Posted in Whathaveyou on March 1st, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Berlin-based heavy rock forerunners Kadavar have announced the addition to their lineup of second guitarist and keyboardist Jascha Kreft, making them a four-piece for the first time. Recent years and outings have seen the band greatly expand their style, even before the pandemic-informed The Isolation Tapes (review here) or their subsequent collaboration with Elder upped those stakes.
Considering that, it makes sense that the band might want the flexibility that having an additional guitar on stage might add, let alone any future continued expansion of their craft on subsequent releases. Jascha Kreft also plays in Berlin’s Odd Couple, and the first to see him feature as a part of Kadavar will be those fortunate enough to attend the band’s upcoming Spring tour alongside Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats and Gaupa, which kicks off April 19 in Hamburg and runs through and beyond a stop at Desertfest London 2023, where they’ll play as part of the kind of lineup you tell your grandchildren about.
Can you dig it? Of course you can. Here’s to personal (and collective) growth:
Dear friends, from this year there will be a big change, because now there are four of us.
Our longtime friend @jaschakreft, well known to many from his band @oddcoupleberlin, will join us on guitars and keys. Get your tickets for our upcoming tour with Graveyard in April/ May.
See you there, wir haben bock.
19.04 Hamburg DE Grosse Freiheit 36 21.04 Stuttgart DE LKA Longhorn 22.04 Frankfurt DE Zoom 24.04 Munich DE Backstage Werk 25.04 Vienna AT Arena 28.04 Nijmegen NL Doornrosje 29.04 Amsterdam NL Melkweg 30.04 Paris FR Trabendo 01.05 Lessines FR Roots & Roses 03.05 Bristol UK SWX 04.05 Manchester UK Academy 3 05.05 London UK Desertfest 06.05 Luxembourg LUX Den A
Posted in Reviews on February 7th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
The immediate implication of Chrysalis, the second full-length from Tampere, Finland, progressive space resonators Polymoon, is metamorphosis. Major change. Progression. One thing growing into another, and perhaps, having unveiled their debut in 2020’s Caterpillars of Creation (review here), the band are talking about themselves somewhat, setting themselves in a position of being something malleable, able to grow and assume a different form than they had in a more ‘larval’ stage.
Issued through Robotor Records — the label headed by Berlin heavy rock magnates Kadavar, whose drummer Tiger Bartelt produced and mixed Polymoon at Kadavar Studio; Janne Hakanen mastered — Chrysalis comprises six songs and stretches vast distances across 44 minutes of cosmic bursts, galloping, twisting proggy thrust and a psychedelia that, while heavy in its underpinnings and accessible through melody and the bright, sometimes blinding timbre of the guitar and synth, is nonetheless flying from the moment opener “Crown of the Universe” sweeps in on a lead guitar hook from its initial two-and-a-half-minute quiet intro of synth, guitar and vocals, with precious little letup in its push from there. It’s not until side A closer “Instar,” really, two songs later, that the tension that begins in “Crown of the Universe” is released. And that is not the last time that happens.
Polymoon leave no doubt this is on purpose, and among Chrysalis‘ great triumphs is that the returning five-piece of vocalist/synthesist Kalle-Erik Kosonen, guitarists Jesse Jaksola and Otto Kontio, bassist Juuso Valli and drummer Tuomas Heikura never lose control — and their own growth as a band is writ large across the album as one of its major themes. As alluded above, they have become another thing. They have moved forward. It’s everywhere on Chrysalis. Atmospheric as they are, Kosonen‘s vocals are both higher in the mix generally and more confident in their delivery.
This is shown quickly in “Crown of the Universe” as well, which once it kicks in sees the band rocketlaunching Songs for the Deaf-desert sprint with the lyrics urging a kind of personal/galaxial rebirth, some falsetto included from Kosonen along with guest Moog from Finnish synth-wizard Esa Kotilainen (Wigwam, Tasavallan Presidentti, etc.). Accordingly, Heikura‘s drumming would be manic in its shove behind the two guitars and bass were it not so masterfully executed, lending urgency and immediacy to “Crown of the Universe” and the subsequent, even shinier “Wave Back to Confusion” early on before the glorious nine-minute “Instar” pauses at its outset, works itself into a frenzy, and, just when you think your head is about to explode because even the quiet part is interweaving angular lines of guitar, after seven minutes in, the band finally lets it go and supernova-blasts into a rolling movement slowdown, guitar solo pulled out over interstellar plod to serve as the apex for the album’s first half. Like much of Chrysalis, it is lush and gorgeous and the band know it and built it that way on purpose.
