Of The Wand & The Moon started as a solo-project by Kim Larsen in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1998. He released the debut album “Nighttime Nightrhymes” in 1999 which was a Dark-Folk/Neo-Folk album. He moved on releasing the albums “Emptiness Emptiness Emptiness” (2001), “Lucifer” (2003), “Sonnenheim” (2005) and “The Lone Descent” (2011). He also released several EP’s and singles. It took ten years for Kim Larsen to unleash a new studio album, which has been written and recorded over the past three years. “Your Love Can’t Hold This Wreath Of Sorrow” released by the end of 2021 on Heiðrunar Myrkrunar is a great piece of music. The songs are mixing Dark-Folk/Neo-Folk together with Cinematic music and Jazz, but also a kind of Psychedelic Chanson reminding the 60s. The album is pure magic and according to me one of the best and most poignant productions from the past year. I talked about it with Kim Larsen.

(Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q:  “Your Love Can’t Hold This Wreath Of Sorrow” is the first new album by Of The Wand & The Moon in ten years. Did you get the feeling everything was said and done, which brought you to work on Les Chasseurs De La Nuit? What does this new album mean to you?

Kim: I feel totally drained after every album I do. Using up all the ideas I have. After “The Lone Descent” there was also a lot of touring. To be honest I don’t want to treat my music as this kind of business plan. One album a year with a couple of good songs and the rest just fillers. And then go tour for the rest of the 6year. Repeat…
I’m sure I could do an album a year with songs that were ok. But I want the new Of The Wand & The Moon-album to be done at the best of my abilities at that moment in time. Making it grow and explore a bit each time.

My Les Chasseurs De La Nuit project is more a thing of experimenting and perhaps getting some old-school Neo-Folk songs out there. That I like. For sure. But not for Of The Wand And The Moon.

Also I did work as Vril Jager and White Chamber between these 10 years. So it’s not like I stopped doing music. Also I did 7inches and re-recordings of Of The Wand And The Moon. But when it comes to the albums I want to do my very best.

Q: Of The Wand & The Moon has been always linked to Neo-Folk although the new album clearly brings other –and sometimes surprising, influences to the surface. It sounds pretty sixties as well reminding me to early stuff of Serge GainsbouRG. Did you get the feeling to reinvent your sound and tell us a bit more about the different influences?

Kim: It is a development that has been on its way for some time. I think those 60s influences got more articulate on “The Lone Descent”.  And now even more.

I think it is a thing more of going back in time. To when I was a kid. My dad had a big record collection with mostly Jazz but also rock music. Things I was most taken by in his collection were The Beatles’ albums “Rubber Soul” and “Help”. And also the Serge Gainsbourg single “Je T’aime Moi Non Plus” (and with “Jane B” on the flip side).

So that bass sound has always haunted me. As you can hear on my new album as well. I also used to record movies on my tape recorder from videos we rented or what limited things was on the TV. I remember recording “Escape From New York”. Loved the mood of that movie and the Soundtrack. Those days you couldn’t just buy the Soundtrack. So I would record it from the TV so I could listen to it later. So that aspect of Soundtrack sound also plays a part in my music in general.

Q: One thing is for sure, it sounds as your most diversified and accomplished work to date. Where does this evolution comes from and how do you see yourself as musician evolving throughout the years?

Kim: As I mention I think this stems from my childhood. Things I was listening to etc. Think I will still need to explore that era in time in the following stuff to hopefully come. We will see…

Q: Tell us a bit more about the writing of the album? How did the writing take shape and what have been the different stages to achieve the work? What has been the impact of the guest artists?

Kim: Some things have taken a long time to finish. For instance the song “Love Is Made Of Dreams” was started before the previous album “The Lone Descent”. In the beginning this was a very typical sounding Neo-Folk song. But during time it ended up the way it did. A bit country somehow… Dolly Parton. Please do a cover of this one hehehe…

Actually I was very much in doubt if it should have been on the album. It being so different. However, the other guys in the band persuaded me otherwise and it ended up on the album. I agree now that the song gives a break in the heaviness of the other songs. Though still having pretty bleak lyrics.

