DOS

A dossier of illuminations and orientations relating to the work of Daniel O'Sullivan.

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

The Underneath

The Underneath by Mothlite

Fur in the flesh

Alex and I will be performing two Grumbling Fur sets. One in London (September 23rd) at St. Mary's Church in Stoke Newington, and one in Brighton (October 12th) at the Komedia. We'll probably have copies of "Furrier" on vinyl by then.









Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Mothlite sign to Kscope

It's official. Dark Age due out early 2012.




Laid To Rest: The Procession

Please join us for the finale of LAID TO REST. A project by Serena Korda for the Wellcome Collection. Witness the procession and burial of 500 commemorative bricks containing people's dust. Follow Daniel O'Sullivan's mythical marching band, dancers and heavy horses as they travel from Wellcome Collection to Brunswick Square Gardens, Bloomsbury, where a layer of bricks will be ceremoniously buried.

There will be 300 limited edition commemorative publications, including the LAID TO REST soundtrack 12" vinyl, to give away. 

All music composed by Daniel O'Sullivan featuring The Medieval Baebes, Alex Ward, Steve Noble (Æthenor), Chloe Herington (Chrome Hoof), Matthew Parry, Francois Testory (Coil), Stephen O'Malley (Sunn O))) & Kristoffer Rygg (Ulver).







Monday, August 8, 2011

Grumbling Fur is OUTRE


The Grumbling Fur album "Furrier" is out on Aurora Borealis Recordings. GF is myself and Alexander Tucker at the core. We recorded this a few years ago with Jussi Lehtisalo from Circle and Dave Smith from Guapo. I spent a long time editing and collaging this material with Antti Uusimaki (formerly of Mothlite). I was very much inspired by The Faust Tapes in the construction of this. The album features beautiful pen and ink illustrations by Alex and you can also order a T-shirt/CD combo which looks amazing too.


Click on the image to take you to the AB web shop.



Thursday, July 7, 2011

Fur Landing

After several years of procrastination the Grumbling Fur album is finally in production and will be released in June 2011 on Aurora Borealis Recordings. Grumbling Fur is a band involving myself, Alexander Tucker, Jussi Lehtisalo (Circle, Pharaoh Overlord), Dave Smith (Guapo, Miasma & TCOHH) and Antti Uusimaki.



Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Mothlite exclusive

Music Week presents an exclusive track from the forthcoming Mothlite album, Dark Age.

Behold, Something In The Sky.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Memorial For Jhonn Balance

My dear friend Ian Johnstone has organized a memorial plaque for Geoff by a Hawthorn tree in Cumbria. The plaque will read "Moon's Milk Spills From My Unquiet Skull And Forms A White Rainbow". All information and directions are on Ian's site. Have a look at his incredibly beautiful artwork while you're there.

Friday, April 15, 2011

Wire times three

Three DOS related reviews in The Wire this month. Miracle, Ulver and new Alexander Tucker. All very complimentary.

Friday, April 8, 2011

Æ and the queen

We are pleased to announce Æthenor's UK tour in June 2011. Lineup: Daniel O'Sullivan, Kristoffer Rygg, Steve Noble, Stephen O'Malley.

02-Jun-2011 Thursday / Bush Hall (London)
03-Jun-2011 Friday / The Kazimier (Liverpool)
04-Jun-2011 Saturday / Islington Mill (Manchester)
05-Jun-2011 Sunday / Classic Grand (Glasgow)
06-Jun-2011 Monday / The Fleece (Bristol)

DOS and JHS on WOTR

In four parts.




Tuesday, March 22, 2011

The Carillon of Loughborough



























Next O'Sullivan / Korda collaboration will feature a piece of music written for the Carillon of Loughborough. Kept in a tower 153 metres high, the carillon is an instrument that consists of at least 23 cast bronze cup-shaped bells, which are played serially to play a melody, or sounded together to play a chord. A carillon is played by striking a keyboard the keys of which are sometimes called "batons" with the fists and by pressing the keys of a pedal keyboard with the feet. The keys mechanically activate levers and wires that connect to metal clappers that strike the bells, allowing the performer, the carillonneur, to vary the intensity of the note according to the force applied to the key.

