{"title":"Boxset","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"year-of-no-light-mnemophobia-wooden-cd-boxset-boxset","title":"Year Of No Light \"“Mnemophobia” Wooden CD Boxset\" Boxset","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eYEAR OF NO LIGHT\u003c\/strong\u003e are celebrating their 20th anniversary as a band this year. On the occasion of this, we are releasing not only their new album ‚Consolamentum', but also the ‚Mnemophobia‘ wooden box set containing their entire discography of 5 studio albums, several split EPs, and the collaboration with Belgian composer Dirk Serries from the 'Live At Roadburn‘ recordings, on 12 vinyl records in 6 gatefold sleeves.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe box set consists of:\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e• Black-died wooden box made from sturdy 8mm maple wood, screen-printed by hand (2 inks)\u003cbr\u003e• ‚Consolamentum' CD\u003cbr\u003e• ‚Tocsin' CD\u003cbr\u003e• ‚Vampyr‘ CD\u003cbr\u003e• ‚Ausserwelt' CD\u003cbr\u003e• ‚Nord' CD\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eEach of these albums comes in a unique and exclusive colour style which is only available as part of this boxset.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe boxset also contains:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e• YEAR OF NO LIGHT metal pin\u003cbr\u003e• YEAR OF NO LIGHT logo patch\u003cbr\u003e• YEAR OF NO LIGHT ltd. poster\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eYEAR OF NO LIGHT\u003c\/strong\u003e's lengthy, sprawling compositions of towering walls of guitars and sombre synths irradiate a sense of dire solemnity and spiritual gravity, and couldn't be a more fitting soundtrack for such grim medieval scenarios. But there is also the element of absolution, regeneration, elevation, transcendence in the face of death. Consolamentum is dense, rich and lush and yet somehow feels starved and deprived.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIt comes as no surprise that ever since the beginning of their career, the band have had an obsession for the fall of man and salvation through darkness. The term “consolamentum” describes the sacrament, the initiation ritual of the Catharic Church, which thrived in Southern Europe in the 12th - 14th century – a ritual that brought eternal austereness and immersion in the Holy Spirit.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e“\u003cem\u003eThere's a thread running through all of our albums\u003c\/em\u003e”, says the band, collectively “\u003cem\u003ean exploration of the sensitive world that obeys a certain telos, first fantasized (\"Nord\") and reverberated (\"Ausserwelt\"), then declaimed as a warning (\"Tocsin\"). The deeper we dig, the more the motifs we have to unveil appear to us. Yes, it's a bit gnostic. This album is invoked after the Tocsin, it's the epiphany of the Fall\u003c\/em\u003e”.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWith debut album Nord (2006) and sophomore release Ausserwelt (2010), the band made themselves a name in the European avant-metal scene. Extensive tours of Europe, North America and Russia in 2013 and 2014, including two appearances at Roadburn festival, Hellfest and a spectacular performance in a 17th Century fortress in the Carpathian mountains introduced them to a broader and quickly growing international audience.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe cinematic scope of their music implies that\u003cstrong\u003e Year Of No Light\u003c\/strong\u003e are a group of artists that pay a great deal of attention to their visual representation, from the classy album artworks and merch designs to the carefully designed lighting design of their live show. Behind this stands a real, personal interest of the band members in historic cinema. This has led the French 6 piece to create a stunning obituary-soundtrack for C. T. Dreyer’s 1932 movie “Vampyr” in 2013, and an original score for Jean Rouch’s 1955 short film “Les Maîtres Fous” which the band performed at Musée du Quai Branly in Paris. The track “Désolation” off Tocsin appeared on the soundtrack of the movie \"Jessica forever\". Besides these ventures into film music, the band at times took on the structure of an open collective and collaborated with contemporary French artists such as Christian Vialard for a video installation reinterpretaing Yves Klein's Monotone Symphony.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWith their seminal 3rd album Tocsin, released in 2013, \u003cstrong\u003eYear Of No Light\u003c\/strong\u003e reached the peak of their career thus far – a logical decision that Consolamentum was made with the same team again: recorded and mixed by Cyrille Gachet at Cryogene in Begles \/ Bordeaux, mastered by Alan Douches at West West Side. “\u003cem\u003eWe wanted this album to sound as organic and analog as possible\u003c\/em\u003e”, comments the band. “\u003cem\u003eAll tracks were recorded live. The goal was to have the most\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003enatural, warm and clean takes possible, to give volume to the dynamics of the songs. We aimed to have a production with a singular personality.