Speaking a bit about some of the guest artists. Bo Rande (various horns) I worked with for the first time on “The Lone Descent”. I remember when we did his sessions back then I thought to myself that I would have him playing a lot more on the next stuff I would make. So made a lot of room for him for the new album. He is such a talented musician and can’t praise him enough.

Uffe Lorenzen from Baby Woodrose also delivered vocals on “The Lone Descent”. And thought of his vocals again for the “Barbs Of Time”-song. He agreed and think it turned out beautiful.

Through my good mutual friend I had asked the legendary Danish artist Martin Hall to write the liner notes of the album. During the recordings I couldn’t stop hearing his voice on “Nothing For Me Here”. I asked him if he’d like to do some vocals for it and he heard the exact same thing as me. Very happy this came to fruition as well.

Q: I also noticed an evolution in the lyrical content of the work. What did you try to express and what’s the connection with the album title “Your Love Can’t Hold This”?

Kim: I really don’t want to get into lyrical content as it sometimes destroys the magic. But I guess lyrics and mood got more melancholic rather than the magical, runic and mythological stuff from the earlier albums. Just wanted to be a bit more free and not too locked in expression.

Q: The album has been released in hard times; I’m referring to the ongoing pandemic, which also has a serious impact on artistic activities. How do you as artist experience this tragedy and what’s the impact on your own activities? What’s the importance of music and arts as a kind of cure to this situation?

Kim: The pandemic hit me very hard. As I’m sure it hit everybody.
I usually say to myself that the album I am doing might be the last I’m doing. So I spend all my energy and money on it. We will see if this is that one. Hopefully the new album will do good. There is also a tour planned for April 2022 with Brighter Death Now and hopefully some other shows later on in the year. So we’ll see if brighter days are ahead. Otherwise, Auf wiedersehen, au revoir, goodbye, arrivederci, do svidaniya, adiós, farvel, tot ziens, slán, hamba kahle….

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

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(Photo by Joe Dilworth) Out 10 December 2021 is the 20th anniversary reissue of “Sex O’Clock”, the second album by the late Anita Lane who has been Nick Cave’s musical muze for over a decade. Mute will reissue this studio album for the first time on vinyl.

The album was initially released in 2001 and work began with Anita Lane on the reissue before her untimely passing earlier this year, at the age of 61. Recorded with long time musical partner, Mick Harvey, the album was the final release in a solo career that began in 1988 with the release of the “Dirty Sings” EP.

Emerging from Melbourne’s post-rock scene, Anita Lane was one of the co-founders of Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, co-writing “From Her To Eternity”, the title track of their debut album and “Stranger than Kindness” from “Your Funeral… My Trial”. Arriving in London in 1980 with The Birthday Party, she’s credited with co-writing several of their tracks – “A Dead Song”, “Dead Joe” and “Kiss Me Black” before re-locating to Berlin.

In Berlin she developed a series of collaborations that included work with Einstürzende Neubauten, Chrislo Haas, Gudrun Gut and Die Haut, a cover of “These Boots Were Made for Walking” with Barry Adamson and vocals for Mick Harvey’s first two Serge Gainsbourg albums, “Intoxicated Man” and “Pink Elephants”.

Check out “Home Is Where the Hatred Is”.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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Out via Heidrunar Myrkrunar next month is the all new Of The Wand And The Moon album “Your Love can’t hold this Wreath of Sorrow”. It’s the Danish project’s first new album in 10 years since “The Lone Descent” from 2011. A Vinyl edition will follow in early 2022. The album has been over 3 years in the works and was produced by Kim Larsen and Mikkel Elzer (Kloster etc) and mixed by Mikkel Elzer.

