DISORDERLY MAGIC AND OTHER DISTURBANCES by Richard Cabut

When someone describes their work as a meditation on (insert subject here), we expect a slow, quiet meander through thought, theory and maybe the odd jam recipe. Richard Cabut’s Disorderly Magic & other disturbances is anything but. The photograph on the front of his collection makes him appear Kafka-esque with a peppering of Tom Waits. This in itself begs you to open its pages.

The collection is a peculiar, haunting, funny and highly experimental piece of work. It is deep, dark and so delicious that it reads like an acid-trip improvisation in a jazz club that only exists in a David Lynch movie.

His use of paradoxical subject matter is stunning – the contrast between the sprawling metropolis and the beauty of England makes the balance of life seem so much more poetic now.  Without the darkness, we would not know the light – this idea never rang so true.

Cabut has a knack in his use of his language. He takes you to dark places that fill you with guilt but pleasure as well. We are voyeurs of worlds we may never see or worlds yet to be discovered.

This collection is beyond just that…a collection. It is a way of seeing the world in a very subjective way, a way that can see the beauty in the darkness. It is a collection that we read, we watch, we eat, we hear, we recoil in horror at – we watch as patterns emerge, and things fade away. We see the darkness and the light, we see the bright sad star.

Published by Far West Press