Posted in Whathaveyou on December 31st, 2025 by JJ Koczan
This is one of those pairings that’s an absolute head-slapper; so obvious once it’s said out loud, like duh, how could you not see that coming? The Mon, which is Urlo from Ufomammut‘s let’s-get-even-weirder experimentalist outfit, and semi-solo atmospheric singer-songwriter Kariti pairing up for a tour makes rare sense, especially right now.
The Mon‘s 2025 release, Songs of Abandon (review here), may only have been one piece of a two-parter still to be concluded, but its being based around acoustic songwriting makes the material well-suited to complement Kariti, whose Still Life (review here), retained a singular identity while conjuring ambient depth to coincide with the emotional weight of the expressive voice at its center. You’re telling me these two are gonna end up doing songs together?
Well, uh, that sounds awesome. Here’s where it’s gonna happen:
In Spring 2026, I’ll finally bring Embrace The Abandon on the road.
After having to cancel the December shows with a heavy heart, being able to announce these dates now feels like a quiet victory, a return to something that needed time to grow.
I’ll join forces with kariti, an artist I deeply admire and a friend for many years, to present our new records: Embrace The Abandon, my two-part journey out on Supernatural Cat, and Still Life by kariti, out on Lay Bare Recordings.
Two different voices, two personal paths moving in parallel, meeting on stage each night.
A shared space where sound, silence, vibration, and emotion can unfold freely, shaping each performance in a unique and unrepeatable way.
This tour exists thanks to months of work, trust, and genuine human connection, and to all the promoters, venues, and people who believed in this idea from the very beginning. I’m deeply grateful to finally make this happen, and I truly look forward to sharing these moments with you.
We’re currently working on the final dates and confirmations.
If you’re a promoter or venue curator and feel this journey could resonate with your space and audience, I’d be very happy to hear from you and explore the possibility of building something together.
THE MON + kariti – European Tour 2026
18/3 — HR — Zagreb — Mochvara 19/3 — AT — Vienna — Arena 22/3 — DE — Berlin — K19 24/3 — DE — Halle — Hühnermanhattan 25/3 — DE — Bremen — TBA 26/3 — DK — Copenhagen — Lygtens Kro 27/3 — SE — Stockholm — Nalen Klubb 28/3 — NO — Oslo — Mausoleum Vigeland 31/3 — DE — Hannover — Stumpf 01/4 — BE — Kortrijk — The Pit’s 02/4 — BE — Leuven — Chapel Of Our Lady Of Fever 03/4 — NL — Eindhoven — Effenaar at ’t Rozenknopje 04/4 — NL — Utrecht — Black Earth at Moira 05/4 — DE — Karlsruhe — P8
Posted in Reviews on November 19th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
I was gonna do this whole week, happy Monday, happy Tuesday, happy Wednesday, but I happen to feel like an asshole typing the words “happy Wednesday,” so I’m going to refrain. Hope your week isn’t awful, in any case.
Or if it is, I hope music can help make it better. This Quarterly Review has been a breeze thus far and looking at the lineup for today I expect the trend to continue. Thanks for hanging in with it. We pass the halfway mark today and will wrap up on Friday, with 50 releases covered throughout the week.
Quarterly Review #21-30:
Amorphis, Borderland
Yeah, okay, you can go ahead and cancel the rest of the review. Yup, I know. I’d love to sit here and talk about how Finland’s Amorphis, some 35 years and upwards of 16 full-lengths later, are still refining their processes, conjuring melodic intricacy, and celebrating death metal in kind. I’d love to talk about the progressive strains in Borderland, or about how as recognizable as Amorphis are, they’re still able to find new ways to balance the keys and guitar, or to switch up the vocals, or even just to chug proggier on “Light and Shadow” and “Fog to Fod,” whatever it might be. I’d love to talk about all of that, but you see, the thing is… “Bones.” Specifically, the riff thereof, swept into with crushing majesty and rolled forth with knows-what-it-has certainty of the type one would expect from a long-established pro-shop genre-innovating band like Amorphis. I could go on about all the other stuff, but that riff is gonna be all you need to know ahead of time. I’ll hope to have it in my head for the next year or so.