Through the 10 new songs you clearly get to hear Kim Larsen’s inspirations from 60-70’s singer/songwriters such as Lee Hazlewood, Leonard Cohen and Serge Gainsbourg, as well as movie soundtracks from the same period. It of course still maintains some of the dark neo-folk roots of the band.

The album also includes guest performances by King Dude, legendary Danish singer/author/artist Martin Hall (who also wrote the liner notes for the album), as well as several other household names on the Danish scene such as Uffe Lorenzen (Baby Woodrose), Bo Rande (Blue Foundation) and Sarah Hepburn (Kloster a.o.).

Check out the title track.

About Of The Wand & The Moon

Of The Wand & The Moon started as a soloproject by Kim Larsen in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1998 when he was still a member and composer in the doom-metal band Saturnus. The debut album “Nighttime Nightrhymes” was released in 1999 and was a dark folk/neo-folk album that received quite some attention in both neofolk, goth and metal scenes.

With the second album “Emptiness Emptiness Emptiness” (2001), the sound of Of The Wand & The Moon had developed much, and was by then considered a neo-folk/dark folk classic.

Of The Wand & The Moon would continue to release new material, the albums “Lucifer” (2003), “Sonnenheim” (2005) and “The Lone Descent” (2011 – see further down), as well as several EP’s and vinyl singles followed.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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( Photo by L.J.Spruyt Photography) Mick Harvey (Nick Cave) has launched a new track, ‘Turkish Theme’, from his forthcoming album, ‘Waves of ANZAC / The Journey’, out on Mute on 17 April. “Waves of ANZAC / The Journey” was composed, arranged and produced by Mick Harvey and mastered by Loki Lockwood at Creepy Hollow.

The album features two recent soundtracks recorded by Mick Harvey. The first, “Waves of ANZAC” looks at Sam Neill (Jurassic Park, The Piano)’s personal family history interwoven with the history of the First World War and the ANZACs through to the modern era. The second, “The Journey”, is a four-part composition released in support of #KidsOffNauru, a campaign working for the child refugees and people seeking asylum who find themselves in offshore detention.

You can listen to the track right here.

Mick Harvey is a founding member of The Birthday Party, Crime and the City Solution and The Bad Seeds and has collaborated extensively with PJ Harvey, Rowland S Howard and Anita Lane. His solo releases began in 1995 with the first in a series of Serge Gainsbourg interpretations and translations which he recently revived with two acclaimed releases in 2016 and 2017. Harvey has been scoring film and television since 1988’s ‘Ghosts… of the Civil Dead’ (Dir. John Hillcoat) and a collection of his soundtrack work – featuring music from ‘Chopper’ (Dir. Andrew Dominik, 2000), the award-winning soundtracks for ‘Australian Rules’ (Dir. Paul Goldman, 2002) and ‘Suburban Mayhem’ (Dir. Paul Goldman, 2006) and more – was released by Mute in 2006.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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Just like the Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio fans I was stupefied reading Tomas Pettersson announced after the release of his newest album “Let’s Play”, it possibly could be the last album! The Swedish masters of ‘apocalyptic-pop’ are now active since 1993 and moved throughout different periods of artistic creation. While their earlier work was characterized by a neo-folk approach they progressively experimented with other influences, which brought them to label their music as ‘apocalyptic-pop’. “Let’s Play” again released by Out Of Line took them nearly ten years to get accomplished, but the result is their most refined and artistic creation ever. It’s a poignant and deeply artistic exposure, which might become a kind of legacy for all lovers of this music genre. I got in touch with Tomas who had a lot to say about this major work.

(Picture credits by Post-Mortem / Interview courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q: I first of all have to say thank you for this new and beautiful album “Let’s Play [Two Girls & A Goat]”. I’ve been touched by the artistic grace of the writing and global production, which according to me stands for the most accomplished work you have ever released! It took you seven years to achieve this album, which you also have introduced as possibly the final album of Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio. Can you give us a bit more details about it all?