The linear quality of the three songs working together — not linear in terms of a build within the first two tracks, necessarily, though neither wants for “get loud” at its finish — pushing and carrying the listener toward that crescendo in “Instar” is further argument for Polymoon‘s evolution as being part of the story the album is telling, and in all the tumult of their conveyance, one finds especially on repeat listens a kind of overarching pulse of life to follow in and between the songs, everything feeling connected whether it’s a synthy intro to “Instar” or the consuming swirl of “Wave Back to Confusion” just before.
And the material on side B: the outright party that is “Set the Sun”; “A Day in the Air,” which picks up from its doomed intro for a full-speed tear that’s reminiscent of nothing so much as latter-day Enslaved (and every bit worthy of the compliment in that comparison); and the corresponding nine-minute Floyd-referencing capstone “Viper at the Gates of Dawn,” is likewise communicative. Continuing on with the next stage from “Instar” — because it’s a whole-album narrative and not just something that applies to one side and then the other –the album genuinely becomes a tale of becoming, and as much for the band as anything else. It is united by Polymoon‘s apparent ability to dizzy their audience without losing their own balance in either the writing or performance, which is something that Caterpillars of Creation hinted toward but was more focused on lumber where Chrysalis genuinely seems to be breaking free of containment and running (or flying, if we’re keeping to the metaphor) loose. But “loose” doesn’t mean sloppy, just unencumbered.
They convey this while the individual members simultaneously put on a clinic in their respective crafts, whether it’s the classy fluidity with which Kontio and Jaksola interact on guitar and the attention to detail of their work there, the nuance of that interplay — not to mention whatever the hell is happening with the solos at the start of “A Day in the Air,” or Valli saving some but by no means all of the tastiest basslines for “Viper at the Gates of Dawn,” or Heikura‘s stunning performance throughout, the drums challenging every other instrument to keep up, which is a game that, thankfully, the band as a whole is prepared to play.
Together with Kosonen‘s noted progression on vocals and the abiding melody of the keys, the delicate manner in which atmospheres are concocted, the sheer wash they create at times, Polymoon are able to affect a run like that in “A Day in the Air,” building dreamily with delightful, playful misdirection toward a huge, encompassing doomly stride that’s outright heavier than they’ve been on record to-date. They rightly ride that groove to the end of the song and crash it out — you’ll note it wasn’t until track three on side A that they hit the slowdown; they’re changing up structure and how the songs function on their sides, again adding to the richness of the overall listening experience — ahead of the snare-to-start non-intro to “Viper at the Gates of Dawn,” which is soon ringing out petals of lead guitar through deceptively grounded verses in rushing-but-unrushed antimatter-fueled krautmetal fashion.
“Viper at the Gates of Dawn” summarizes well the strengths to be found throughout Chrysalis, including the flow that brings it methodically to its heavier push, echoing vocals after the two-minute mark as Kosonen recalls the falsetto he unveiled in “Crown of the Universe” and uses it in such a way as to set up a self-call-and-response before gliding over the subsequent verse. Oh, and then they start to mean business. Guitar surges forward as the vocals fade back, the solo lining up with the rhythm line, moving around it, drums and bass running alongside. The vocals come back before six minutes in, joining the build for a last chorus, a note held like they didn’t want to let it go, and then the quiet drift that might be flight moves further and further out, peaceful as it goes, offers one last moment of grace to appreciate on a record that’s already given much in that regard.
Of course, they’ve set themselves up for the third installment in the trilogy. The caterpillar crawled. The chrysalis brought change. The butterfly would seem to be the next logical step. Or maybe this story is done. I don’t know, and while speculation is fun, that’s all it is. If this an ending or a beginning — a bit of both — it is the accomplishments throughout Chrysalis in realizing an evolved vision of what Polymoon‘s debut was that are most striking, whatever potential there may also be for the band to take it a step further still. This is the kind of album that’s able to take notions and tropes of genre to places they do not often go, and to meld stylistic elements that in less capable hands would be too disparate to connect. And to do it with class, and distinction, and passion. Beautiful.
