Tag: Kscope

Katatonia Track List: FALL OF HEARTS

On By bradbirzerIn progressive rock1 Comment
 
KATATONIA REVEALS “THE FALL OF HEARTS” TRACK LIST, SECOND TEASER TRAILER
 10th studio album out May 20 on Peaceville
SWEDEN – Katatonia, the Swedish purveyor of dark progressive rock/metal, has released more details of its eagerly awaited 10th studio album The Fall of Hearts, which is set for release on May 20 through Peaceville Records. View the second The Fall of Hearts teaser video with album format details and track listing on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKjQduLxALM  or Vimeo at: https://vimeo.com/158896918.
 
The Fall of Hearts track list:
Takeover [07:09]
Serein [04:46]
Old Heart Falls [04:22]
Decima [04:46]
Sanction [05:07]
Residual [06:54]
Serac [07:25]
Last Song Before the Fade [05:01]
Shifts [04:54]
The Night Subscriber [06:10]
Pale Flag [04:23]
Passer [06:25]
Bonus Tracks:
Vakaren [04:54] (CD/DVD & Deluxe Edition)
Sistere [04:11] (LP & Deluxe Edition)
Wide Awake in Quietus [04:59] (Digital & Deluxe Edition)
The Fall of Hearts will be released on the following formats:
Deluxe 12″ hardbook featuring:
  • 30+ page artwork book with alternative album artwork from Travis Smith.
  • CD The Fall of Hearts 12 original album tracks plus two bonus tracks “Sistere” and “Vakaren.”
  • DVD-V The Fall of Hearts 12 original tracks hi resolution stereo and 5.1 audio (DTS 96/24 5.1 & 96/24 Stereo LPCM) mixed by Bruce Soord.
  • Special Double 10″ vinyl edition of The Fall of Hearts 12 original tracks plus bonus track “Wide Awake In Quietus” (with MP3 download code) featuring guest guitarist Paradise Lost’s Gregor  Mackintosh.
2 Disc CD & DVD Mediabook featuring:
  • CD The Fall of Hearts 12 original album tracks plus bonus track “Vakaren.”
  • DVD-V The Fall of Hearts 12 original tracks and includes hi resolution stereo & 5.1 audio (DTS 96/24 5.1 & 96/24 Stereo LPCM) mixed by The Pineapple Thief and Katatonia collaborator Bruce Soord.
CD featuring:
  • The Fall of Hearts 12 original album tracks with a total playing time of 67:32 minutes.
Double gatefold 180g heavy weight LP featuring:
  • The Fall of Hearts 12 original album tracks plus bonus track “Sistere” (with MP3 download code).
Digital download featuring:
  • The Fall of Hearts 12 original album tracks plus bonus track “Wide Awake in Quietus” featuring guest guitarist Paradise Lost’s Gregor Mackintosh.

CD, LP and Deluxe Edition exclusive bundles can be pre-ordered now at: www.peaceville.com/store and http://www.omerch.eu/shop/katatonia/. A digital pre-order link will be available soon.

