FREE AMONG THE DEAD was begun in San Francisco in 1984, and was later dedicated to Tom Hopkins, with whom Galas had discussed this AIDS work in an interview with the NY Native. Less than a year later she saw him in the hospital, with two prongs in his ribs, trying not to scream in pain.

An excerpt from Psalm 88:

"Free among the dead, like the slain that lieth in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more: and they are cut off by thy hand. Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deep. Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves."

This track is excerpted from "Free Among the Dead", from the record The Divine Punishment. You can listen to the track and record in its entirety here:

diamanda-galas.lnk.to/cxKk_EM

Free Among The Dead -- Excerpt

"Why do hospitals spend money on their exterior structure and gardens, when the rooms inside are filled with with doctors
 telling their patients to go to Hell? And I quote, 'And I hope you have a good support system, because our time is up!'"

The despair of Lamentations ends with the Cry of the Diseased:

Sono la prova.                    I am the proof
Sono la salva.                    I am the salvation
Sono la carne macellata.   I am the butcher's meat.

Sono la sanzione.              I am the sanction.
Sono il sacrificio.                I am the sacrifice.
Sono il Ragno Nero.           I am the Black Spider.

Sono il scherno.                 I am the scourge.
Sono la Santa Sede.          I am the Holy Fool.
Sono le feci dal Signore.    I am the shit of God.

Sono lo segno.                   I am the sign.
Sono la pestilenza.             I am the pestilence.
Sono l'Antichristo.               I am the Antichrist.

This track is excerpted from "Free Among the Dead", from the record The Divine Punishment. You can listen to the track and record in its entirety here:

diamanda-galas.lnk.to/cxKk_EM

Free Among The Dead -- Excerpt 3

"Thinking of Carla A, my buddy and roommate in SF, who told me in 1984, 'In the clinical trials I stand in line with all the boys, who sneer at me and say I brought it [HIV] on myself because I was in the Life.' She died in the mid-90's after being told the virus had left her system."

This track is excerpted from "Free Among the Dead", from the record The Divine Punishment. You can listen to the track and record in its entirety here:

diamanda-galas.lnk.to/cxKk_EM

Free Among The Dead -- Excerpt 2

Photo credit: Chrysantha

From the Book of Leviticus, recorded with Dave Hunt in London, this work documented in 1986 the treatment by the majority of the public and the medical establishment towards PWA's - refusal to address the problem, running and hiding out from it. Scorn and loathing.

In London only the Terence Higgins Trust was fighting for raising monies and public awareness of a new illness then called ‘Gay-Related Immune Deficiency(GRID).' Coil and Soft Cell also addressed the epidemic.


When any man hath an issue out of his flesh
Because of that issue he is unclean
Every bed whereon he lieth is unclean
And everything whereon he sitteth, unclean
And whosoever toucheth his bed shall be unclean
And he that sitteth whereon he sat shall be unclean
And he that toucheth the flesh of the unclean becomes unclean
And he that be spat on by him unclean becomes unclean
And whosoever toucheth anything under him shall be unclean
And he that beareth any of those things shall be unclean
And what saddle soever he rideth upon is unclean
And the vessel of earth that he touches, unclean
And if any man's seed of copulation go out from him, he is unclean
Every garment, every skin whereon is the seed, unclean
And the woman with whom this man shall lie with will be unclean
And whosoever toucheth her will be unclean
This is the law of the plague
To teach when it is clean and when it is unclean
And the priest shall look upon the plague
For a rising and for a scab and for a bright spot
And the priest shall shut up he who hath the plague
He shall carry them forth to a place unclean
He shall separate them in their uncleaness
This is the law of the plague:
To teach when it is clean and when it is unclean


This track is excerpted from "Deliver Me From My Enemies", from the record The Divine Punishment. You can listen to the track and record in its entirety here:

diamanda-galas.lnk.to/cxKk_EM

Deliver Me From My Enemies -- Excerpt (This Is The Law of the Plague)

Photo credit: Emily Anderson

Deliver Me From Mine Enemies
             Excerpt from Psalm 59
          We Shall Not Accept Your Quarantine
          Dedicated to Carl Valentino and Michael Flanagan
          Recorded London 1986

The mob captures a man with the plague and beats him to death.
The crimes against nature cannot be tolerated and must be removed
forcibly from his body. But the Enemies of the State who are not yet sick are waiting outside the gate to fight those who will police them

--

Deliver me from mine enemies, O my God:
Deliver me from the workers of iniquity, and
Save me from bloody men
For lo, they lie and wait for my soul:
The mighty are gathered up against me;
Not for my transgressions, not for my sin, O Lord
They run and prepare themselves without my fault:
Awake to help me and behold
Swords are in their lips: for who, say they, doth hear?
But thou, O Lord, shall laugh at them. The God
Of my mercy shall let me see my desire upon mine enemies
And at evening let them return, and let them
Make a noise like a dog, and go round about
The city. Let them walk up and down for meat, and
Grudge if they be not satisfied
Break out the great teeth of the
Young lions, o lord and when he
Bendeth his bow to shoot his
Arrows, let them be cut in pieces!
Bring them down, O Lord, our shield

--

This track is excerpted from "Deliver Me From My Enemies", from the record The Divine Punishment. You can listen to the piece and record in its entirety here:

diamanda-galas.lnk.to/cxKk_EM

Deliver Me From My Enemies -- Excerpt

Intravenal Sound Operations is the record label of Diamanda Galás. Galás is a Greek-American avant-garde composer and performer, whose work confronts the subjects of violence and despair with political conviction and austerity. Galás rose to prominence in the ‘80s and ‘90s with the recorded trilogy, Masque of the Red Death, and the performance work Plague Mass, which addressed the AIDS crisis in a time of deafening political silence and inaction.

Intravenal Sound Operations

Popular tracks