Posted in Whathaveyou on January 25th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Polymoon smack of brilliance. Like, right upside your head. The Finnish not-upstart-for-much-longer prog-psych troupe have unveiled their video for “Set the Sun,” the second single from their upcoming sophomore long-player, Chrysalis, and it’s a beautiful bit of aural wash krautmetal, feverish in its affect but controlled in terms of performance even as it pushes toward its dramatic apex, conveying the sense of transition happening across the record in a surge of volume that, well, whatever space you can give it, give it and know that by the time the near-seven minutes are up, you won’t regret having done so.
Chrysalis is out Feb. 17. I’ve booked out Feb. 7 to review it and no, I don’t think there’s going to be a premiere with that or anything, but it’s a deep record and I want to try to give it its due anyhow, since it’s very clear to me in listening that a lot of love went into making it. I think you can hear some of that in “Set the Sun,” about which you can read more in the blue text off the PR wire, and for which you can find the video at the bottom of this post. Note that Marco Menestrina of Kaleidobolt helped make it. Figures Polymoon and Kaleidobolt would be buds. I’m sure there’s a ‘New Wave of…’ joke to be made there, but frankly even those two groups are too distinct to really be part of a wave. I’m just glad they exist.
Take a step into the unknown and dive into the second single from Polymoon’s highly anticipated sophomore album “Chrysalis”. “Set The Sun” takes a heavier turn both sonically and visually and spirals into the world of figure skating.
The second appetizer from Polymoon’s sophomore album “Chrysalis” will be available in visual form this Friday. The second single “Set The Sun” will be available on all streaming platforms on the 20th of January. “Chrysalis” will be released by Berlin-based and Kadavar driven label Robotor Records on the 17th of February, 2023.
“Set The Sun” is the second single from the forthcoming album “Chrysalis” and is accompanied by a music video directed, filmed and edited by Polymoon members Kalle-Erik Kosonen, Jesse Jaksola and Marco Menestrina. In the music video, Polymoon guitarist Jesse Jaksola wanders around an eerie wintery forest on a bicycle before seeing his life flash before his eyes. However, the ephemeral vision takes him to a whole another world. Check it out below.
“‘In this song, the second phase of metamorphosis has begun and the golden chrysalis starts to form around the character. The song is a depiction of depression and closing into the shell. There is a party for one in a golden room inside one’s mind.
Set The Sun is musically the heaviest song of the album. It goes hand in hand with the lyrics, from sanity to insanity. It is dark and majestic. You’ll find yourself singing the lyrics with a smile on your face and you have no idea why. We wanted to create a beautiful and dreamy music video that has contrast to the heaviness of the song.
The progressive and heavy rock genre we represent has maintained a rather traditional and one-dimensional image of what kind of art and for what kind of audience is made within the genre. Through our visual expression, we want to break the structures of a genre perceived as strongly masculine and with our own contribution make the scene safe and easily approachable for all listeners.”
“Chrysalis” – out February 17 – follows Polymoon’s critically acclaimed debut album “Caterpillars Of Creation” that was released in 2020. The new album is set to be released while the band is on tour, performing alongside the Finnish psychedelic rock group Death Hawks with announced dates in early 2023.
POLYMOON is: Tuomas Heikura / Drums Jesse Jaksola / Guitar Otto Kontio / Guitar Kalle-Erik Kosonen / Vocals, Synthesizer Juuso Valli / Bass
Posted in Whathaveyou on October 28th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Take two headlining bands — both arguably at the forefront of their generation of heavy rock and rollers in Europe, now veterans both but by no means out of date or ‘old,’ however they might feel after a given gig — and slap ’em out on tour together. It’s a long-proven winning formula and next April Örebro, Sweden’s Graveyard and Berlin, Germany’s Kadavar will head out together to demonstrate its functionality again. Legit.