Tomas:Thank you. It pleases me to hear that you are able to perceive what I see too, and what I thought I saw already years ago when the process commenced.

My work with “Let’s Play” began already back in 2010/2011 when I completed “Songs 4 Hate & Devotion”. This has always been the situation for me, to initiate the work on another album just as I complete the first. But as I started to finish my work on “Let’s Play” in 2013, after all plans had been made, video recorded, 4Play released and Out Of Line had been informed, something unexpected occurred; we got pregnant with our second child and all I had planned was more or less obliterated. We were facing two options, either we released the album despite the pregnancy (without promotional material and concerts etc…) and just hoped it wouldn’t disappear in a void of social and medial emptiness, or we looked behind door number 2 and assumed that the potential that we felt the album had, would withstand the test of time, and that we simply postponed the release till another days when the stars were aligned.

So we went with option number 2, which led to the birth of “Vision:Libertine” as a result of frustration, disappointment and personal hardship.

Whether or not “Let’s Play” will be our final album or not remains to be seen, but I doubt it. What I meant was more willingly that “Let’s Play” as I see it, is the final form of apocalyptic-pop. I can’t see how we would be able to progress further without imitating ourselves. So from this point on I feel the need to reinvent myself and Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio to prevent what we have created from becoming a caricature of itself.

Q: That being said, what have been the main difficulties you encountered in the global production process and what are the aspects making you proud?

Tomas: When I ultimately came to the conclusion that “Let’s Play” had to be put on hold, it felt a little overwhelming. To feel and accept that the best songs you had ever made were not going to be heard by anyone for years to come. I played them incessantly until I couldn’t bear to hear them anymore. But after the release of “Vision:Libertine” in 2016, I also realized that I had become a better, more competent producer, a better vocalist, and that the material I once felt was so incredibly good, didn’t live up to this ‘new’ standard. So I consequently decided to deconstruct “Let’s Play”; remix it, re-sing it and reproduce it to meet with these new and improved standards. And in retrospective it’s easy to see that this was a very time consuming endeavor, and which led to a process of successive completion which altogether took 6-8 years.

Q: The lyrical content remains very explicit although using metaphors and enigmatic titles. I get the impression the lyrics are very intimate and yet meant to tickle the listeners, but what did you really want to accomplish?

Tomas: I write texts that serve a personal purpose, texts that manifest a feeling, a vision and/or an idea; let it be sexual, philosophical, spiritual or ideological. I desire to write texts that paint the vision I see when I close my eyes; and if I am able to tickle and provoke, then my work is done. That is what I seek to accomplish.

Q: ‘Sex’ in a wider perception has been always one of your fetish themes and still very present in the imagery and performances of Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio. While it clearly concerns artistic freedom… and maybe a little bit of provocation, I can easily imagine you (at least some images, maybe clips) must have been censored. I especially think about some social media. What’s your personal experience about it and what does it say about the Century we’re living in versus artistic freedom?

Tomas: Sexuality defines us. We are our sexuality. Our preferences and provocations are directly and intimately linked to who we consider ourselves to be. I like to use sexuality and ‘explicit’ imageries as a catalyst for greater motives, to raise other questions and ideas that otherwise would be disregarded and/or shunned.

Social media is a phenomenon. An interactive judgment tool by which you are forever judged for the things you do and don’t. Years ago your accomplishments were judged and deemed worthy or worthless by alleged ‘professionals’ in ‘established’ magazines, but nowadays you are judged every day, every hour, every minute by people with an opinion. Nameless, faceless writers who seek nothing more than to slander you without reprieve and consequence. The magazines have been replaced by social forums that dictate under what conditions and censorship you are allowed to operate. I’m no longer the sole dictator of what imagery and intellectual message our ‘art’ will convey, but the social forums and even my visitors are ultimately in charge, deciding what they ‘allow’.

