Wendy Elizabeth Rule

Hi friends. It’s Wendy here. 

I am very excited and very proud to announce that, finally, after 12 years of dedicated creative work, my epic new double album PERSEPHONE is (almost!) ready for release. Its official release date is October 31st 2018 (my birthday!), and so this fundraiser is an opportunity to pre-order the album, knowing that it will arrive in your letterbox or inbox very, very soon - with the download available to supporters a few weeks before the official release! The CD will be going to press on September 24th - just two weeks from now!

And the fundraiser is also to raise money for the next round of costs: one more day in the studio for final mixing, mastering the album, pressing the double CD, pressing on vinyl, and, very importantly, paying the musicians! I’m also hoping that I can recoup at least some of the $15,000 AUD + that I’ve already spent on this album (and that’s not counting airfares!) Yep, as I said, it’s epic! 

Persephone is unlike anything I’ve done before - 24 tracks of songs and chants totalling nearly 1 1/2 hours of music, that tell the story of the Ancient Greek myth of the Goddess Persephone’s descent into the Underworld, and the grief of her mother Demeter, the Goddess of the Grain. 

In some ways PERSEPHONE is kind of like an opera - a focused musical journey designed to guide the listener through this ancient tale of the cycles of Nature. But of course, it draws on all my other albums that have come before it.  It's dark and strange and beautifully otherworldly. It features the vibraphone, marimba, percussion (and co-arranger skills) of Elissa Goodrich, Rachel Samuel’s beautiful cello, dark and dreamy soundscapes by Timothy Van Diest, and a ‘Greek Chorus’ of five amazing singers. I sing in the roles of the three Goddesses who feature in the myth: Persephone (the Maiden), Demeter (the Mother) and Hecate (The Crone) And renowned Australian performer Mikelangelo is the voice of Hades on one track. 

This project is so dear to my heart, and has led me on a huge journey of spiritual and musical growth. Over the past five years I’ve made an annual pilgrimage to Greece to  honour the Goddesses of the myth in their sacred temples. I’ve offered Pomegranates at the gateway to the Underworld at Eleusis, and sung to Demeter at one of her ancient ritual sites in Athens. And since my first trip to Greece in 2014 I’ve been a dedicated student of modern Greek, learning enough that I could sing the parts of the Goddess Hecate in Greek.

(That’s me below, on my first trip to Athens in 2014)

The artwork for the album, by Santa Fe artist Vicki Teague-Cooper, is truly gorgeous. I commissioned a beautiful painting, especially for the cover.  You can check out more of Vicki's paintings here: Vicki Teague-Cooper

And Vicki also designed the very lavish artwork for the double CD package - a six-panel eco-wallet with a 24 page lyric book. Inside the six panel wallet are 3 photos of me in the roles of Hecate, Demeter and Persephone, shot by the famous New Mexico based photographer Karen Kuehn. 

And, for the first time ever, I’m going to be releasing this album on vinyl! It will be a very limited pressing of only 500 copies, featuring Vicki’s art and design, full lyrics, and Karen’s amazing photos. (More about that in the ‘rewards’ section below’) 

GLOBAL PRODUCTION

Because I’m an Australian from the excellent city of Melbourne, but am now enjoying living in the gorgeous high-desert town of Santa Fe in New Mexico, I have strong ties to both places. So, this album was recorded at both Disclaimer Studios in New Mexico (located in our basement!) and at the wonderful Toyland Studios in Melbourne, (where I could record my Melbourne based musicians Elissa Goodrich, Talie Helene and Melody Moon). My husband Timothy Van Diest engineered all the New Mexico recordings, and Adam Calaitzis was at the helm for the Melbourne recordings. Added to this, one of the Greek Chorus vocalists - Callie Galati - is from Athens, so her parts were recorded there! My wonderful friend Rachel Samuel flew from her current home in Devon, England to Melbourne to record her cello parts, Cyoakha Grace flew from Portugal to Santa Fe to record hers, Melody Moon recorded many of her chorus parts in the back of her van along the Great Ocean Rd in Victoria, Mauro Woody made the hour-long drive from Albuquerque to our strange little studio in the heart of Winter, and Mikelangelo recorded Hades in Canberra. And I was in charge of co-ordinating this global dance, and attended every session in Melbourne and Santa Fe, making multiple journeys to Australia and back over the past few years. Can you imagine the airfare costs? Arghh! 