Both groups were recently announced as part of Desertfest London 2023’s lineup (info here), but I hardly put together from that that they’d be on tour together — oh me of small mind, narrow view — but I happened to catch Graveyard earlier this month at the second night of Høstsabbat 2022 (review here) in Norway, and it’s been a minute since I saw Kadavar that one time, but I’ve got no doubt they’re similarly up to the task of heading out on a co-headlining bill like this. This kind of tour makes everyone play better.
I guess some tickets are on sale now and more will open up next week? That’s how I read the below, anyhow, which is what Graveyard posted on the ol’ socials:
Glad to announce that we’re hitting the european spring roads together with Kadavar. Get your tickets and hope to see you out there.
Tickets go on sale today, Friday 28th and Monday 31st of October – check your local dealer for more info.
19.04 Hamburg DE Grosse Freiheit 36 21.04 Stuttgart DE LKA Longhorn 22.04 Frankfurt DE Zoom 24.04 Munich DE Backstage Werk 25.04 Vienna AT Arena 28.04 Nijmegen NL Doornrosje 29.04 Amsterdam NL Melkweg 30.04 Paris FR Trabendo 01.05 Lessines FR Roots & Roses 03.05 Bristol UK SWX 04.05 Manchester UK Academy 3 05.05 London UK Desertfest 06.05 Luxembourg LUX Den A
Posted in Whathaveyou on September 30th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
The video at the bottom of this post for the new Polymoon single “Wave Back to Confusion” — because surely confusion is waving at us — carries with it the first audio from the band’s upcoming second album, Chrysalis. To be released Feb. 17, 2023 — the future! — it is the follow-up to Caterpillars of Creation (review here), the Tampere, Finland, outfit’s wildly impressive debut full-length, and a record they seem intent on blowing out the airlock with the cosmic and progressive heavy rock on display throughout its progeny.
In five minutes, Polymoon assure of progressive intent and craft through the purposefulness with which they approach space rock, setting alight the psychedelia that defined the already-multifaceted Caterpillars of Creation with shimmering tonality and a gonna-just-spread-this-sound-out-all-over-right-here mindset that speaks to both their ongoing search for new ground and their mastery over the terrain they currently occupy. Feels needless to say, but I look forward to more.
February is a whole season away, but especially since Polymoon are touring in October, one somehow doubts this will be the last time they’re heard from before Chrysalis arrives as their first offering through Robotor Records.
Said label was kind enough to shoo this down the PR wire:
Polymoon – Chrysalis
Berlin-based label Robotor Records to release Polymoon’s first single Wave Back To Confusion on the Friday 30th of September.
The first appetizer from Polymoon’s sophomore album Chrysalis will soon be available in visual form. The first single from the forthcoming album called Wave Back To Confusion will be available on all platforms on the 30th of September. Chrysalis will be released by Robotor Records on the 17th of February, 2023.
Polymoon have since their inception strived to encapsulate their psychedelic vision into a concrete form, the first result of which was their critically acclaimed debut album Caterpillars of Creation released via Svart Records in the fall of 2020. Polymoon have since then honed their vision and signed a pact with Robotor Records. Polymoon’s second musical manifestation will be released through Robotor Records on the 17th of February, 2023.
“Wave Back To Confusion is a song about drowning and letting things go. Through purifying drowning, all vanities disappear and the purpose of life is revealed. Listen to the song and you will find yourself swimming among sparkling lakes made of stars and blissful nuclear explosions full of colors.”
Polymoon is a rock band from Tampere, Finland where it was formed in the autumn of 2018. Polymoon’s unique sound draws from various influences, including psychedelic rock, progressive rock and shoegaze. Since its formation, Polymoon has aimed to lift the listener to a higher level of existence through the aural combination of euphoria and melancholia. On their debut album, Polymoon strived to lure their listeners towards them, to join them behind their secretive veil.
But Polymoon is this formless entity no more. On their second album the clandestine curtains have been opened: embrace the second phase of Polymoon’s metamorphosis where everything is exposed and nothing is hidden anymore. The chrysalis is opening and the newly-formed wings are slowly unfolding. Old conventions have been blown to pieces and the shell is cracking. The rays of light are shining through more brightly than ever before. Be prepared to dance.