The official follow-up to 2012’s acclaimed Dead End Kings was recorded at Stockholm’s Studio Gröndahl and Tri-lamb Studio, and was self-produced by Katatonia’s Anders Nyström and Jonas Renkse. Mixing and mastering duties were carried out by Jens Bogren (Opeth, Ihsahn, Devin Townsend) at Fascination Street Studios, with Karl Daniel Lidén (Switchblade, The Ocean, Greenleaf) brought in as engineer.
The dramatic yet desolate artwork was created by long time Katatonia designer and illustrator Travis Smith.
The Fall of Hearts is the first record to feature new drummer Daniel ‘Mojjo’ Moilanen along with the addition of recently recruited guitarist Roger Öjersson (Tiamat), who came in just in time to sprinkle some blistering solos on the album. With its new lineup, Katatonia will continue to push its musical boundaries beyond its roots in the metal scene while drawing in new fans from across the musical spectrum like peers such as Opeth and Anathema have also done, cementing Katatonia’s place as one of the most revered and cherished of all bands in the world of modern heavy music.
Guitarist Anders Nyström commented on the addition of Roger Öjersson: “We’re delighted to welcome our neighbor Roger, a true multi-musician extraordinaire, into our spiraling ways of darkness. Currently with this five-piece, there’s nothing hold back or limiting Katatonia’s potential, neither in the studio nor on stage. Our ever growing ambition may now begin to manifest our vision.”
Formerly the lead vocalist and bassist in Swedish power trio Kamchatka and currently also the guitarist in Swedish metal band Tiamat, Öjersson joined Katatonia just in time to briefly appear on parts of the new album. Öjersson replaces Per “Sodo” Eriksson who left the band in 2014. Since that time, a couple of temporary guitarists have stepped into the fold such as Bruce Soord (The Pineapple Thief) and Tomas Åkvik (Nale, Lik), but Öjersson is effectively a full time member of Katatonia with his first show taking place at Karmøygeddon Metal Festival in Norway next month.
Öjersson added: “I feel honored and privileged to get to be a part of the Katatonia family. I hold these fellow musicians’ artsmanship in very high regard and I am looking forward to setting out on this journey with eager anticipation.”
Stay tuned for more information on Katatonia and The Fall of Hearts, out this spring on Peaceville.
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Katatonia live:
4/29 – Kopervik, Norway @ Karmoygeddon Festival
6/19 – Clisson, France @ Hellfest
7/03 – Helsinki, Finland @ Tuska Festival
7/09 – Bouckenborgh, Belgium @ Anterwerp Metal Festival
7/10 – Bouckenborgh, Belgium @ Anterwerp Metal Festival
8/05 – Corroios, Portugal @ Vagos Open Air Festival
8/17 – Dinkelsbühl, Germany @ Summer Breeze Festival
8/18 – Dinkelsbühl, Germany @ Summer Breeze Festival
8/19 – Dinkelsbühl, Germany @ Summer Breeze Festival
8/20 – Dinkelsbühl, Germany @ Summer Breeze Festival
9/04 – São Paulo, Brazil @ Overload Music Fest
Katatonia is:
Jonas Renkse – Vocals
Anders Nyström – Guitar
Roger Öjersson – Guitar
Niklas Sandin – Bass
Daniel Moilanen – Drums
 
Katatonia online:

RochaNews: Se Delan’s New Album

On By bradbirzerIn progressive rockLeave a comment
SE DELAN DETAILS NEW ALBUM “DRIFTER”
Sophomore album out April 29 on Kscope
LONDON, England – Se Delan, the dark, alternative, new-wave duo made up of multi-instrumentalist Justin Greaves and Swedish singer Belinda Kordic will release its new album Drifter on April 29 (June 3 in France) via Kscope. Drifter is available to pre-order now on CD and 180g black vinyl via the Kscope webstore at: www.kscopemusic.com/store with a digital pre-order to follow.
The follow-up to 2014’s The Fall, the pair set about to make an album that felt raw, more natural and human. Together with their shared influences (“music, film and life”) and a mutual understanding of the way each other works has led to Se Delan creating an album that musically and lyrically looks at madness and how the line between sanity and insanity can at times appear frighteningly thin.
Vocalist Belinda comments: “Sometimes it can take a lot of effort and hard work to stay grounded and stay on the right side of that line. Life vs Death. The unknown (and cats).”
Drifter takes the slow and dreamy nature of the music from the duo’s debut album The Falland moves it to a far darker place through the lyrics and layers of sound that pulsate throughout the record. By giving up all pretentions and just following their hearts, Justin and Belinda recorded (with Ritchie Chappell at Tripdown Studio) in a way that simply captures how they felt as humanly as possible.
Justin states: “We don’t write songs in any way with this big concept in mind. We just put our thoughts into words and feelings into music, whatever they may be.”
Stay tuned for more information on Se Delan and Drifter, out this spring on Kscope.
-###-
Se Delan is:
 
Justin Greaves – all instruments
Belinda Kordic – words & voices
guided by 1000 ravenous skulls.
Se Delan online:
Press on The Fall:
“A haunting piece that gets in your head and won’t go away” – Noisey
“You will become hooked to their haunting sound” – Never Enough Notes
“An impressive beginning” – Team Rock
“Few ears could resist the tractor beam of such beautiful and entrancing music” – Under The Radar Magazine
“Eerie prog-rock with a side of skull-splitting riffage and apocalyptically angelic vocal” – CMJ
“A deeply felt and hugely atmospheric record that speaks of greater triumphs ahead.” – Echoes & Dust