Viva megalomania.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

February MMX

February MMX is a pop song from the new Ulver album, 'Wars Of The Roses'. Get acquainted or infuriated.

February MMX by ramble_on

Monday, February 14, 2011

Miracle in London

Stop the press! Steve and I are playing two shows in London...

23.02.11 Hoxton Bar and Kitchen w/Darkstar
24.02.11 Russian Club Studios w/Blondes

We'll also be shooting a video for The Visitor. Send in your pitches. We won't use them, but it could be funny.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Liminal hymn



Kind words from the Liminal.


Previous Æthenor albums have featured symbols on the front, pyramids and crosses and that sort of thing, which could quite reasonably lead you to infer an interest in the occult. When combined with the fact that the group includes members of Sunn O))) and Ulver, you’d be forgiven for divining some black metal tendencies; however, as their last release Faking Gold And Murder also featured David Tibet, you might equally expect the mystical folk influence that he brings to Current 93. But musically, you’d be hard placed to put the records in this context. It’s perhaps for the best then that Æthenor’s new album for VHF Records, En Form for Blå, dispenses with much of the symbolic baggage I’ve mentioned. The album’s graphic design is markedly different, with a woman’s face picked out of from a stark blue background: as well as being the name of the famous Oslo venue where the album was recorded (and recorded very crisply, it has to be said), Blå translates from the Norwegian as “blue”. If it weren’t for the font, you could mistake it for a Kim Hiorthøy work. And that name, along with that venue, perhaps give better clues to what this sounds like.

En Form for Blå is another superb genre-defying suite of experimentalism from four free-thinking musicians: Stephen O’Malley, Daniel O’Sullivan, Kristoffer Rygg, and Steve Noble. Both in terms of instrumentation and approach, it recalls those more regular Blå residents and Hiorthøy acquaintances Supersilent. Like them, Æthenor utilise Fender Rhodes, improvised drumming, and deep bass drones, with live processing keeping the sound mix varied and unpredictable, the individual instruments surfacing briefly before being dragged back down into the dense sonic stew. The playing is restrained and responsive, maintaining a palpable sense of tension throughout; much like last year when I saw Stephen O’Malley and Steve Noble playing together at Cafe Oto, when Noble strained at the tether of the guitarist’s intense textural focus.

And if you do want a drummer to focus on texture as opposed to rhythm, the esteemed UK improviser Noble is indeed your man – as you’d expect from someone who’s played with the likes of Derek Bailey, his repertoire extends far, far beyond just shaping the beat, enabling him to engage in more meaningful dialogue in such a setting. The first track ‘Jocasta’ begins with electrical whine, and he meets it with long, ringing cymbal tones, before staccato bursts of static necessitates some dampened metallic sounds, like he’s engaging it in swordplay. His waves of cymbals add sparkling, shimmering overtones to the twinkling Rhodes melodies of ‘One Number Of Destiny In Ninety Nine’ (as you can see, Æthenor have also dispensed with their enigmatic refusal to give tracks titles).

Like at the aforementioned Oto gig, Malley is playing against type for much of this set, though he doesn’t so much sit in the shadows, as actually create the shadows. His deep bass rumble and amp hum on “Vyomgami Plume” are malevolently portentous, like the tremors which prefigure major seismic activity. When those earthquakes finally arrive they appear with shattering force, and just at the point when you begin to think the danger has passed. The ambient, electric-era Miles exploration that is “Laudanum Tusk” is cleaved in two by a section of hideous distortion, as if hit by the twisted metal force of a speeding train that has been shaken from the tracks, collecting all four band members as it goes. Aftershocks become increasingly infrequent, and “Something To Sleep Is Still” sees the landscape slowly re-emerging through dust-clouds. It becomes increasingly clear that while Æthenor may appear to have changed, they have in fact lost none of their magic.

Scott McMillan

Æ in the outside

Wire Review February 2011
Uncut Review February 2011