One could spend the rest of this space recounting Joe Hasselvander‘s pedigree, from Death Row to Pentagram to Raven to The Hounds of Haseelvander, with stints in countless others including Blue Cheer besides, but that doesn’t tell you much about the doom of Fire on the Mountain. Hasselvander‘s third solo outing under his name and first in 25 years follows a traditional pattern of Doom Capitol blue-collar riffing that, it has to be acknowledged, Hasselvander had a part in establishing, while the man himself plays all instruments and handles vocals, at time with a bit of a lounge-singer edge with spoken lines, but when he reaches for the higher note in third cut “Holy Water,” a big moment in the song, it’s there for him. “Prodigal Sun” is one of several images taken from the bible and would seem to be autobiographical, and he ends with a fitting apex of nod and shred in “Darkest Before the Dawn.” He’s said he has plans for more, and indeed, Fire on the Mountain sounds more like a beginning than an end.
A current of crackling, tube-heating distortion begins in “Spine,” which introduces Kariti‘s third album, Still Life, and indeed even amid the The Keening-esque piano of “Nothing” and the title-track a short time later, that hard-toned drone becomes a backbone for the material. It’s not always there — arrangements are fluid around the central guitar/keys/voice — but for an artist working in a style so intentionally mindful of aesthetic, the My Bloody Valentine-esque noise swell of “Suicide by a Thousand Cuts,” the emergence of the static in “Naiznanku” and the rumble behind the closing prayer “Baptism” bring dark avant garde experimentalism to traditionalist melodies. This is what Kariti has been developing since 2020’s Covered Mirrors (review here), working with guitarist Marco Matta on a deepening collaboration. While retaining folkish intimacy thanks to the quiet stretches around this distorted crunch (looking at you, “Purge”), Kariti has never sounded farther-reaching.
They don’t make ’em like Burning Sister anymore, and listening to Ghosts, I’m less sure they ever did. Because as much as the Colorado now-twosome of bassist/vocalist/synthesist Steve Miller and drummer Alison Salutz continue to foster a druggy ’90s-type slackerism amid all the crash in opener “Brokedick Icarus” and the drawling march of “No Space or Time,” they’ve also never quite sounded as much themselves. There’s psychedelic shimmer in the noise swirling in the later reaches of “Stellar Ghost,” and “Lethe//Oblivion” (premiered here) is made all the more a ceremony with the thread of synth and/or amplifier hum. Meanwhile, “Swerve (Dead Stars)” would work as a new wave arrangement, I can feel it, and the longest-song-by-a-second “Dead Love” (7:20) closes with a thrilling roll and languid procession, reinforcing the downerism that’s been essential to Burning Sister since their outset. Whatever comes in the future, being a duo suits these songs.
A quick turnaround third full-length from London’s The Lunar Effect will be nothing to complain about for those who (like me) got on board with the London heavy rock outfit via last year’s Sounds of Green and Blue (review here). Also on Svart, the follow-up brims with cohesion in its songwriting and purpose in its twists, with the opener “Feed the Hand” establishing the command that proves unwavering through “Watchful Eye,” the brash speed-shuffler “Five and Two” and the lonely sway of “My Blue Veins” before “Stay With Me” modernizes Graveyardian soul en route to the grunge-riffed centerpiece “Settle Down.” The dynamic continues to expand with the piano-led “I Disappear” speaking to a burgeoning reach in songwriting, while “A New Moon Rises” regrounds and “Scotoma” smoothly finds a niche in desert rock that probably hundreds of bands wish they could make their own, and “Nailed to the Sky” rounds out by going big on tone and emotionality alike. So far, these guys are a better band than people know. They inject a little drama to these proceedings, and it sounds like there’s more to come.
While the closing title-track has a thread of prog metal that reminds of mid-period Devin Townsend, Auckland, New Zealand’s King Cruel back their 2023 Creeper three-song EP with a marked sense of atmosphere, the melodies of careening lead track “Haunting Time” calling to mind Boston’s Worshipper in their metallic underpinnings, shred and thoughtful melody. Sky Eater is my first exposure to the band, whose style balances mood and impact smoothly, and whose hooks are inviting without being cloying, as in “Diamond Darya,” which digs in and rides its central riff with a stoner rocker’s dedication and a poise that comes from knowing why they’re doing it. The aforementioned capper is the catchiest of the bunch, but King Cruel, goal-wise, have more in their sights than catchiness, and given the sprawl they lay out here, one can’t help but wonder if a debut album won’t be next.