Upcoming Polymoon gigs: 30.9. Lost In Music Festival / G Livelab, Tampere 7.10. Lepakkomies, Helsinki 8.10. Vastavirta, Tampere 12.10. Schaubude, Kiel 13.10. Café Mukkes, Leeuwarden 14.10. TBA 15.10. De Onderbroek, Nijmegen 16.10. Desertfest Antwerp 18.10. C.Keller & Galerie Markt 21, Weimar 19.10. Zukunft Am Ostkreuz, Berlin 20.10. Warsztat, Kraków 21.10. Lemmy, Kaunas 22.10. Depo, Riika 23.10. Sveta Baar, Tallinna
POLYMOON is: Tuomas Heikura / Drums Jesse Jaksola / Guitar Otto Kontio / Guitar Kalle-Erik Kosonen / Vocals, Synthesizer Juuso Valli / Bass
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 25th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Tampere, Finland, heavy psych proggers Polymoon have a slew of live dates set up in Europe for October around a slot at Desertfest Belgium in Antwerp. There are club dates and a couple TBAs, as will happen, but it’s a fitting answer to the tour the five-piece did this past Spring supporting their 2020 debut album, Caterpillars of Creation (review here), which came out on Svart and found the band last year getting picked up by Robotor Records, the label run by Kadavar.
In style and substance, that’s a good fit. And I’ve been kind of hoping that Polymoon would get down to business on a follow-up to Caterpillars of Creation sometime soon, but neither will I begrudge them giving the first record its due. Not their fault that’s happening two years later. Let the album come in 2023 if that’s when it comes. And maybe it’s not, mind you. I have no idea.
I’m just a caveman, and so on.
From the PR wire:
POLYMOON – BATTLING SLAKES TOUR 2022
Polymoon, whose debut album Caterpillars of Creation garnered international recognition and praise, announces an European tour.
Polymoon released their debut album Caterpillars Of Creation in the fall of 2020 through Svart Records and later signed to the German Robotor Records. The European tour is called the Battling Snakes Tour and it is set to happen in October 2022. During the tour the band will perform at Desertfest Antwerp, among others!
Polymoon is a quintet based in Tampere, Finland. Since 2019, they’ve adventured in the blossoming psychedelic music scene of Finland where the band is known for its energetic and spectacular live performances. In the music of the band, both euphoria and melancholy are merged guiding the listener to a new level of being – to embrace the psychedelic monolith.
The band’s debut album Caterpillars Of Creation, released through Svart Records, saw the light of day in September 2020, gathering attention around the world. At the end of the year, Caterpillars Of Creation found its way to a dozen “Best of 2020” lists and received a vast array of excellent reviews. During the spring of 2022, Polymoon did its initial live experimentations outside of Finland. These included performances at Sonic Whip and Desertfest Berlin. During the pandemic, the band performed at the online version of the legendary Roadburn Festival (Redux).
The band, who quickly sold out the first edition of their debut album, signed a recording contract in the summer of 2021 with German Robotor Records, led by the band Kadavar.
Battling Snakes Tour 2022: Fri 7.10. Lepakkomies, Helsinki Sat 8.10. Vastavirta, Tampere Wed 12.10. Schaubude, Kiel Thu 13.10. TBA Fri 14.10. TBA Sat 15.10. De Onderbroek, Nijmegen Sun 16.10. Desertfest Antwerp Tue 18.10. C.Keller, Weimar Wed 19.10. Zukunft Am Ostkreuz, Berlin Thu 20.10. Klub RE, Kraków Fri 21.10. Lemmy, Kaunas Sat 22.10. Depo, Riga Sun 23.10. Sveta Baar, Tallinn
POLYMOON is: Tuomas Heikura / Drums Jesse Jaksola / Guitar Otto Kontio / Guitar Kalle-Erik Kosonen / Vocals, Synthesizer Juuso Valli / Bass
Posted in Reviews on December 1st, 2021 by JJ Koczan
Like many over the last 20-plus months, this Kadavar and Elder collaboration was born of plague-era restlessness — two bands who’d generally be quite active on one or another touring circuit forced to sit out and wait for live music to ‘happen’ again, coming together with reportedly little thought given to what the result might be, but just to jam and try something out. When one is sitting at home for a year-plus, there’s plenty of time to think of these things, and as the majority of the once-Massachusetts-based lineup of Elder reside in Berlin, Germany, where Kadavar also make their home, there was less concern for travel restrictions — Elder bassist Jack Donovan still resides in the US and could not travel for the sessions — as they got together at the latter’s studio to begin crafting what ultimately became Eldovar – A Story of Darkness and Light (on Robotor Records), a seven-song, 44-minute long-player. And, for all the professed “we didn’t know what would happen” narrative — indeed the first lyric on the first track is “We don’t know how it began” — it sure feels like someone in the six-player lineup had an idea that a record would come out of it, or at very least decided there was enough in their jamming worth building into one.
