The second album from Awen, five years in the making, stands as a sonic dedication to the ties that bind this world to the spectral.
The album is rooted in the concept of the Grim Grey King, which forms a binding tie throughout with interpretations and translations of the opening poem featured in Swedish, German and Italian - cropping up like standing stones along the path of the listener's progress.
The 'King' of the album's namesake encompasses not only the sinister martial aspects of Woden, Gwyn ap Nudd and the endless Wild Hunt, but also the notion of a more abstract and cold custodian of the souls of melancholy lovers lost, their desperate palliations sought through suicide.
From dense percussion evocative of megalithic rites to the Arcadian chords of acoustic strings, the whole is tethered throughout by the howling tension of hungry ghosts and conducted by the commanding voice of Erin Powell.
'Grim King Of The Ghosts' is a synthesis of the ancient and the contemporary, with the heartfelt acoustic cover of "Seeker" by Fire + Ice and modern interpretations of traditional songs from the British Isles such as "Grim King Of The Ghosts", "Cradle Spell", and "Sons Of Exiles" shifting like glimpses through a stygian mist into the tonal terrors of "Grym Grå Kung", "Bitter Augur" and "Il Re Grigio Cupo".
This world and That, Then and Now, are One.
Featuring guests b9 InVid (Et Nihil / Luftwaffe), Gaya Donadio (ANTIchildLEAGUE / Six Comm), and Freya Aswynn (by virtue of a recorded personal rune reading for Erin Powell).
This is a quite uni–que col–la–bo–ra–tion, an unex–pec–ted one bet–ween the ita–lian com–po–ser Teho Tear–do and Blixa Bar–geld, lea–der of Einstürzen–de Neu–bau–ten and for–mer Bad Seeds. They first met du–ring the rea–li–za–tion of In–giu–ria, a thea–tre pièce and right after that they col–la–bo–ra–ted on a song for a sound–track, "A Quite Life".
That song star–ted the whole pro–cess of wri–ting and pro–du–cing an album to–ge–ther where songs and more ex–pe–ri–men–tal pie–ces could find a com–mon ground.
The ori–gi–nal use of strings: cello, vio–lin, gui–tars, a full string quar–tet di–verts the tra–di–tio–nal per–cep–tion of those clas–sic in–stru–men–ts when they deal with elec–tro–nics and the re–sult is emo–tio–nal–ly mo–ving.
The album has been writ–ten and re–cor–ded bet–ween Ber–lin and Rome, it took near–ly two years to be made, Teho and Blixa wor–ked next to each other choo–sing ca–re–ful–ly every sound, every word and si–len–ce.
There are 12 songs on Still Smi–ling, in–clu–ding a new ver–sion of A Quiet Life and a cover of Alone With The Moon by The Tiger Li–lies.
Among–st col–la–bo–ra–tors there are The Ba–la–ne–scu Quar–tet and cel–li–st Mar–ti–na Ber–to–ni.
Ly–rics are vi–sio–na–ry and are sung in en–glish, ger–man and ita–lian, Blixa re–veals a real–ly per–so–nal and in–ti–ma–te side to the li–ste–ner this time.
Still Smi–ling is an album whose spe–cial vi–sion co–vers all the sky bet–ween Rome and Ber–lin, day–ti–me and noc–tur–nal.
Anterior Research Media Comm announce the first NEW ClockDVA studio production material since 1996 with the release of a specially developed format USB smart media object ,
The ClockDVA "Clock 2" USB is a 4 gig aluminium media card containing 8 x 24 bit 48 kHz non compressed audio files and is the highest audio quality possible in a commercially available format , 3 NEW STUDIO TRACKS and 5 remixes by respectively Frank Bretschneider / Uwe Schmitt , / Robin Rimbaud,.
PLUS 4 visual works produced and made for this release , 2 by Panagiotis Tomaras, 1 by Paul Prudence & 1 by Wim Jongedijk / Adi Newton / Panagiotis Tomaras (which is a specially commissioned black & white 16 mm film).
Comes in very high quality both technically and in its Artistic Contributions plus exclusive Films/ Videos and re mixes made exclusively for this limited edition release only so in this sense its a unique collectors item, and also it can not be copied so is very much an Individual item.
AUDIO CONTENT :
01. THE KONSTRUCTOR
02. RAYONNIST
03. KABARET 13
All tracks ADI NEWTON / TeZ MAURIZIO MARTINUCCI RE-MIXES
RE-KONSTRUCTOR - DVA ADI NEWTON / TeZ MAURIZIO MARTINUCCI
DE-KONSTRUCTOR - UWE SCHMIDT
RAYONNIST REFRACTION 1 - ROBIN RIMBAUD
RAYONNIST REFRACTION 2 - ROBIN RIMBAUD
KABARET 13.1 - FRANK BRETSCHNEIDER
VIDEOS
01. THE KONSTRUCTOR - PANAGIOTIS TOMARAS
02. RAYONNIST - PANAGIOTIS TOMARAS
03. THE KONSTRUCTOR - PAUL PRUDENCE
04. KABARET 13 - WIM JONGEDIJK/ADI NEWTON / PANAGIOTIS TOMARAS
PLUS extensive PDF document text / images
ESPLENDOR GEOMETRICO - Ultraphoon
Recorded in Madrid and Rome during 2013.
Ultraphoon is a leap ahead as for production and sound quality, with a stunning and brutal outcome, richly detailed nonetheless.
Rhythms, noises and processed voices from different sources come together in hypnotic –bordering on trance– soundscapes along the lines of previous releases such as Pulsión (2009) and Desarrollos Geométricos (2011).
Most of the meticulous mastering process has been carried out by Francisco López, internationally renowned as one of the top sound art and experimental music personalities, giving a new twist to the usual Esplendor Geométrico sound.
IN SLAUGHTER NATIVES - Cannula Coma Legio
Lead by the enigmatic Jouni Havukainen since the late 80's, he is responsible for some of the brashest and intense releases of the post industrial genre.
This new release can be seen as a prequel to things to come, it contains 3 brand new tracks, in which we see ISN plunge into less bombastic terrain and delve into more obscure ambient territories.
Along side these new pieces is reworked, remixed and upgraded material used in the last years as part of live performances by extreme body art performer Chérie Roi, giving new life and direction to some well known passages and lesser known tracks with the trademark ISN bombastic sound and vocals.
A brand new album is also scheduled for release in late 2014, and this release serves as the perfect appetizer while we wait for the main course.