\u003c\/em\u003e”\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eFor the adept listener, Consolamentum seems to be venturing deeper into the dark and claustrophobic spheres explored on Tocsin – but the band doesn't conceive of the evolution of their music in a linear way, as it would be apparent from looking at their discography. “\u003cem\u003eIt’s more a matter of sonic devotion. Music against modern times. Year Of No Light” is above all a praxis. We wanted intensity, trance, climax and threat, all of them embedded in a bipolar and mournful ethos.\u003c\/em\u003e”\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eConsolamentum is huge, poignant, frightening, sublime, smothering and cathartic – and, much like its predecessor, “\u003cem\u003eaudacious, memorable and supremely confident.\u003c\/em\u003e\" (Decibel magazine).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Year Of No Light","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43863389929750,"sku":"467930","price":89.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0690\/8939\/4966\/products\/0e65f2fdb40c593724a513a01c4c0437.png?v=1670560503"},{"product_id":"burst-a-labyrinth-of-layers-boxset","title":"Burst \"A Labyrinth of Layers\" Boxset","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eThis item is on pre-order. \u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eVortex Edition – Limited to 300\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis boxset includes:\u003cbr\u003e• “Prey on Life” LP – Vortex Edition\u003cbr\u003e• “Origo” LP – Vortex Edition\u003cbr\u003e• “Lazarus Bird” 2LP – Vortex Edition\u003cbr\u003e• Black Naga Chili Bag\u003cbr\u003e• Burst Logo Plectrum\u003cbr\u003e• Burt Emblem Pendant\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eNote: Final products might slightly differ from mockups!\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\/\/\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePost-metal auteurs \u003cstrong\u003eBURST\u003c\/strong\u003e (Sweden) announce return, 2022 remastered vinyl release of their classic 3 albums “Prey On Life” (2003), “Origo” (2005) and “Lazarus Bird” (2008) and live shows.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWhen Swedish progressive metal quintet \u003cstrong\u003eBURST\u003c\/strong\u003e disbanded indefinitely after a string of acclaimed albums and an intense live catharsis in Gothenburg, Sweden in December 2009, it marked the end of a 15 year evolution. What started out as young, crusty hardcore band in the 90’s, developed into a unique blend of metal, progressive rock and hardcore, alternating grand atmospheres with abrasive metal and melancholy melodicism. During the following years, the die-hards kept the torch lit while new fans discovered the band’s catalogue, but apart from a one-off appearance at Spain’s Be Prog festival in 2018, the band has remained quietly slumbering. Until 2022.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThis fall, Pelagic Records will release “A Labyrinth of Layers” – an exclusive vinyl box set of the classic triptych Prey On Life (2003), Origo (2005) and Lazarus Bird (2008), as well as individual standalone LP releases of the aforementioned albums - the first two for the first time ever on vinyl format. Originally released on CD through Relapse Records, the albums have been remastered and graphically refurbished in 2022, with all new artwork by Robert Samsonovitz.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eDuring their tenure, \u003cstrong\u003eBURST\u003c\/strong\u003e mastered the art of continuous progression, always evolving, always treading uncarefully, never abiding. Burst’s live performances mirrored their albums; a display of meteoric ferociousness and heavy grooves, weaving effortlessly in and out of metallic outrage, stark melodies, and ethereal soundscapes.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eTo celebrate the reissues, the band announced their new partnership with Doomstar Bookings and a short string of live performances in the Nordic this coming November, with more European plans for 2023. Burst will be joined by Norna, fronted by Tomas Liljedahl of Breach \/ The Old Wind, and multi-instrumentalist Per Wiberg, formerly of Opeth, Spiritual Beggars and Kamchatka.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Burst","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43863535190294,"sku":"510635","price":119.