I won’t claim to know how it was made, between what’s improvised, layered in, overdubbed, conjured from ethereal planes beyond the limits of understanding, and so on, but Angad Berar‘s eight-track/50-minute Sundae is indeed a sweet dish of psychedelic immersion. The Berlin-based solo artist made it in collaboration with guitarist/synthesist/bassist Kartik Pillai, while drummer Siddharth Kaushik sits in on the 10-minute penultimate cut and vocalist Chrisrah guests on the only song that isn’t a numbered jam, the moody mellow liquefier “Driving With You” before “Jam #3” and the horn sounds of “Jam #4” re-immerse the listener in slow-churning fluidity. “Jam #6,” with the live drums and extended runtime, is pointedly hypnotic in its first half, but has some Endless Boogie-type rock angularity later that makes it fun, while the closing “Jam #7” offers a seven-minute drone meditation before handing the listener back over to reality. Serenity abounds if you know where to find it.
Trevor’s Head, Fall Toward the Sun // Majesty and Harmony
Admirably celebrating their 15th anniversary in 2025 with touring and new music, UK melodic heavy rockers Trevor’s Head bring the Abbey Road-recorded “Fall Toward the Sun” and “Majesty and Harmony” together, not quite to encapsulate their sound or everything they’ve accomplished in their time, but to typify the ethic of marking the occasion by doing the thing itself; that is, they’re writing music because it’s what they love to do. “Fall Toward the Sun” and “Majesty and Harmony” both have an edge of aired-out ’90s-type noise rock — nothing new for Trevor’s Head in terms of style — but where they hit you with it up front in the first song, the latter holds its payoff in reserve for when they depart the titular harmonies and get to the surge of crunch in the midsection. Running seven minutes total, you wouldn’t accuse Trevor’s Head of overindulging, but instead, they give their fans and followers something new to dig into that in ethic and realization can only serve as a reminder of their appeal in the first place.
Burl, crunch, lumber, crush, groove and sprawl — the Rob Wrong (Witch Mountain)-recorded debut full-length from Portland, Oregon, riffchucking five-piece Ravine knows from whence it hails. There are some flashes of cosmic intention, but sludgier, earthbound nods pervade the five-track/47-minute outing, which holds its ambition not in a performative stylistic overreach — that is to say, Ravine are who they are musically; there’s no pretense here as they hit you with it straight forward — but in the course each of these tracks takes. Their heaviest onslaught might be in the willfully, almost gleefully grueling “Ennui,” of course the centerpiece, but even there Ravine aren’t content just to doom, or rock, or sludge out, etc., instead working to create a sense of momentum within the songs as each follows its own path, marking out its own place while adding to the whole. They’re not done growing, and I don’t think the balance of their approach is settled, but given what they already lay out, that’s a strength in their favor. This is the kind of debut that makes friends.
Sweden’s Malgomaj aren’t through the opening title-track (a bookending two-parter) of Valfiskens Buk before they’ve put forth primo hard boogie and inventive Sabbathry, classic in influence, modern in production/execution, and continuing to brim with movement as “Rembrants Skugga” and the softshow-ready “Hej Hej Malgomaj” back it. I suppose the elephant in the room here is Graveyard, but “Värddjur” has more Motörheaded foundations, and the instrumental “Itera Mot Solnedgången” hints toward Westernism before the seven-minute “Cyklopisk Betong” flattens with its early riff only to redirect to ’60s-ish garage jangle, so one wouldn’t accuse Malgomaj on this apparent debut of being singleminded, but neither are they lacking cohesion or flow between songs. “Stöttingfjället Rämnar” answers the heft of the track prior and “Det Är Nåt Fel På Solen” sets a languid march before “Valfiskens Buk Del 2” reprises the opener to make the album sound all the more complete, whether you speak the language or not.
Posted in Whathaveyou on September 18th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
On Sept. 27, the still-mostly-solo-I-think-but-these-things-are-nebulous-sometimes dark/heavy/neo-folk outfit Kariti will take part in Lay Bare Recordings‘ first-ever Lay Bare Fest, taking place in London at Camden Town’s famed The Black Heart venue, alongside Mrs. Frighthouse, The Answer Lies in the Black Void, Coltaine and others. That Kariti will also be heralding her third album, Still Life, with that performance, is so much the better.
