\\\ H A Z E L ///

The fifth Æthenor album is upon us. Her moon is liquid. Conceived amidst haze. Italia MMX.

Hazel is the 5th record from this group of eclectic travellers, who bring their considerable pedigrees together in unexpected and original ways. Looking at the people involved, it would be reasonable to expect a massive blowout of sound, but everyone plays with remarkable and effective restraint. The music is atmospheric and layered, with bits and pieces of identifiable rock moves peeking out from under a thick blanket of hard-to-identify drift. Based on live recordings made on a lengthy tour of Italy in 2010, the recordings have been extensively edited and supplemented, but without losing the elemental sound of a group playing live together. While there’s plenty of weird ambient sound to be heard, this isn’t a sound-effects/”pedalboard” record. Like the preceding “En Form for Bla” album, Noble’s drums anchor the music. The drumming is spare and considered, sometimes lashing out with abstract punctuation, and other times laying out a Can-like groove. O’Malley’s guitar is also restrained, providing a bed for O'Sullivan's constantly morphing Rhodes, synths and electronic effects. Kristoffer Rygg contributes a rousing vocal incantation to “Ermanna” and peppers the mix with ghostly modular details. Like their other records, this is not really like anything else out there right now. Sleeve designed by Stephen O’Malley. CD is in card folio printed by Stumptown Printers. LP is in Stoughton Tip-On Jacket, pressed at RTI, and includes download card.

Pre-order HERE.
 

Laid To Rest Vinyl Landing

Laid To Rest vinyl now available from Neuropa. This is music I wrote for a commission with my friend and collaborator Serena Korda. The record features amazing performances by Steve Noble (Æthenor), Alex Ward, Chlöe Herington (Chrome Hoof), The Medieval Baebes, Stephen O'Malley (Æthenor / Sunn O))) and Kristoffer Rygg (Ulver). This is mythical marching band music. Probably the closest thing to Miasma & The Carousel of Headless Horses that I've written for a while.

Laid To Rest: The Brick Keepers by Mothlite

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).

Æ unt Tucker in Quietus' top 50

Eyeliner and Patchouli

Cheeky Æthenor review in Jazzwise.

My Quietus Mixtape

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)

Æ vs Quietus

Milk Factory album of the month

Æ in the outside

Wire Review February 2011

Uncut Review February 2011

Æ review in AQ

Latest record from this ever shifting sonic collective, still comprised of the core duo of Stephen O'Malley (SUNNO))), KTL, etc.) and Daniel O'Sullivan (Guapo, Mothlite), although this time the group is rounded out by Kristoffer Rygg, aka Garm from Ulver, plus percussionist Steve Noble.

En Form For Bla is the result of several performances in Norway earlier this year, and finds the group shedding much of their previous heaviness in favor of a sound much more haunting and abstract, spaced out and introspective, the guitars less murky and muddy and massive, and more spidery and ethereal and minimal, laying out deep low end thrum and keening upper register shimmer. Rygg operates like a dub producer, electronically treating the sounds, while adding some of his own, the result is a constantly shifting landscape of drift and doom and pulsing heaviness and whirling almost free jazz sounding sonic exploration.

The big surprise here is Noble, who is all over the record, without overplaying, letting the record remain unstructured and abstract, while still moving it beyond mere static ambient improv, whether it's scattered bits of subtle skitter, thick clouds of shimmery cymbal or pulsing rhythmic pound, the band tend to creep and crawl, but when they do let loose it borders on Bitches Brew style jazz psychedelia, albeit a bit more blackened.

The overall sound is quite atmospheric and soundtracky, the melodies subtle, but the feelings they evoke not so much, stirring up dark clouds of sinister brood, and epic soaring cinematic mesmer, occasionally slipping into some minimal krautrock throb, like on the mesmerizing "Vivarium", and sounding a bit like a more low end heavy Necks (or maybe Supersilent), and then lurching into some giallo style mood music, on "Vyomagami Plume" and sounding like a deconstructed Goblin, a gently chaotic assemblage of heaving bass and twisted keyboards, of clattery percussion, and spaced out electronics, but all deftly woven into something moving and emotional and darkly compelling. Fantastic stuff.

http://www.aquariusrecords.org/

En Form For Blå

Æthenor's En Form For Blå on vhf records is now in orbit.