Appearing prominently on many of DREKKA's releases, including both recent DREKKA LPs for DAIS RECORDS, Belgian singer, ANNELIES MONSERÉ has long been a collaborator, muse, and source material for DREKKA’s sonic explorations and dream-cinema soundscapes.
Primarily the work of Mkl Anderson, DREKKA's sound owes debts to the poetic soundscapes of CINDYTALK or COIL, to the ARTEMIEV soundtracks for the films of TARKOVSKY, and to the gravity of early industrial acts such as EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN.
To form his cinematic soundscapes, Anderson often delves into his archive, digging up forgotten snippets of the voices of friends, some long gone and some present still. Listening to DREKKA is like observing the process of remembering. Each old cassette handled, each sound manipulated is a snippet of memory, an association made.
Although sourced from the original recordings that Annelies Monseré made for her second album, 'Marit' (2009, Auetic), this is not a record of remixes. Anderson reworked and embellished the original recordings in Ghent, Belgium and Bloomington, Indiana over the course of six years, beginning three years before ‘Marit’ was even mixed or released.
The result is a novel kind of collaboration. Monseré's plaintive, intimate vocals are couched in Anderson's extremely textural, almost somatic collages, leaving us with the sense of a daydream, comfortable and somehow nostalgic. Monseré's haunted piano, occasionally sounding like it was lifted from the most elegant HOWARD SHORE film score, is a patient voice in an urgent scene. VERJAARDAG feels like a lost record, long forgotten to be rapturously rediscovered, although it has only just been made.
The album features guest appearances by NATHAN AMUNDSON (RIVULETS), JESSICA BAILIFF (KRANKY RECORDS) and JUSTIN VOLLMAR.
This release is part of the BLUESANCT ‘art vinyl’ series; presented as 22 minute EP on SIDE A with a beautiful screenprint of Annelies' handwritten liner notes printed on SIDE B. It comes in a full-color jacket with printed insert and download code and is limited to 250 copies.
Previous releases in the BLUESANCT art vinyl series have included CINDYTALK, MOUNT EERIE, BODUF SONGS, and PANTALEIMON.