The album is out Nov. 7 through Lay Bare (duh), and the title-track serves double-duty as the lead single which you can hear at the bottom of the post. Like early 2024’s Dheghom (review here), the new song finds again broader textures to the material, with Marco Matta once more contributing drones and backing soundscapes.
Preorders are up and the PR wire has context, which hell yeah I friggin’ love context! Have at it:
KARITI: Atmospheric/Ambient Sound Alchemist To Release Still Life Full-Length On November 7th Via Lay Bare Recordings; Title Track Now Streaming + Preorders Available
KARITI (карити) – meaning “to mourn the dead” in church Slavonic – is the emotional and creative outlet of Ekaterina, a Russian-born poet and songwriter based in Italy. On November 7th, KARITI will release her latest full-length, Still Life, through Lay Bare Recordings.
KARITI’s 2020 debut Covered Mirrors, released by the cult Italian label Aural Music (Negură Bunget, Imperial Triumphant, Messa), represented a “cathartic peregrination through bereavement.” KARITI’s second offering, Dheghom, released in February 2024 by the forward-thinking Dutch label Lay Bare Recordings (Frayle, Thief, Yawning Man), saw a development in sound, songwriting, and instrumentation: apart from electric guitars, Ekaterina performed various synthesizers and the analogue piano.
By September 2023, a self-titled, industrial/trip-hop/shoegaze EP was released under the moniker Néant – a collaboration between KARITI and Void of the anonymous Parisian industrial sludge collective Non Serviam. KARITI is frequently asked to compose vocal lines (and often lyrics) and to be a guest singer for extreme death/black metal bands, including 2024 releases by Bedsore (20 Buck Spin) and Limbes.
Of third full-length Still Life, she notes, “These songs are the aftermath of being galvanized into a disillusioned reflection on human life and the way it is lived by most of us in the world in its current state.”
In advance of the release of Still Life, KARITI offers up the record’s first single and title track. KARITI comments, “Inspired by a dream and the product of a cherished bittersweet synchronicity, ‘Still Life’ was one of my first poems of this new cycle. At the same time, it was the last song I composed the melody for and was still largely unfinished when we began recording. It owes its final form to a spontaneous voyage outside the comfort zone, please enjoy this trip with me, wherever it’ll take us.”
Still Life was recorded by Lorenzo Della Rovere in Corno di Rosazzo, Italy, produced and mixed by Della Rovere and Ekaterina, mastered by John “Spud” Murphy in Dublin, Ireland, and includes additional guitar/noise/drone machine by Marco Matta. The record comes swathed in the cover art image of Ashley Tofu and Laura Sans Gassò, with layout, lettering, and design by Strxart.
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 13th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Lay Bare Recordings will present the first-to-my-knowledge Lay Bare Fest in London on Sept. 27, with the five-so-far acts playing The Black Heart to be joined by I don’t know how many more. The forward-thinking Netherlands-based label will showcase acts from its international roster of artists including Germany’s Coltaine — whose new album is set to release through Lay Bare in September — as well as Rosy Finch from Spain, the industrialist Mrs Frighthouse from Scotland, and the dark folk of Kariti and the post-metallic The Answer Lies in the Black Void, making for a lineup-thus-far that’s as broad stylistically as it is geographically.
And I guess even if you’re not going to be traveling to Camden Town to check out the show at The Black Heart, the underlying message here is that digging into these acts — each for different reasons, each offering something of their own — is advisable. Lay Bare consistently backs bands who prize their creative individuality across genre lines, and it seems accordingly like the show’s ‘Frequencies Across Borders’ subtitle — which is awesome; more unity, less division — will likewise transcend methodologies. If you’re curious to know who else will be added, the label’s roster is something of a weirdo dream-team, so take your pick. I’ll forego speculation so as not to feel silly later.
But this is awesome and worth knowing about whether you will see it or not. That’s all. It came from social media:
Tickets are now live for Lay Bare Fest – Frequencies Across Borders at The Black Heart!
