Like many others, I’d seen Ira Cohen’s photography before I had any idea who the artist was – his uniquely psychedelic visions could be seen on the front cover of Spirit’s classic album, The Twelve Dreams Of Doctor Sardonicus, and also John McLaughlin’s Devotion. Those strange, melting, molten images, as though your iris was dripping down the side of your face, were created via Cohen’s mylar chamber, where mirrors would distend and morph the characters Cohen was photographing. By the time of his 1968 film, Invasion Of Thunderbolt Pagoda, Cohen had already clocked time as photographer, publisher of the Beats, record producer (of Paul Bowles’ Jilala, an album of dervish trance music), and theatre director. Thunderbolt Pagoda is a beautiful, drifting reverie, a dreamscape populated by all sorts of strange creatures, played by folks like Tony Conrad, Beverly Grant, and Australian artist Vali Myers (as an aside, it’s well worth seeing Sheldon Renan’s film about Myers, Vali: The Witch Of Positano, if you can). The soundtrack to Thunderbolt Pagoda was performed by poet and former Velvet Underground percussionist, Angus MacLise, and his musical troupe.