RochaNews: Iamthemorning

On By bradbirzerIn progressive rock1 Comment
RUSSIAN PROGRESSIVE DUO IAMTHEMORNING ANNOUNCES NEW ALBUM “LIGHTHOUSE” FEAT. GUESTS GAVIN HARRISON (PORCUPINE TREE, KING CRIMSON), COLIN EDWIN (PORCUPINE TREE) & MARIUSZ DUDA (RIVERSIDE, LUNATIC SOUL), MIXED BY MARCEL VAN LIMBEEK (TORI AMOS).
“Lighthouse” out April 1 on Kscope
RUSSIA – Kscope will release the brand new studio album Lighthouse from Russian progressive duo iamthemorning on April 1 (June 3 in France). Lighthouse is the follow up to the band’s 2014 album Belighted. Lighthouse will be released on CD, LP (with MP3 download code) and digitally.
Formed in 2010 in St Petersburg, Russia, iamthemorning features pianist Gleb Kolyadin and the charismatic vocals of Marjana Semkina. The band self-released its debut album in 2012 before signing to Kscope and releasing Belighted, its first record for the label in September 2014. In 2015 the duo toured Europe with labels mates, the art-progressive outfit, Gazpacho.
As with Belighted, the engineering and mixing on Lighthouse is handled by Marcel van Limbeek (Tori Amos) and self-produced by Gleb and Marjana. The album also features guest musicians Gavin Harrison (Porcupine Tree, King Crimson) on drums, Colin Edwin (Porcupine Tree) on bass and additional vocals on the album’s title track by Mariusz Duda (Lunatic Soul, Riverside).
Lighthouse is a rich and eclectic album with echoes of classical music, the Canterbury scene, northern folk, jazz and electronic sounds. Featuring a story of the progression of mental illness, the album takes the listener through the stages with the story’s central character, her attempts to fight it, and temporal remission leading to a final breakdown. Lyrically, the works and lives of Virginia Woolf and Sylvia Plath inspire the album.
Recorded across London, Moscow & St Petersburg, the core instrument of the band, the grand piano, was recorded in Mosfilm Studios Moscow, one of the largest and oldest studios in Russia. Founded in 1920, Mosfilm is renowned for recording orchestras for soundtracks for the most famous Soviet-era films, including works by Tarkovsky and Eisenstein.
The album artwork for Lighthouse was created by watercolor artist Constantine Nagishkin who the band has previously collaborated with before.
1. I Came Before the Water (pt. I)
2. Too Many Years
3. Clear Clearer
4. Sleeping Pills
5. Libretto Horror
6. Lighthouse (feat. Mariusz Duda)
7. Harmony
8. Matches
9. Belighted
10. Chalk and Coal
11. I Came Before the Water (pt. II)
12. Post Scriptum
Stay tuned for more information on iamthemorning and Lighthouse, out this spring on Kscope.
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iamthemorning is:
Marjana Semkina – vocals
Gleb Kolyadin – grand piano, keyboards
iamthemorning online:

4.5: Steven Wilsonian Glory

On By bradbirzerIn progressive rock4 Comments

Steven Wilson, 4.5 (Kscope, 2016).  Blu-ray.

Tracks: My Book of Regrets; Year of the Plague; Happiness III; Sunday Rain Sets In; Vermillioncore; Don’t Hate Me; and Lazarus.

EP: A+; Kscope packaging: C

4 12
Wilson’s 4.5: A Must Own.

4.5 brings a huge smile to my face.  Yes, a smile of happiness, even though “Steven Wilson” and “happiness” rarely go together in the same paragraph, on the same page, or in the same article.  Whatever the man’s genius—and it is astounding—few could look at the 48-year old English art-rocker and think happy thoughts.  Wilson is as grim as they come.  If he didn’t look so much like a late 80’s neo-hippie, he’d be the perfect Cromwellian Puritan of English history.

My happiness with 4.5 is the happiness of satisfaction, not of joy.

It’s also the happiness of nostalgia.  4.5 reminds me of an ‘80s release, the EP issued while we waited for the next LP.  This could be JAPANESE WHISPERS or INTO THE BATTLE WITH THE ART OF NOISE.

Not that 4.5 sounds any thing even resembling The Cure or The Art of Noise.  But, 4.5 is pure Steven Wilson.  All to the good.