Line-up so far:
Coltaine (DE)
Rosy Finch (SP)
Mrs Frighthouse (UK)
kariti (RU/IT)
The Answer Lies In The Black Void (HU/NL)
The label showcase festival will feature exclusive album release shows from some of the Lay Bare Recordings roster. More announcements coming soon…
The second Kariti full-length, Dheghom, releases tomorrow, Feb. 2, through Lay Bare Recordings. The 11-song LP is the Russian-born-Italy-residing polylingual dark atmospheric folk singer-songwriter’s first for the Dutch imprint, and it brings 43 minutes of new material that greatly expand the context wrought for Kariti — née Katerina, also stylized all-lowercase: kariti — by her 2020 debut, Covered Mirrors (review here). While still able to offer the voice-on-tape minimalism of some of the first album’s loneliest fare, Dheghom broadens the reach of Kariti‘s arrangements, such that the quiet electric guitar on the harmonized highlight “Vilomah” that brings a duet with Dorthia Cottrell of Windhand (and her own solo work) and the keyboard-driven “A Mare Called Night” that gets its instrumental answer at the end of the proceedings in closer “So Without, ” the title of which bookends with in-Russian spoken intro “As Within,” as Kariti translates that spoken poem to English, switching languages throughout no less fluidly than she leads “Reckoning” with piano and the subsequent “Metastasis” with electric guitar.
“Emerald Death” touches on Irish folk traditions and pairs its melody with harsh distorted strums of guitar in true doom-folk style, which picks up from the surprisingly-full-band-sounding “River of Red,” with drums and a darkly progressive exploration that feels consistent with the rest of Dheghom, even if its sad metallurgy is coming from somewhere else than the initially-largely-empty “Son,” which Katerina‘s voice easily carries in layers before it shifts into its more distorted second half drone. Goth plays a big role as “Reckoning” follows “Vilomah,” with flourish of strings to coincide with its steady piano line, less foreboding than “Metastasis” still to come, but consistent in its downerist melodic spirit. Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony gets referenced at the outset of “Sanctuary,” but the song itself is moved elsewhere by its vocals, harmonized in a kind of American folkishness far removed from any sense of twang. The point is underscored with a plains-rumble of piano near the finish, from which “River of Red” picks up and transitions smoothly to its fuller arrangement before giving over to “Toll,” which is 41 seconds of bells — because what else — before the keyboard of “So Without” brings Dheghom full circle with ethereal operatics backing the lead vocal line and a sense of warning that’s almost cultish as presented.
Certainly Covered Mirrors had its sense of adventurousness, but it was also the launch point for Kariti as a project and the fact that it existed was part of the adventure. Dheghom is a genuine branching out of intent and composition, a different way of constructing songs around ideas for what they need and/or want to express. And because the backdrop she’s working with is still largely minimal — to wit, only “River of Red” has drums — each tweak in arrangement throughout has an impact on the material and the scope of the whole outing, even as they cast her voice in the role of unifying the songs, which it does without trouble. Affecting emotionally and striking in its reach, it’s Kariti‘s vocals and sometimes bleak melodicism that give Dheghom such a sense of personality amid its complexities, and whether it’s a flourish of keys, the strings on “Reckoning” or Cottrell showing up on “Vilomah,” there’s never a pivot made that removes the album from what feels like its intended course. That that would coincide with such a significant uptick in attention to detail makes Dheghom all the more of a triumph, even if it’s too morose to outwardly enjoy its own accomplishments.
The expansion of the collaboration with guitarist Marco Matta (also Grime) and engineer Lorenzo Della Rovere likewise feels organic and purposeful, helping to build Dheghom up as a showcase of Wovenhand-style go-anywhereism that nonetheless retains its crafted feel. And while it seems safe to imagine Katerina would keep that collaborative thread going on a third Kariti LP when and if she gets there — note she put out an EP with the experimentalist Néant last year; some of that attitude seems to have bled into Kariti — I find I’m less comfortable predicting where she might go sound-wise than I was coming off of Covered Mirrors. This, despite a style that’s almost entirely balanced toward the subdued, is one of the most exciting reasons to be a fan of an artist, and Dheghom is sure to pull more of those into Kariti‘s sphere as well. I think I might be one too.
Dheghom, accompanied by PR wire info, streams in full below.
Please enjoy:
kariti (карити) – ‘to mourn the dead’ in church Slavonic – is a Russian-born artist based in Italy. Her debut ‘Covered Mirrors’ was released in September 2020 by the cult Italian label Aural Music (Negură Bunget, Imperial Triumphant, Messa) and represents a ‘cathartic peregrination through bereavement’. Marco, the leader of the heavy sludge outfit Grime contributes to some of the songs and often joins kariti for live performances.