WHY PERSEPHONE?

The myth of Persephone and Demeter always held a particularly strong personal resonance for me. I’ve known it since I was a teenager, falling into the Underworld in cycles of depression that led me to identify with the Goddess Persephone and her plight. The story was one of the central myths of ancient Greece, honoured in ritual for thousands of years and utilised to explain the seasonal cycles of Nature and the human experience. It is an amazing story of the necessity for both darkness and light.  If you'd like to read my short and concise version of it, you can head over to the new Persephone page on my website: 

"PERSEPHONE" PAGE ON MY WEBSITE

MY VISION

For many years I have held a vision of honouring the myth of Persephone by creating a work entirely dedicated to this complex story of cyclic descent and rebirth. It’s a truly beautiful and many-layered story, a gift of wisdom from the Ancients.  It’s certainly been a long and winding road since I first began working with my friend Elissa Goodrich on a ‘Persephone’ project back in 2006. So much has changed since then - both in my musical approach to the project (which was initially conceived as a theatre show, and will hopefully one day manifest as that) and in my understanding of the subtleties of the myth. 

If you’d like to read about my journey with Persephone, you'll find a detailed PDF called 'The Journey' on the Persephone page of my website. You'll also find the full lyric booklet there, too. 

'PERSEPHONE' PAGE ON MY WEBSITE 

MY GIFTS TO YOU FOR YOUR PLEDGES

My most important gift is my genuine and heartfelt gratitude for your support, whatever you can contribute. As an independent and self-funded musician, it’s folks like you who make it possible for me to keep doing what I love to do. 

Although the main purpose of this fundraiser is to give you an opportunity to pre-order the album and help me to raise some funds for the very expensive final stages of mastering and manufacturing, I also want to use this fundraiser as an opportunity to share with you some very unique rewards made especially for this album. I know from my last ‘Black Snake’ fundraiser five years ago that launching a campaign like this is a massive logistical and financial enterprise.  But it’s worth it, because it gives us a chance to really connect as a community - for you to support my journey as an independent artist, and for me to share some pretty cool stuff with you! 

(A NOTE FOR MY AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND SUPPORTERS

To avoid any confusion, I want to point out to my Australian and NZ supporters that the GOALS ARE IN USD!! So you’ll need to factor that into your choices. For example, the cost of the double-CD package, postage included, is $40 USD, which works out to about $55 AUD - which is what I would charge in AUD for a double album, MP3 download, and signed postcard, posted from the USA :) . So, you’ll be paying exactly the same as what I would have charged in AUD for all the prices, but the dollar amount on the rewards will look lower because it’s USD.)

Some of the rewards are priced at market value (the CDs, T-Shirts plus postage etc), but many of the others that are time intensive (e.g. the handmade things, and the tarot readings) are more my way of saying ‘thank you’ for a generous donation. 

Rather than creating reward ‘bundles’ (like I did for my last ‘Black Snake’ CD Fundraiser), I’ve kept most of the rewards separate so that you can pick and choose what you’d like. Maybe you’re after the vinyl and an altar cloth? Maybe a signed photo and CD? Maybe the MP3 download and a Skype Tarot reading?  You can pledge as many times as you like and create your own unique bundle of rewards. That said, I have created a few bundles to make it easy for you to support ‘Persephone’ - e.g., CD and T-Shirt.

MUSIC

Of course, there are the musical rewards: the MP3 download of the double album (which includes a PDF booklet of the lyrics), the lavish 2-CD 6 panel eco wallet with 24 page booklet, and the limited release double vinyl album. And those who purchase the CD or Vinyl will of course get a download of the album too, as well as a personally addressed and signed postcard. 

PDF BOOKLET: PERSEPHONE - A MYTHIC JOURNEY

I've been obsessed by this myth a long time and have studied it deeply, so I'll be creating a special PDF booklet to share my mythic insights with you, and explain the complex motivations behind each of the songs. In a way, this is like the ‘Persephone’ workshop that I've been running for the past few year, but in booklet form! 