Still, look at those 4.5 track titles.  Doom and gloom.  Gloom and doom.  Well, except for the one entitled “Happiness III.”  It’s a rather upbeat song, but, from what I can tell of the lyrics, it’s about the false happiness that supposedly comes from consuming stuff in the mall.

The opening track, “My Book of Regrets,” possesses drama in music as well as in lyrics.  Heavily guitar based, Wilson’s first track progressively drones on about malls and t-shirts, frequent topics for this artist.  This song is the most Porcupine Tree-sounding song on 4.5, and it could’ve easily have originated in the FEAR OF A BLANK PLANET era.

wilson-500x500
No lyrics come with the album, but I assume these two women mean something.

“Year of the Plague,” the second track, comes from THE RAVEN THAT REFUSED TO SING, and it certainly sounds like it.  Indeed, no one would need the liner notes to guess this song’s origins immediately.  That album was, for what it’s worth, my least favorite by Wilson as a solo artist or with PT.  Still, I love this song.  It should’ve been on RAVEN, as it’s pensive and purely Wilson.  RAVEN, as it is, sounds like a cheap plagiarism of The Tangent’s second album, THE WORLD THAT WE DRIVE THROUGH.  Had it focused more on the sound delivered here on “Year of the Plague,” RAVEN would have been a prog classic.

Track four, “Sunday Rain Sets In,” is, for all intents and purposes, a b-side from HAND.CANNOT.ERASE.  I’d be curious to know why Wilson didn’t include it on that album.  It’s a rather stunning track, meditative overall but with a very emotional guitar line and a theatric conclusion.  It is, however, devoid of all lyrics.  Still, it would’ve fit nicely as a way of tying several songs together on HAND.

Track five, “Vermillioncore” is simple prog chaos.  Another instrumental, this song could easily have come from late Porcupine Tree or from Wilson’s second solo album, GRACE FOR DROWNING.  It is as heavy as “Sunday Rain Sets In” is meditative.  Lots of KING CRIMSON in this track.

The final two tracks, “Don’t Hate Me” and “Lazarus” are quite good, but they offer nothing surprising, though the guest vocals on “Don’t Hate Me” make this a better track than the original PT version.  Each song is a nice Steven Wilson 2.0 rework of Steven Wilson 1.0.

Frankly, I love this EP.  At a little over 40 minutes, it might as well be a full album, though Wilson has chosen to release it as an EP.  Either way, 4.5 is excellent and a must-own for any lover of prog or good music.

My only complaint is the poor packaging, which seems to be more and more the norm with Kscope releases.  I’ve been purchasing blu-rays when ever possible as the music quality is just so much better than CD or DVD.  The booklet that comes with 4.5, though, is next to worthless.  Wilson explains the origins of each song, briefly, and he lists who plays on each track.  But, there’s nothing in the way of lyrics, and the photography, while good, is nothing revealing or spectacular.  If I didn’t care, I’d just say “meh.”

I do care.

Unless Kscope is trying to move its faithful listeners to all download (which I fervently pray they are not), the label desperately needs to up its game and its quality control.  I order a physical copy of every album I want for very specific reasons.  One of the most important is I want good, tangible art work and I want to read the lyrics.

Come on, Kscope.  You are so much better than you’ve been revealing yourself to be lately.  If you do nothing else over Lent, at least learn to treat those loyal to you better.

Kscope’s weaknesses aside, Wilson’s 4.5 is strong.  Not at the creative level of his HAND.CANNOT.ERASE., it’s certainly much better than RAVEN.

 

 

 

Nosound’s Teide 2390: Profoundly Delicate

On By bradbirzerIn progressive rock1 Comment
nosound teide
Nosound.  Kscope, 2015.

Of all the bands I love and review, the hardest to review—without question—is Nosound.  At least for me.

This post is a perfect example to illustrate my failings.  I’ve had a copy of Nosound’s 2015 live album, TEIDE 2390, for nearly a year, and I’ve still not written a review.  And, if you know me, you know I’m obsessed with writing, and I’m especially obsessed with writing about what I love.

I was recently told as a criticism: in my writing, I “fling superlatives.”  My response to this is: “why, yes, I absolutely and most certainly love to fling superlatives.”  It’s true.  Just imagine what I’m like when I’m lecturing to forty 19-year olds.