There has been occasional censorship, but not as much as you probably imagine. “Menage A Trois” was naturally removed by Facebook after 16 hours, which however was a lot longer than anyone thought it would be up. We were banned from performing in Berlin years ago, as I was accused of being a satanic fascist by the organizer’s friend’s fiancé. But for me, the strangest and most abstract act of censorship was posed by Facebook some 6 years ago when they closed the official Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio channel based on my publication of the “Make Love & War” cover (Rose having the gun in her mouth). For that reason only they choose to close down the page and made me start over completely.

Q: New clips have been made and especially “Ménage A Trois” is a deeply, artistic exposure, but still a huge success regarding the number of views. Tell us a bit more about the song and the link with the clip plus the accomplishment of the clip?

Tomas:The genesis of “Ménage A Trois” requires quite a history lesson, so here it goes. After years and years of declining all requests from Russia, I finally decide to accept an invitation from Alexey Kluyev and Arcto Poomo in 2011. We prepare, we get all the tickets and documents, and finally when we are set to depart for Moscow, everything starts to crumble. Considering the amount of money and organization that have already been invested to bring Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio to Russia, I feel obliged to go, but Rose is however forced to stay home because Julius, or oldest son, bursts out in chickenpox the night before departure, and simultaneously, Fredrik (the bass player) is also forced to stay home due to various family emergencies; so ultimately it only our former guitarist and me who depart for Russia and destination unknown. Finally in Russia we are picked up at the airport by Alexey and his sketchy taxi-driver Dragan dressed in a white suite that someone else must have stopped wearing in the 80’s and white loafers. Alexey takes us to our base camp outside of central Moscow at “Rob’s House” where we are supposed to stay with Rob and his mother between concerts. Next morning we travel 4 hours by airplane to Yekaterinburg where we are set to do our first show. An utterly bizarre experience where we are observed as mythological creatures and where female fans start to tremble and burst out in tears simply from confronting us, and finally, the rented guitar appears to be 6 metal strings connected to two assembled pieces of plywood, rather than an actual guitar. After Yekaterinburg we fly back to Moscow and are picked up again by Alexey and Dragan. We are brought back to Rob’s house and start to get ready for our second show in Moscow. At this show we have a support act; an avant-garde black-metal opera-noise act featuring renowned Russian actor Vladimir Epifantsev. Supposedly he’s a big fan of Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio, but during the show, Vladimir only comes to the club 5 minutes before the show, and leaves immediately after, so our meeting is brief, but we are also informed that after we return from Rostov-on-don, Vladimir wants to meet for dinner. So after Moscow we travel south to Rostov-on-don (the hometown of Andrei Chikatilo). We meet old friends for the very first time, have a magnificent barbeque in our host’s backyard, make new friends and play another bizarre show for just a handful of people. Thereafter we return to basecamp in Moscow and later that same day we meet the famous Vladimir in central Moscow and go to one of his favorite pizza restaurants. We eat luxury pizzas and drink imported beer, and that’s when Vladimir says to Alexey that he wants to make a video for Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio.  A dialogue follows where I decline his offer to make a video for “S4H&D” (because its already out) and I suggest that its better if we make a video for the upcoming album “Let’s Play”. Alexey thinks this is very funny as says in English with a heavy Russian accent ‘Hahahahaha Tomas, you are just as much businessman as you are artist’. And it is decided, we will come back one year later for two concerts and the making of a video for a song of Vladimir’s choice.