Of course, it’s an immediately notable release, and I don’t think I’m exaggerating in saying the project includes two of the current generation of heavy music’s most accomplished songwriters in Kadavar‘s Lupus Lindemann and Elder‘s Nick DiSalvo, each guitarist/vocalist for their respective outfit. From the nine-minute opener “From Deep Within,” both of their presences are felt readily across the album’s span. With Kadavar‘s Tiger Bartelt (drums) and Simon Bouteloup (bass) as well as Elder‘s Michael Risberg (guitar/keys) and Georg Edert (drums) working together as a rhythm section and then some, “From Deep Within” sets a patient and ethereal tone from its own mellow beginning guitar line through the keys-and-residual-effects finish of the closing track “Cherry Trees.” Eldovar is not without its moments of impact, and “From Deep Within” shows that as well as its quiet unfolding leads to a more driving section of riffing, but melody is central and the overarching feel is less about how heavy it can be in any given stretch than what spaces it can use its time to explore. Ultimately, they leave little doubt it was the exploration that led the project to manifest as Eldovar – A Story of Darkness and Light, the album, in the first place.
Experienced listeners will pick out given parts as recognizably Elder or Kadavar — second cut “In the Way” embarks with what feels like a Lindemann-led homage to ’70s-era singer-songwriterism, semi-acoustic, before gradually shifting into a winding progressive rock that comes across very much in the vein of DiSalvo‘s style, whether it actually is or not — but doing so is the wrong approach. As demonstrated by “El Matador”‘s Pink–Floyd-in-the-sunshine ambience and the subsequent instrumentals “Rebirth of the Twins” and “Raspletin,” Eldovar is more about how the two component acts’ styles mesh than how they can be set next to each other.
It is an amalgam, not just a parallel presentation. That middle stretch of three songs — “El Matador” into “Rebirth of the Twins” into “Raspletin” — is fluid enough to become a hypnotic movement unto itself, entrancing in a way the more structured movements of “From Deep Within” and “In the Way” aren’t trying to be, and with the penultimate “Blood Moon Night” taking up a quarter of the total runtime at 11 minutes before “Cherry Trees” rounds out, the arc finds the darker turn alluded to in the title and fulfills a dynamic entirety all the more complete for it.
Even for arriving amid high expectations due to the personnel involved, these songs succeed in being something that is neither definitively Elder or Kadavar while adventuring into a place of sound that draws from both. “Blood Moon Night” alone boasts a full-length’s worth of motion, taking place along delineated stretches, first of lead guitar giving way to a chugging verse, then shifting into a mellow, King Crimson-y chorus and minimalist setup for the big turn toward Eldovar – A Story of Darkness and Light‘s heaviest stint. There’s a break with the dual drums highlighted — something that, should these two bands align again, one hopes they explore further — and the full-toned sweep begins again, consuming as a payoff perhaps for the relative pastoralism of “Rebirth of the Twins” and “Raspletin,” let alone its own early moments. The last two minutes hold over a keyboard line that maintains some tension, but are more about drawing down that surge of energy and giving an organic (if native to another world) transition into the piano line of “Cherry Trees.” Drumless, it puts the album’s last emphasis on a wash of melody, and drifts off not so much as an epilogue as a last fleeting stroke to complete the picture.