In September 2023, an industrial/trip-hop/shoegaze s/t EP was released under the moniker Néant – a collaboration between kariti and Void of the anonymous Parisian industrial sludge collective Non Serviam.
kariti’s next record will see the light on February 2, 2024 courtesy of the independent forward-thinking Dutch label Lay Bare Recordings (Frayle, Thief (ex-Botanist), Yawning Man), focussed on high-quality vinyl releases, and sees a notable development in sound, songwriting and instrumentation used: apart from electric guitars it features various synthesizers, analogue piano, strings by Jon K (live Cough, Dorthia Cottrell), a song with drums and bass, multiple contributions of Marco (Grime, Simian Steel) on guitar/noise, and a haunting duet with Dorthia Cottrell (Windhand, solo).
kariti’s atmosferic mournful ‘ambient folk’ is recommended to those who enjoy ‘dark explorations accompanied by the smell of burning wood and the moonlight reflecting off snow’ delivered through profound lyrical content. kariti toured Europe several times, shared the stage with Messa, Grift, Conny Ochs, Plum Green among others, and recently was invited by Brutus to open the Italian leg of their tour. her intense live shows have been described as liturgy-like and cathartic and the touring schedule for 2024 is in the works upon the release of Dheghom.
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 20th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Kudos to Italian dark folk singer-songwriter Kariti — generally stylized lowercase: kariti — on signing to Lay Bare Recordings for the release of her second album, Dheghom, in Feb. 2024. The project debuted with 2020’s Covered Mirrors (review here) and produced the grim offshoot Néant with a self-titled EP, and some of the depth of arrangement brought to that outfit seems to have bled into Kariti as well.
I was fortunate enough to hear some demos earlier this year for songs that will presumably be on the record (one never knows until it shows up, and it’s early for that yet), and while Covered Mirrors was almost sneaky about how much was happening at any given point, there’s a bolder engagement with neo-folk and electronics alike, a bleak ambience rooted in human emotion. I’ve been looking forward to the finished product.
That it will arrive through the Netherlands’ Lay Bare Recordings is a boon for Dheghom, and I’ll hope to have more as we get closer to the release. For today, there’s a teaser below that hints at spaciousness to be manifest, and at 90 seconds is a little more substantial than ‘teaser’ generally indicates. I feel like usually they’re about a third as long, but here you get enough to actually dip your head in and immerse, if briefly.
Every little bit counts, right? I’m sure there will be another announcement with the album details, cover, probably a single and all that kind of normal got-a-record-coming stuff, but as Kariti heraldsDheghom — the name taken from the Mother Earth goddess of proto-Indo-European mythology — with this signing and the short clip, the message to keep an eye and/or ear out comes through clearly. Can do.
From the PR wire:
Dheghom will be released on February 2nd, 2024 on Lay Bare recordings, video by Damiano Tommasi.
Says Kariti: “Dheghom is an attempt to write about some things i can’t necessarily understand or even feel, but have a lot of feelings about, it is as eclectic musically as it is focalized in terms of lyrical themes and the meanings they bare. i had to be patient and wait for a very long time to let it out, my appreciation to Désirée for doing this with me goes beyond any words.”
Says Désirée Hanssen of Lay Bare Recordings: “Hearing the voice of ekaterina from карити (kariti) made an instant connection with my heart and my skin. It was hard not to engage with her captivating blend of powerful vocals, engaging melodies, and evocative poems. kariti’s mix of intimate, stripped-down mourning folk songs with crisp sounding instruments and eerie harmonies creates a unique and emotional experience.
“The impact of kariti’s voice is evident, draws you as a listener into it and makes it easy to connect with the depth of her music and words. kariti’s resonant vocal tone adds a distinctive and profound quality to her music. It’s fascinating how a singer’s voice can shape the emotional experience of a song.
“Lay Bare Recordings is beyond thrilled to welcome kariti to the label and to collaborate on releasing her upcoming album. Incredibly exciting to walk the path of this rich and diverse musical experience together.”
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 7th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
The mournful folk of Kariti‘s debut album, Covered Mirrors (review here), was a welcome emotional outlet during the troubled late summer and fall of 2020 and it remains resonant. The Russian-born singer-songwriter currently living in Italy has undertaken two rounds of European touring since that release, both in the company of Germany’s Coltaine, whose new single “Gorit” (premiered here) also came out at the end of last week. It’s nice to do things together with friends.