So we go back home, work on “Let’s Play”, send the songs to Vladimir who makes his ‘surprising’ choice, and we go back again in 2012 for a four day visit to Moscow. We performed twice over two days in Moscow, and on the third and fourth day we filmed the video with Vladimir and his crew. On the first day we filmed an entire day at Vladimir’s big summerhouse outside of Moscow. Everything was arranged by Vladimir and there were several other actors from his day job (as a soup opera actor on a daytime drama series) joining us to fulfill the script. There were exploding vegetables, AK47s, Spetsnaz soldiers, blood, the drowning of his wife, Fredrik almost losing his hearing after an AK47 goes off next to his ear, me walking around all day dressed as a pantomime, Rose throwing confetti from the balcony and all this madness came to an end in a huge organized barbeque. Next day was spent in central Moscow at Vladimir’s studio apartment filming close-ups and vocal scenes, still dressed as a pantomime. After day four we returned to Sweden. I was informed by Alexey that Vladimir will begin editing and that we will receive the finished video in due time. We waited and waited. After six months I contacted Alexey and asked what’s going on, I am informed ‘Vladimir is an artist, you need to wait’. So we waited, and waited some more.

After a year I contacted Alexey again to hear what’s happening; same answer ‘Vladimir is an artist we need to wait inspiration’. So we waited some more, and some more. But suddenly, one random night in winter after three years of waiting, an email unexpectedly appears in my mailbox, moscow.mp4. It’s there, finally. I called out to Rose ‘It’s here!’ She said, ‘What’s here?’ I said ‘The Russian video. It’s here! Should we watch it?’ Rose said ‘No let’s wait’. So we waited another few weeks before we out it on. But once we did, our jaws just drop (all the way to the floor). The video was not what we recorded in Moscow those two days in 2012. It’s something completely different. ‘An artist’s personal vision’ perhaps, but not what we paid for and not what he expected. But over time we accepted it and learned to love it. It’s a fantastic video, the first of several videos we will make with Vladimir, and after all these years it is finally out, and now, another 1.4M more people have watched it too.

Q: I noticed some interesting names among your list of favorite artists, but I especially want to mention Brigitte Bardot and Serge Gainsbourg (who did some real great things together and not only “Je T’Aime Moi Non Plus”), but also Nancy Sinatra, Johnny Cash and Lee Hazelwood! What do you like in their work and what makes them special?

Tomas:I like the way the way their music make me feel. I like the musical orchestrations, especially from Lee Hazelwood. The simplicity; the complexity. They represent an interesting and aesthetically fascinating era in history. Perverted, yet sophisticated. Seemingly stupid(?) yet intellectually provoking.

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

Genre/Influences: Rock-punk, 60s.

Background/Info: I discovered this Belgian formation by their debut album “Hippodrone Club” (2017) and was instantly seduced by their global approach mixing rock, punk and fun! They’re now back with “Eponyme”, which has been introduced as a fusion between 60s music and punk. The album is also available in vinyl.

Content: The album features 9 songs. After an intro cut Josy & Pony come directly to the essence of this work. There clearly is the recognizable post-punk and rock attitude merged with solid 60s psychedelic elements. The songs reveal a mix between guitar and electronic arrangements. The lyrics sung in French are once again pure fun and inspired by horses although revealing some metaphors. “Eponyme” features the already familiar single “Indécent Pur-Sang” next to some noticeable new cuts.

+ + + : I like this band for their totally crazy concept (just watch their clips and you’ll understand what I mean), but also for the quality of their music. The songs create a perfect twist between familiar, powerful rock-punk while the 60s psychedelic touch brings something refreshing and even hypnotic. I’m totally wild of “Deux Chevaux Mustang”, which reminds me of Brigitte Bardot singing “Harley Davidson” (written by Serge Gainsbourg). I also have to mention “Änon Petit Con”, “Secte Equestre” (also released as clip), “La Crinière” and “Indécent Pur-Sang”.

– – – : This work only features 9 songs; featuring an intro, outro and an intermezzo. So it’s a bit over the top considering this work as a full length album.

Conclusion: I have a preference for the debut album, but on the other side “Eponyme” simply confirms the potential of this band. This is great and powerful punk-rock music for parties and simply have fun.