I won’t claim to know either act’s plans, whether or not Eldovar – A Story of Darkness and Light is a one-off or will be an ongoing or periodic endeavor. I doubt they know at this point, but it’s fascinating that the collaboration arrives as both bands involved have engaged their own work that might be regarded as departures. Kadavar‘s The Isolation Tapes (review here) was perhaps a more radical shift in approach than Elder‘s Omens (review here), but neither group has ever been content to do the same thing twice, even going back to their respective beginnings. Should there ever be a second Eldovar installment, its making would invariably be informed by what the six-piece have done already, branching off from their individual progressions and starting this new one.
That alone makes Eldovar – A Story of Darkness and Light singular, in that no matter what happens from this point onward — if anything, and maybe nothing — the moment they’ve captured in this initial joint effort can never be duplicated. Expanded on, yes — and if they want to grow this as a project, they have left themselves plenty of room to do so — but never repeated. For as humble as their stated goal might’ve been going into the studio together, their accomplishments here set a high standard for any who’d try to reach it. This is two of the most pivotal acts of their generation working as one unit, and the result of their labor surpasses even the novelty of that fact.
Kadavar and Elder, “From Deep Within” official video
Posted in Whathaveyou on October 22nd, 2021 by JJ Koczan
I mean, it’s gorgeous. This isn’t the first collaborative outing Kadavar have done — that would be with Aqua Nebula Oscillator however many years back — but my goodness, “From Deep Within” is breathtaking. ‘A single act to separate darkness from light.’ At nine and a half minutes, the first ‘single’ and opening track of Eldovar – A Story of Darkness and Light is unveiled to mark the beginning of preorders for the Dec. 3 Robotor Records release, and it explains more than a few things about the nature of the pairing. You can hear the Elder, you can hear the Kadavar and more importantly, you can hear the two of them together as something new. Bloody hell.
Not saying I’ve heard the record or anything, but I’ll note that late-2021 is making list-time much more difficult than it would otherwise be. This is something special. Might as well get my CD order in now.
From the PR wire:
First single „From Deep Within“ with Elder is out now! Pre-order for „ELDOVAR – A Story Of Darkness & Light“ starts today 12:00 CET here:https://kadavarelder.lnk.to/ELDOVAR
Berlin’s most important rock band Kadavar has written its second album during a single pandemic. This time around, however, they weren’t stuck alone in lockdown. They colluded with US prog rock wunderkinder Elder, Berlin immigrants just like Kadavar were a decade ago, and decided to drown in sound together. What surfaced is “A Story of Darkness & Light”, a marvel of musical liberty, a gushing opus between rock, prog and alternative, held together by the two bands’ contrasts. Light and shadow. Alpha and omega.
The album “Eldovar – A Story Of Darkness & Light” will be released on December 3, 2021 on Kadavar’s label Robotor Records. Today the bands launches the first single “From Deep Within” together with a music video for the song.
Eldovar: A bond between Kadavar and Elder. “A Story of Darkness & Light”: An intimate, touching, billowing, roaring piece of music, a sublime manifesto of musical freedom that we paradoxically owe a horrible pandemic.
“After ‘The Isolation Tapes’ I simply wasn’t ready for the next Kadavar record,” drummer Christoph “Tiger” Bartelt recounts the origins of this collaboration. “I couldn’t imagine continuing as if nothing had happened.” He wasn’t alone. As both Kadavar and Elder are horrible at sitting around doing nothing, they holed up in Kadavar’s Robotor Studios in Berlin between March and June 2021 and formulated the shared vision of an essentially human, deeply personal album – a body of work with the gravitas and wonderful weirdness of early prog albums, a monument for musics’ ecstatic urge for freedom.
Tiger Bartelt, Lupus Lindemann, and Simon Bouteloup of Kadavar as well as Michael Risberg, Nick DiSalvo, and Georg Edert of Elder (minus bassist Jack Donovan who wasn’t allowed to travel from the US) extract an arcane and fleeting magic from the primordial broth of rock, the kind of magic that can only work when everything is in fluid. When nothing is disturbing the creative process, when there is no external or internal pressure whatsoever. Never before did the music of these bands breathe in such a way. Never before did they sound as versatile, as surprising and as peculiar as they do here.
“Eldovar – A Story Of Darkness & Light” will be released on December 3, 2021 via Robotor Records. The album will be released on vinyl in 8 different colors and two special silkscreen editions and on CD. Pre-order starts today! The album will also be available on all digital platforms.