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0690\/8939\/4966\/products\/a0b15f2c9913dd4622b82cea596955de.jpg?v=1670569163"},{"product_id":"the-ocean-holocene-4lp-boxset-atlantic-edition-boxset","title":"The Ocean \"Holocene - 4LP Boxset - Atlantic Edition\" Boxset","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRight off the back of a 6 months world tour, the Berlin-based atmospheric post metal juggernaut The Ocean (Collective) returns with the follow-up to their critically acclaimed Phanerozoic double album. Holocene sees The Ocean add a closing chapter to their palaeontology-inspired album series, presenting a gear shift towards the electronic world while redefining heaviness at the same time.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eFounded at the dawn of the millennium, the group of musicians helmed by guitarist Robin Staps shows no sign of slowing down even with over 20 years under their belt. Coming together around a shared vision of limitless sonic exploration and unrelenting heaviness, they gained a formidable reputation within the post rock, post metal, progressive metal \u0026amp; hardcore scenes.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eBeing revered as one of the most devastating live bands in contemporary heavy music, The Ocean became a regular fixture on the European festival circuit appearing on metal festivals like Hellfest, Wacken and Resurrection as well as mainstream rock open airs like Roskilde, Dour, Pukkelpop or Oya and tastemakers' indoor boutique festivals like Roadburn and Dunk!. Over the course of their storied career, the band have toured Europe and North America with artists such as Opeth, Mastodon, Mono, Cult of Luna, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Katatonia, Karnivool, Anathema, Between The Buried And Me and Devin Townsend. The band's own Pelagic Records has become one of the world's leading labels for post-rock and post-metal, with a catalogue of over 230 physical releases since 2009.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThroughout the years, the music of The Ocean has become increasingly characterized by a distinct thoughtfulness and maturity, starting with their seminal 2007 album Precambrian, which marked the start of an album series inspired by Earth’s geological time scale. On the following Heliocentric (2010) and Anthropocentric (2010) the band presented a thorough critique of Christianity, but it was their 2013 album Pelagial that really blew everyone away: “a stunning concept album that takes listeners from the ocean’s surface to its deepest, darkest depths, with the music and lyrical themes — often doubling as metaphors for the human psyche — getting increasing heavier, weighty and claustrophobic as the album progresses. And oh, what a journey it is!”, MetalSucks raved. Pelagial married an intricate narrative with unconventional songwriting, and was hailed as one of the best metal albums of the decade by publications such as Loudwire, MetalSucks, About and Visions.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWhere the creativity other bands often wanes after producing such an opus magnum, The Ocean continued their streak of artistically impressive endeavors with another double album released in 2018 and 2020. Continuing their palaeontology-themed album series, the critically acclaimed Phanerozoic I and II saw the band grow musically as well as in terms of numbers with the addition of new members. David Åhfeldt (guitars), Mattias Hägerstrand (bass), Paul Seidel (drums) and Peter Voigtmann (synths) joined Staps and vocalist Loïc Rossetti after the release of Pelagial, and the fact that this lineup has remained stable until this very day has allowed the band to refine their sound and their live performance, becoming the tight behemoth that they are today. Their streaming concerts recorded during lockdown, performing Phanerozoic I and II in their entirety (part 2 for Roadburn Festival) and ambitiously released in 3LP + DVD format leave no doubt of their prowess as a seminal post-metal act.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHOLOCENE\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003ePhanerozoic II ended with a track titled “Holocene”, and now it's clear that this track was pointing in the direction of things to come, both conceptually and musically. The dark, synth-driven track Holocene ends abruptly and yet connects seamlessly with the beginning of the new album: the haunting synth sounds of opener “Preboreal”.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eEnter the Holocene — the latest and thus-far shortest epoch on the geological time scale in which humanity appeared on the planet. Through rapid proliferation and technological progress, our species has shaped and changed our planet in ways unprecedented in history. Moving into the human age, The Ocean have become more intimate and captivating musically, while creeping deeper into their own DNA with numerous references to their earlier discography which older fans will cherish.