T-SHIRTS and TOTE BAGS

For the first time in about 20 years, I’m actually going to get some T-shirts made! And while I’m at it, I’ll get the cool T-Shirt design silkscreened onto some black canvas tote bags too. 

ALTAR CLOTHS AND TAROT POUCHES

I have some special ‘witchy’ gifts of silk-screened ‘Persephone’ altar cloths, hand embroidered (by me) black pure silk Tarot pouches, and a couple of very special hand embroidered black pure silk altar cloths. 

JEWELLERY

My friend (and famous jeweller!) William Llewellyn Griffiths is designing some limited edition ‘Persephone’ pomegranate charms in sterling silver- just for this album!!! That makes me feel pretty special! 

TAROT

I’ll be offering a few one-on-one skype tarot readings (or in person if we can work that out easily), and 'One-Card Tarot Readings' which I’ll post to you. 

ART PRINTS AND PHOTOS

I’ll be making the most of Vicki’s beautiful imagery and those excellent photos by Karen Kuehn by offering high-quality art prints of the front cover, and signed photo cards of me as the three Goddesses.

ORIGINAL PAINTING

Vicki has also agreed to make one very special painting available for this fundraiser. As she donated hours upon hours of her time as the designer of this project, the generous art-lover who purchases this original work of art can rest assured that Vicki will, of course, receive all the funds from this reward. She’s amazing. 

PRIVATE HOUSE CONCERT

And finally, for you high rollers who really want to get behind what I’m doing, and also create a very fun time for you and your friends, I’m offering a handful of private house concerts. 

Thanks for your support. I can’t wait for you to hear this album, and I’m super excited about getting these rewards underway, too! 

Love and Magic

Wendy

I have received an incredible amount of support from my musical and artistic collaborators to get this album off the ground, but those recording and manufacturing costs are very real. And I still have the final bit of mixing, the mastering, more than half of the musicians’ fees, and the pressing of CD and Vinyl to pay for. So I could very much do with your help :) 

Here’s a breakdown of what it’s costing to make this album: 

RECORDING at Toyland in Melbourne: approx $10,000 AUD

MASTERING 24 Tracks at Crystal Mastering in Melbourne: $2,400 AUD

RECORDING Callie’s Vocals in Athens: 300 Euro

MUSICIAN FEES $7000 AUD

PHOTOS $650 USD (Generous discount from Karen to support the project) 

ORIGINAL PAINTING $1000 USD (half price discount from Vicki to support the project) 

ART AND DESIGN: Donated by Vicki Teague-Cooper

PRESSING 1000 double CDs with 24-page booklet: $3800 USD

Pressing 500 double vinyl albums: $6,350 USD

AUD= $19400

USD = $11,800 USD

EURO = 300

So, add all that up and it totals approx 

$25,928 USD

Which equals about  $36,500 AUD !!!!!!

And that doesn’t even include the huge cost of airfares. Just counting from the October recording sessions in Melbourne last year, we’ve spent nearly $6000 USD on flights between the USA and Australia. And then, of course, there’s been all those flights to Greece to research the project! Phew! 

The fundraising rewards themselves will cost a lot of dosh to make and to post. But this is an extra special album, and it’s important to me that all of the merchandise is of a really high quality. 

So, as you can see, Tim and I have dedicated a huge amount of resources to the project over the past few years, and now we really need your help to finish it. 

STRETCH GOALS

I have great visions for Persephone. Firstly, we will be doing a ‘launch’ performance in Melbourne in February with the full cast of musicians (Elissa, Rachel, Tim and me), plus two of the Greek Chorus singers - Melody (who is local to Melbourne) and Callie, (who will be flying all the way from Athens just for the launch!). And of course we will film this so that everyone can get a chance to see it. This will entail venue hire, advertising, musician fees, tech fees, and flights for Tim, me, Callie, and Rachel. 

We’d love to do the same in both the USA and Europe / UK. Let’s cross our fingers on that one! 

My longer term goal with Persephone is to fully stage it as a theatrical show. I have a vision of this in a beautiful theatre, with stylized costumes and scenery, and projected images to convey the story. That’s further down the track, but getting the album out is a good first step, and any extra funds will definitely bring that dream closer to reality.