With Nosound, however, it’s really, really (sometimes outrageously!) hard to fling superlatives.  Why?  Because everything glorious about Nosound is understated, tasteful, and minimalist.  As a 48-year old Kansan, I just don’t do minimalist well.  At least when it comes to writing.  Yet, I know and appreciate minimalism—especially when it comes to the computers and gadgets designed by Steve Jobs (rest in peace) or the music so lovingly crafted by Mark Hollis or Arvo Part.

Enter Giancarlo Erra.  His Nosound is profoundly delicate.  Not effete.  By not means, effete.  Never.  But, certainly delicate.

As I’ve written before, Erra is a genius, plain and simple.  This is as clear in his photography as it is in his music and his lyrics.  Again, far from effete, he approaches art and the world of art and creativity with an extreme sensitivity.  His creativity in his photography is as much about what is not there as it as about what is there.

The same is even more true of his music.  Nosound is as much about silence as it about notes.

Throw in Erra’s somewhat mystical lyrics and dream-like vocals and you find yourself—as a listener—fully immersed in his world, drifting along some radically natural psychedelic dream state.

His lyrics deal with frustration, loss, desire, hope, depression, joy, and everything that matters in this world and, perhaps, in the next.

A little over seventy-five minutes in length and recorded in September, 2014, on a Spanish island, TEIDE 2390 demonstrates that Erra’s genius is not merely in the studio.  As he’s demonstrated before—his live version of Pink Floyd’s “Echoes” is possibly better than the original version from the early 1970s (heresy, I know!)—he knows exactly how to create a full minimalist sound, even on stage and away from the hyper-controlled environment of a professional studio.  This is no small achievement, as the music demands the full attention of an audience that probably would not mind head banging.  No one head bangs to Nosound.  Instead, one swirls, and rides, and flies, and soars, and dips, and drifts.

I think it’s probably fair to state that many proggers like their music heavy and fast.  Erra reminds us so importantly that we need to breathe as well.

Album Spotlight: Anathema – “We’re Here Because We’re Here”

On By bradbirzerIn progressive rock musicLeave a comment

Read my thoughts about the lyrics to Anathema’s classic album.

http://theprogmind.com/2015/12/02/album-spotlight-anathema-were-here-because-were-here-2/

Anathema’s Latest Masterpiece: A Sort of Homecoming (Live, 2015, in Liverpool)

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Anathema, A SORT OF HOMECOMING (KScope, 2015).  Blu-ray, DVD, and 2 CD book edition.  Recorded live at Liverpool Theater, March 7, 2015.  Film by Lasse Hoile.

Songs: The Lost Song, Part 2; Untouchable Parts 1 and 2; Thin Air; Dreaming Light; Anathema; Ariel; Electricity; Temporary Peace; The Beginning and the End; Distant Satellites; Take Shelter; Internal Landscapes; A Natural Disaster; and Fragile Dreams.

Anathema's latest live release, A SORT OF HOMECOMING. Nothing to do with U2, as far as I know.
Anathema’s latest live release, A SORT OF HOMECOMING. Nothing to do with U2, as far as I know.

I don’t think I could explain why, but I find myself always getting emotional when I think of Anathema.  Let me clarify.  I don’t weep or anything like that.  But, I find myself increasingly impossible to separate myself from the music of the band.  It grabs me—for better and for worse—at the deepest levels.  This said, I think UNIVERSAL is quite possibly the greatest concert film I’ve ever seen. And, I’ve seen quite a few.  And, I’ve seen quite a few brilliant ones.  So, this is not feint praise.  By no means.  UNIVERSAL never grows old.  The setting, the lighting, the intensity—all of it reaches towards the absolute heights of beauty, goodness, and truth.  The band just radiates integrity.

Continue reading “Anathema’s Latest Masterpiece: A Sort of Homecoming (Live, 2015, in Liverpool)” →

Our 2001st Post: Celebrating the Book of Riverside and Mariusz Duda

On By bradbirzerIn progressive rock2 Comments
Riverside's latest album, LOVE, FEAR, AND THE TIME MACHINE (InsideOut, 2015).
Riverside’s latest album, LOVE, FEAR, AND THE TIME MACHINE (InsideOut, 2015).

Erik Heter’s grand interview with Mariusz Duda this past summer, The Duda Abides, reawakened (or least reminded me of) much of my love of Riverside.  And, that love is and never has been a shy love.  I first heard Riverside sometime between 2005’s SECOND LIFE SYNDROME and 2007’s RAPID EYE MOVEMENT.  I was immediately riveted by their music.  Not only do I love the Polish people and culture, I love prog and rock—so what a perfect mix of things.