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eListening to the album Holocene brings back familiar feelings: that wide open spaciousness found on the 2nd half of Pelagial, those dark subdued delay-soaked melodies lingering underneath the aquatic surface all unmistakably carry the trademark of Staps' ingenious writing – but there is also a new emphasis here: the distortion on the guitars is dialed back in favor of radiant synths and horns in every song, and Rossetti's charismatic vocals remain mostly clean.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIt is not until the end of the engrossing “Atlantic”, track 4 of the record, that the Berliners finally rip away this comfortable, brass-saturated oceanic blanket that they have wrapped around you until then and wake you up with what is probably the biggest riff of their career. By taking their time and holding back the inevitable explosion for so long, its impact is twice as devastating.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThis track can serve as sort of an epitomization of the record as a whole: slow, long build-ups augmented by lush vibraphones and beckoning brass sections eventually lead to dramatic riff eruptions and cataclysmic breakdowns. The degree of polyphony on display here is immense, there are main melodies and sub-melodies lurking underneath the surface, and the same is true for the rhythmical side. Occasionally each member is straying away from the main path and following their own respective trails, blissfully getting lost at times, but always returning in the right moment and converging into the force majeure that the group as a whole have become. The result is a listening experience that brings new discoveries even after the 10th listen.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eStaps explains about the writing process behind Holocene:\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e“The writing process of every album we’ve ever made started with me coming up with a guitar riff, a drumbeat or a vocal idea. This album is different since every single song is based on a musical idea that was originally written by Peter (Voigtmann, synths). He came up with these amazing synth parts that were already sounding huge in pre-production, and he sent me some of those raw, unfinished ideas during mid lockdown 2020... and while it was all electronic, it had that definite Ocean vibe to it. It made me want to pick up my guitar instantly... and so I did, and it didn't take long until we had an inspiring creative exchange that was heading to- wards totally unforeseen but very exciting places.”\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe result is an eclectic album showcasing a palette of sounds that is wider than ever in the history of the collective, an album that hails the riff and Reznor-style bit-crushed vocal extravaganza as much as it bows to Radiohead, as in the stunning 3rd track “Sea of Reeds” with the album's strongest vocal hookline – or early 2000's trip hop, such as in” Atantic” and “Subatlantic”. The Massive Attack influence is quite obvious and makes more sense than you would have ever guessed within the context of this band.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e“We're all huge fans of Mezzanine, which is still one of the best-produced albums to date, it has aged incredibly well”, says synth wizzard Voigtmann. “And for me it is an immensely heavy album too, a different kind of heaviness, but one that somehow connects logically with what we've been doing with The Ocean over the course of the past 2 albums.”\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWhile Staps took Voigtmann's initial ideas and “oceanized” them as he says, Voigtmann still pursued his own vision of these ideas, entirely without guitars. This resulted in an ambient electronic parallel album under his alter ego SHRVL, titled “Limbus”. A part of the ltd. Holocene 4LP boxset which also includes the vocal and instrumental versions of the Holocene album and an extra 10” vinyl EP, Voigtmann's solo album offers an intriguing alternative view on some of the musical ideas of Holocene, and a deep insight into his creative mind.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn many ways Holocene is a departure as much as it is a return to the band's roots. It is only logical that the album was recorded entirely by the band themselves at Voigtmann's studio Die Mühle in the rural North of Germany and at the band's own Oceanland 2.0 studio in Berlin. This approach also led to the desire for a different approach towards mixing the album.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e“While we still think that Jens Bogren's mixes of our previous 3 albums sound great, we wanted a more organic sound this time around, says Staps. “So we set out on a mission to get test mixes done by a number of people, from close friends to some pretty big names, but none of them came close to how we wanted this record to sound, and after a few months we got really frustrated.”