Best songs: “Deux Chevaux Mustang”, “Änon Petit Con”, “Secte Equestre”, “La Crinière”, “Indécent Pur-Sang”.

Rate: (8).

Artist: www.josyandthepony.be / www.facebook.com/josyandthepony

Label: www.rockerillrecords.com / www.facebook.com/rockerillrecords

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

‘Kaibun’ is a Japanese word, which means ‘palindrome’. The word or phrase can be read in both directions as ‘lepers repel’. For the Belgian duo Laurent Delogne and Marie Hubart, the word ‘Kaibun’ is a simple way to describe their music. Laurent says ‘you can listen to a piece through the prism of Marie and in another sense feel it under the influence that I bring to it’. While you probably know Laurent Delogne as the man behind the hard industrial project Le Moderniste, Kaibun sounds different; more into experimentalism and sound research. The explanation is maybe because of Marie’s classical musical training, bringing harmonization in the sound and an achievement in the melodies originally written by Laurent. Kaibun has released their second full length “Gloomy Alice And Sinister Jack” on Hands so I thought it could be a good idea to know a bit more about this project.

(by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q: Laurent, we all know you as the ‘operator’ behind the industrial music project Le Moderniste, but what does Kaibun stands for in terms of artistic expression, influences etc?

 Laurent: A cure? Le Moderniste has always be a painful introspection. Truly. It happened that the album was missed… a pure shit… corrected… to not send people too many nauseous pathos. But Le Moderniste is oozing from my pessimistic psyche. And the further sound will be uncensored… I release a limited cassette format in September on Italian label Infidel Bodies. The work that requires such a project empties me of all energy and plunges me into a chasm… And I sincerely thank Infidel Bodies and especially Marika for giving me total freedom and wholehearted support in the creation of “Imbalsamazione”!

So Kaibun is a cure for my chronic depression and black ideas. It is not an introspection but a true catharsis.

Q: The title of the new work is quite funny and still intriguing, referring to you and Marie Hubart. What does “Gloomy Alice And Sinister Jack” really stands for?

Laurent: The first album was written under the patronymics of ‘Frigid Girl’ and ‘Mister Freeze’, which also was the name of our electro (minimal electro-clash) project of the early 2000s. And “Illogism” was a souvenir of the festive years in the world of techno, electro, acid and hardcore. “Gloomy Alice And Sinister Jack” are our surnames and the name of the album… a reminiscence of the past or not?

Q: Sorry guys, but the titles of your tracks are nearly impossible to keep in mind, but here again I’m fascinated. Is there any deeper content or maybe a concept behind the titles, which seem a bit like little stories?

Laurent: The concept of the album came to us as a plain phantasm. A film… we would be the directors of our own film. A film of pure love… and impurity comes from the outside world so it would be a closed vision. Pure love can only end (or exist) through death and Romeo and Juliet are the most tangible representation of it. We have therefore created a closed-door meeting full of love and death where both heroes are in fact only modern Romeo and Juliet. The titles and music illustrate a scene that is played in front of you, on the screen of your imagination.

Q: Tell us a bit more now about the composition of this new work, which by the way has been released four years after “Illogism”? What kind of album and sound did you want to accomplish?

Laurent: 4 years… Time goes by and a night we were drinking a glass while listening to Serge Gainsbourg and more particularly the song “Variations On Marilou” and the album “L’homme A Tête De Chou”. It was obvious, a revelation… musically we wanted to extrapolate the genius of Gainsbourg and make it accessible to us… We want to capture the feeling… A few chords, a theme emerges and all the melodies arise from the theme. We wrote the album as an original soundtrack. In fact, the album is very influenced by Gainsbourg… It may not be apparent at the first listening but if you are very careful, you will hear it.

Q: Compared to “Illogism” I experienced the new tracks as more elaborated, like reflecting a real ‘sound intelligence’. How would you analyze the evolution from the first album towards “Gloomy Alice And Sinister Jack”?

