Kristoffer Nyströms Orkester - BrakeHEAD
(CD TumorCD25)

The end result of a post-gig improvisational get together last Summer, Kristoffer Nyströms Orkester (KNO) is a collaborative project between Peter Nyströms (Megaptera/Negru Voda) and Kristoffer Oustad (V:28).

Being fans of improvised analog music, they programmed the drummachine, added analog synthsounds and processed guitar sounds to the rhythms and let it rip, doing very little overdubs. Having liked what they heard in the intitial sessions, the decision was made to continue the project, resulting in the 4 tracks found here on Brakehead. A true sonic beat down, done in full Scandinavian style, with a battery of iron fisted rhythms hammering down in a thunderous downpour, and the caustic reverberations of the analog doom machine grinding and screeching in a symphony of clangorous and distressed beauty.

This is an album that is as majestic as it is bleak, capturing the essence of old school Swedish industrial, but forging a new path towards a dark future.From auralpressure.com "Brakehead" is a phenomenally majestic piece of dark ambience and noise that will leave you totally awe struck. The visceral raw power of the electronics is a thing of untamed beauty that heralds in a new era by which others must now be judged against.

Samples:

biTer (deep cut edit)
high_level_input - slow_speed_output (well done)

In digipak, lmtd 1000. $12.00

Oblivion Ensemble - Seraphim Hallucino (TumorCD28)

The music of Oblivion Ensemble remains as elusive and surreal as the ever-shifting cast of musicians and performerswho participate, knowingly, or unknowingly in their work.Founding members are John Bergstrom and Brannon Hungness (aka Figure). Hungness is a virtuoso experimentalguitarist and composer and a former member of the Glenn Branca Ensemble. Bergstrom is a computer-musicgearhead and a film composer with a classical music pedigree, and mastermind behind the industrial-noise assembly Torse. Seraphim Hallucino is Oblivion Ensemble fifth full-length release, the first since the virtual opera "Nightmare: Sinistrotorse" (Complacency, 1995).

At Seraphim Hallucino's source are strange, electro-acoustic improvisations of percussion, trumpet, voice, synthesizers and guitar. These improvisations are sculpted and sampled, twisted and turned, shaped into building and diminishing moments, and, at times appearing alone, pure and unmodified. Deeply imbedded in the music and fragmented lyrics are secrets, intertwining themes, voices, and imprinted messages. All come together to create an enormously complex, mercurial mix of surreal, dynamic and dark sounds.

To fully appreciate the scope and intricacies of Seraphim Hallucino, headphones in a darkened room are highly recommended. "The band most likely to compose a fitting soundtrack for the end of the world." Sorted magAZine. "Visionary gothic pyschedelia." The Wire. " the most undefinable gorgeous musical anything that I have ever witnessed ... a beyond great performance, chilling and anxious. " Best of Times.

Samples:

a prayer of +one, calling
kis.s in (open) s k in

In superb fold out digipak, with artwork by Matt Vickerstaff of darkwaveart.
CD $13.00