Frankly, if you measure Poland’s prog and art rock output through Riverside and Newspaperflyhunting, it’s hard not to think of Poland as one of the most important countries in the world when it comes to producing modern music.

Continue reading “Our 2001st Post: Celebrating the Book of Riverside and Mariusz Duda” →

Gazpacho’s Molok: Norway’s Latest Mystery

On By bradbirzerIn progressive rock1 Comment
Gazpacho's latest album, MOLOK (Kscope, 2015).
Gazpacho’s latest album, MOLOK (Kscope, 2015).

Gazpacho, MOLOK (Kscope, 2015).

Every time I delve into a new Gazpacho album, I fail to understand at what level I should comprehend and analyze the lyrics.  Are they meant literally or symbolically?  Is the band writing poetry or recording a nightmare?  As always, Gazpacho presents puzzles, usually quite Gnostic, that might or might not sort themselves out after many listens.  The latest album, Molok, is not only no different in this respect than their previous albums, but it is also much more frustrating to comprehend.

Molok, of course, is neither a good god nor a good guy.  He’s a terror and a horror to all that is decent and civilized.

In English, his name is generally rendered as Moloch, and he is best remembered in the western tradition (through the Jews) as the god who demands the blood sacrifice of children.  He is, simply put, a demon and an abomination.  Across the centuries, almost no one has defended Moloch as anything other than a horror.

In the 1920s, especially, he made several cultural appearances.  In Willa Cather’s stunning American novel, DEATH COMES FOR THE ARCHBISHOP, Archbishop Latour retches upon finding the cave in which the natives once threw their children to the gods.

In that same decade, film director Fritz Lang depicted Moloch as the modern machine of industrialization—raping and pillaging life, while demanding conformity in all things.

In the 20s and 30s, many in the West would associate Moloch with the machines being erected in fascist Italy, German, Portugal, Poland, and Austria.

Interestingly, Gazpacho sets their album in 1920.

After listening to the disc close to twenty times and delving deeply into the lyrics, I still don’t know what the album is about.  When asked by TeamRock (Prog and Classic Rock), the keyboardist answered:

Molok is about a man that, sometime around 1920, decides that wherever anyone worships a God, they always seem to be worshipping stone in some form. Whether it’s a grand cathedral, the stone in Mecca or Stonehenge, God seems to have been chased by his worshipers into stone, never to return.  This harkens back to Norwegian folk myths, where, if a troll was exposed to sunlight, it would turn to stone. But it also reflects the way God has been incommunicado for a very long time.

I get the second part of the statement, but the first part baffles me.  Indeed, it begs more questions than it answers.

I find it hard to believe that a band as seemingly humane and dignified as Gazpacho would ever have anything positive to state about an abomination or a fascist.  Indeed, such an interpretation flies in the face of everything that seems true about the band.

Presuming, then, that Gazpacho is not promoting any form of fascism or an abomination, I find myself scratching my head.  What on God’s green earth are they talking about?

The lyrics refer to two important figures in the Western tradition, the pre-Socratic philosopher, Zeno (not the Stoic one of later centuries), and the Hessian-Anglo composer and astronomer, William Herschel.

I’m no closer to an answer.

I first came across the Norwegian art rock band around 2007 when the band released its magnum opus, NIGHT.  Since then, the band has never NOT taken chances.  Importantly, as they’ve explored the mystical in their lyrics, they’ve successfully incorporated a variety of folk music and folk instruments into their rock.  As far as I know, they rarely promote themselves as art rock rather than prog.  This is fine, of course, and it applies.  Gazpacho is nothing if not arty.

The new album, MOLOK, is a real treat.  As I admitted, I’m still not sure what the story is.  But, in no way has this lessened my enjoyment of the album.  I’ll keep exploring, as I’m bound and determined to figure this thing out.  Until then. . . any thoughts are more than welcomed.

RochaNews: Gazpacho’s Latest, MOLOK

On By bradbirzerIn progressive rock1 Comment

A review copy of the latest Gazpacho showed up about three or four days ago, and I’ve been listening to it, over and over again.  My first thought: what is this?  My second thought: wow, this is really subtle.  My third thought: there’s something really profound going on here.  My fourth (and most recent) thought: this is freaking incredible.  I still need to listen with headphones, but my thoughts (collectively) after about five listens–MOLOK is a thing of intense beauty, the best Gazpacho has made since MISSA ANTROPOS.  More to come. . . .

