 co-produced by Larry Thrasher – and the recordings took place at The Building Site and Jhopdi Studios. The package includes original liner notes from both P-Orridge and Thrasher.
About Psychic TV
Psychic TV was formed in 1981 in London, England by Genesis P-Orridge and Alex Fergusson following the dissolution of industrial pioneers Throbbing Gristle. The group evolved from experimental sound collage into a hybrid of psychedelia, electronic, and esoteric pop.
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, PTV released a prolific series of albums and videos, frequently incorporating occult symbolism and collaborations with underground filmmakers and artists.
By the mid-1990s, the band’s rotating membership included John Gosling (aka Mekon) and Larry Thrasher of Thee Majesty and The Splinter Test. The group remained active until Genesis P-Orridge’s death in 2020 after a battle of more than 2 years with chronic myelomonocytic leukemia.
The troubles for Genesis P-Orridge started earlier in 2017 after being hospitalized more than once. In a post in September 2019 Genesis P-Orridge said things were not looking good: “My breathing in particular is poor. At times 35% ov normal lung capacity. So most days to walk just a hundred yards to the nearest Pharmacy & store we need to wear an oxygenator. Otherwise we are too short ov breath to walk more than a few steps.”
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