Kariti‘s take on “And No More Shall We Part” is adapted from the Nick Cave original, and if you’re thinking that somehow the ‘and’ in the song’s title sounds wrong in your head, it’s the album that’s just No More Shall We Part. The song itself has the ‘and’ in the original, and I didn’t know this, but it turns out that thinking so but wanting to double-check it anyway is the exact level of Nick Cave fan I am. It’s a regular journey of discovery, this life of mine.
I bugged Kariti for some background and she was kind enough to comply. That follows here, as well of course as the stream of the track itself.
Enjoy:
Kariti on “And No More Shall We Part”:
When i first heard the (original) song it floored me, Nick Cave tends to do that to people, shortly after finishing my first record i started discovering and exploring the world of sound effects and my husband gifted me this gorgeous Lucky Cat delay pedal by JHS Pedals. While trying it for the very first time these notes just kind of started playing themselves (i was likely listening to Nick Cave a lot during that time).
That’s when the idea of making a guitar version of this (predominantly piano) song came to mind. We recorded it at the same time of my second record and for a minute i thought about including it in it, but then, impatient as i am, i decided to release it on its/my own. The idea of collaborating with Morgan has been crawling in my mind for a long time, the sounds he creates are pure magic, so i sent him the song, he liked it and added these sheer luscious shoegazy soundscapes to the second part of the song which i loved instantly, the harmonies also inspired me to record additional vocals for the song.
Then Lorenzo, who records, mixes and is heavily involved into arranging all my music mixed the whole thing into what you can here now, adding the touch of layered voices with no instruments at the end. The artwork is an analogue photograph by the talented photographer, videomaker and my friend Laura Sans, who shot all my videos. i chose this particular photograph picturing a swan because these birds tend to choose a partner for life and suffer terribly when *parting*.
i hope those who listen to this song enjoy it as much as i loved making it, thank you.
written by Nick Cave recorded, mixed and mastered by Lorenzo della Rovere additional guitars performed and recorded by Morgan Bellini analogue photograph by Laura Sans layout by STRXart
Posted in Whathaveyou on December 14th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
In September, German post-maybe-not-everything-but-definitely-a-lot-of-things rockers Coltaine teamed up to tour in Europe alongside Italy-based/Russian-born dark folk singer-songwriter Kariti. It was, to say the least, a tour with a decent amount of backstory, as well as Kariti‘s first time on the road, and I guess everyone got along pretty well because they’ll do it again this winter, picking up for a three-week stint that’s markedly longer than the last one in February and carrying into March.
I kept up with the last tour on socials, as one does, and it sure seemed like they were having a good time. Touring in an underground band can be tough in the best of circumstances, so finding a partner to do it with goes a long way. Best wishes to Coltaine and Kariti as they head out once again.
The following came down the PR wire from Coltaine:
Coltaine & Kariti Tour 2023
In February/March we’ll be back on the road for a massive 3 weeks tour.
We’ve had such a blast touring together in September that we decided to go on an even greater adventure. We look forward to meeting each and every one of you on the road! Both bands will be bringing new songs, never heard before neither live nor on record. Considering everything that has been going on in the world, we feel extremely lucky to be able to tour for 3 week, playing over 20 shows in 11 different countries all over Europe. Come hang with us, we cannot wait!
Coltaine + kariti ‘tales of southern lands’ European tour 2023 17/02 DE STUTTGART / Schwarzer Keiler 18/02 DE FREIBURG / Artik 19/02 FR STRASBOURG / Le Local 20/02 CH Zürich / Ebrietas 21/02 FR DIJON / t.b.a 22/02 FR LYON / Le Farmer 23/02 IT MILANO c.i.q. 24/02 IT BOLOGNA / Circolo dev 25/02 IT SCHIO / csa Arcadia 26/02 IT TRIESTE / Round Midnight 28/02 SI LJUBLJANA / Channel Zero 01/03 HR ZAGREB / MoČvara 02/03 HU BUDAPEST / Riff 03/03 SK BRATISLAVA / Kulturak klub 04/03 AT VIENNA / Rhiz 05/03 CZ PRAGUE / Balada Bar 06/03 PL WROCLAW / t.b.a. 07/03 DE BERLIN / Tommyhaus 09/03 DE KIEL / Schaubude 10/03 DE DORTMUND / Rattenloch 11/03 DE KARLSRUHE / P8