Molok. In English, Moloch, a king who demands the sacrifice of children.
Molok. In English, Moloch, a king who demands the sacrifice of children.

GAZPACHO TO RELEASE NEW ALBUM “MOLOK” THIS WEEK ON KSCOPE

First single “Know Your Time” streaming online

NORWAY – Norwegian art-rock progressive outfit Gazpacho will release its brand new studio album Molok through Kscope this Friday, October 23. Molok can be pre-ordered on CD and LP via the Kscope web-store at: www.kscopemusic.com/store. The CD version will feature an additional instrumental track “Algorithm.”

The first single, “Know Your Time,” is streaming on Soundcloud at: https://soundcloud.com/kscopemusic/gazpacho-know-your-time-taken-from-new-studio-album-molok/s-dBSqz.

1. Park Bench

2. The Master’s Voice

3. Bela Kiss

4. Know Your Time

5. Choir of Ancestors

6. ABC

7. Algorithm

8. Alarm

9. Molok Rising

Molok, the follow up to the acclaimed 2014 album Demon, sees the band continue to push the boundaries for creating the most complicated and strangest concepts for a record while simultaneously becoming the first band ever to actively try to destroy the universe with an album. A small code that sounds like a strange noise at the end of the album will cause the correction software that runs in all CD players to generate a random number every time the CD is played. If that number should correspond to the actual position of all electrons in the universe then technically the universe could be destroyed.

Dr. Adam Washington from the University of Sheffield confirms that this is science fact rather than fiction: “The random signal produced by the end of the disk contains enough bits of information to express a measurement of the total number of fundamental particles present in the universe. If the noise actually contained such a measurement, and that measurement was performed rapidly enough, the universe’s total particle count could be fixed under the Quantum Zeno effect. Locking the total particle count would prevent the pair production that forms a fundamental part of the decay of black holes. Without such decay forces, black holes would remain stable forever, without the need for nearby matter or the cosmic microwave background to keep them fed. This would greatly hasten the practical end of the universe.”

The band further commented: “If it can be destroyed by such minute creatures within it, if it is just a chemical reaction, then does it have any spiritual value? In this scenario there is no good or bad, just an absence of meaning.”

Across the album there are religious themes going head to head with modern day new science ideas and theories, Gazpacho’s Thomas Andersen states, “the album itself is about a man that sometime around 1920 decides that wherever anyone worships a God they always seem to be worshipping stone in some form. Whether it is a grand cathedral, the stone in Mecca or Stonehenge. God seems to have been chased by his worshipers into stone never to return. This harkens back to Norwegian folk myths where if a troll was exposed to sunlight it would turn to stone but it also reflects the way God has been incommunicado for a very long time.”

The band goes on to say: “In a mechanistic view of the universe all events in the universe are a consequence of a previous event. This means that with enough information you should be able to calculate the past and the future and this is what he does. He names the machine ‘Molok’ after the biblical demon into whose jaws children were sacrificed because his machine crunches numbers. On solstice day he starts the machine and it quickly gains some form of intelligence as it races through history undergoing its own evolution.”

Throughout Molok Gazpacho focuses on the idea that without God/a god to guide us, humanity is unsure of the meaning of life, that while we attempt to fill the void with other things we’ve still not found the answer; without a master to lean on we are very much alone in this universe.

On the album Gazpacho makes a direct connection with history. Norwegian music archaeologist Gjermund Kolltveit appears on the song “Molok Rising,” playing his reconstruction of stone-age instruments with an educated guess at what the early songs of worship must have sounded like. This includes small stones, moose jaws and an assortment of flutes and stringed instruments. He also plays the Skåra stone, a singing stone which has a strong possibility of having been in use since the last ice age ended 10,000 years ago. Technically this means that the album uses the oldest original instrument ever recorded on an album.

The band is also joined by world-renowned Norwegian accordion player Stian Carstensen who is a central member of Balkan-jazz orchestra Farmers Market.

Stay tuned for more information on Gazpacho and Molok, out this week on Kscope.

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Gazpacho online…

www.kscopemusic.com/gazpacho

www.gazpachoworld.com

https://www.facebook.com/Gazpacho.Official.BandPage