Laurent: “Illogism” was a funny thing to do…  There’s no intelligence behind “Illogism”. We drank and dance more than to create music… it’s just energy… a one shot impossible to create again…

As I already said the new one is created with reflection. There’s also a great part giving to sound. We use a lot of samples recorded for the percussions. And we created synthesizers sounds with Absynth from samples of… Gainsbourg. We also used a multitude of bodies samples that we recorded both in the spirit of the album and manipulated to blend into the melodies. With this album, we wanted to create something more accomplished in terms of experience for the listener. We did not want a music that was too improvised, too spontaneous, but instead we wanted a more reflective sound, that can be more experimental in its structure and also less easy to access.

Q: I found an interesting quote at your Facebook page affirming ‘Their loud and raw sound invite the listener to travel at the border of bastard electronic music’! What is ‘bastard electronic music’, which by the way could be an interesting new electro-style!?

Laurent: If you read the sentence, you’’ll see an advertising quote… As Andy Warhol used of advertising. It’s the pop artistic vision of our music…

‘Bastard electronic music’… Yes, we make ‘BEM’… thanks to you to find it! What it means… In fact that we totally don’t care on how our sound is named, name it as you want, we don’t care. We mix so many influences… In the new one, I think we touch pop music, industrial, classical, noise, techno, house etc… the list is longer and it’s why we love working on Kaibun!

Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

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Genre/Influences: Experimental, electronics, abstract, new-wave.

Background/Info: Alain Neffe and Nadine Bal better known as the Belgian duo BeNe GeSSeRiT are back on track unleashing a new album of 16 tracks on EE Tapes. The duo has been busy since the early 90s and never stopped composing music. EE Tapes definitely put them back on the map releasing several records during the past few years. “Eccentric????” features unreleased material from the past few years. The songs were selected by EE Tapes owner Eriek Van Havere.

Content: “Eccentric????” is an appropriated title for this duo, which once more reveal a real weird and especially uncompromised music style. You for sure will easily notice the somewhat experimental approach, which also comes through in some childish vocal parts and crazy lyrical themes.

Next to the experimental and abstract sound, you’ll notice some 80s reminiscences. It all sounds electronic-like although sometimes completed with guitar featuring guest musician Daniel Malempré who you’ll maybe know from some side-projects featuring Alain Neffe.

+ + + : The main strength of this formation is their very personal sound, which is mixing numerous influences. They often make me think of a kind of sonic Dadaism while a few tracks sound a bit into Serge Gainsbourg for their lyrical approach. It’s a totally weird, but cool kind of poetry.

– – – : The main strength of BeNe GeSSeRiT also is their main problem to conquer a wider audience. The minimalism rapidly moves into an abstract sonic format, which is hard to grasp. It sometimes sounds like pure improvisation.

Conclusion: The “Eccentric????” title is totally appropriated to understand the content of the work. Call it a bit eccentric, but it definitely reveals an uncompromised approach, which I experience as ‘sonic Dadaism’.

Best songs: “The House Of The Rising Song”, “Folie Cadencée (Le Plus Obscur De Nos Désirs)”, “Perdus”.

Rate: (6½).

Band: www.facebook.com/benegesseritbelgium

Label: www.eetapes.be / www.facebook.com/eriek.vanhavere

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

( Photo by L.J.Spruyt Photography) Australian musician, singer-songwriter, composer, arranger and record producer Mick Harvey returns with his fourth and final volume of Serge Gainsbourg translations in 2017 with “Intoxicated Women”, recorded with the help of half a dozen female vocalists.

Harvey is best known for his long-term collaborations with Nick Cave, with whom he formed the Boys Next Door, the Birthday Party and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.

Listen to a sampler from the forthcoming “Intoxicated Women”:

In June 2016 Harvey already released Volume 3, “Delirium Tremens”, where Mick delivered his take on a wide-selection of material from the Gainsbourg catalogue.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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