\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThis is when Swedish producer and long time ally Karl Daniel Lidén came around as the delivering angel, with a test mix that convinced the band to hire him for mix and mastering. Lidén's mix brings an unprecedented clarity to the sound of the band, with a huge, ambient drum sound contrasting the electronics, and a warm and fat but somewhat brittle guitar tone that suits the diverse string work on the album incredibly well and merges with the tone of the brass into orchestral grandeur.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e“I've always loved the sound of brass but I've become obsessed with it during the writing of this record, and at one point there were bones and horns in almost every song”, comments Staps. “The trombones were recorded by Steve Thompson in London, whom I was introduced to by our mutual friend Jo Quail. We’ve never met in person, I sent him sheet music and pre-productions with MIDI-bones and he interpreted that on the real instrument. Trumpets and horns were recorded by Fritz Mooshammer in Berlin, who already made an appearance on the Phanerozoic records”.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eA definite highlight on Holocene is the appearance of the unmistakable, mesmerizing voice of Norwegian singer Karin Park on «Unconformities». Staps comments:\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e“Karin is simply a class and a force of her own. She has a unique, beautiful and dramatic voice and she's an incredibly inspiring musician and person. After releasing three of her albums and watching her stunning performance at Roadburn as well as with Årabrot many times, I became such a fan that I couldn’t help but ask her to guest on our album. The outcome is what is probably the most accessible track of the album, but also the one with the heaviest ending”.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eAcross their vast discography The Ocean have been on a continuous crusade against close-mindedness, ignorance and intellectual obstinacy, from the distinct anti-Christian sentiment of their -centric records through the psychological, Tarkovsky-inspired contemplations on Pelagial to exploring Nietzsche's ideas of amor fati and Eternal Recurrence on the Phanerozoic albums.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eOn Holocene The Ocean continue their strife, tackling subjects like the rise of conspiracy theories during the pandemic («Boreal»), the morbid grand-scheme social quest for eternal youth («Parabiosis») and how our current day’s instagram-society is epitomizing Guy Debord’s visionary socio-economical analysis in the „Society of the Spectacle“ («Preboreal»). The booklet of the album is indeed peppered with quotes by Debord and Raoul Vaneigem. Debord was a founding member of The Situationist Internationale, a French protest movement made up of avant-garde artists and political theorists that sought to create ‘situations’—moments in which the monotony of everyday capitalist routine was disrupted without having to buy commodities. They wanted to encourage people to find moments of truth and real experience among the all-pervasive consumerist lie.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eBy placing their subject matter in the context of Situationism, The Ocean create an overarching narrative for their music, unifying the separate themes of Holocene, as well as the band’s previous releases, into a single universal message: an act of resistance against our Society of The Spectacle.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e“Holocene is an appendix to the 2 Phanerozoic albums and Precambrian, or the final and concluding chapter, making it a quadrilogy if you want so”, Staps comments. “It’s tackling the Holocene epoch, which is the current and shortest chapter in earth’s history, but it is essentially an album about the angst, alienation, loss of reason and critical thinking, rise of conspiracy theories and deconstruction of values in the modern age.”\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWith Holocene The Ocean draw us into their momentum of truly forward-thinking music and relentless live performances. More than 20 years into their career, this Berlin-based collective still shake us to the core, inviting us to reconsider our lives from different angles. Dwelling in the depths of our inner contemplations, while looking up, we can see the light at the surface. A light we might have taken for granted for so long, but of which The Ocean show us a rare glimpse of perspective. Holocene unites the might of this massive act’s past and present, while creating a deeper understanding of their world as well as ours in the process.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The Ocean","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51709142597910,"sku":"554299","price":149.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0690\/8939\/4966\/files\/5ca94da10829ea4dbf74eb4017c9677e.jpg?v=1786639425"},{"product_id":"the-ocean-holocene-4lp-boxset-subboreal-edition-boxset","title":"The Ocean \"Holocene - 4LP Boxset - Subboreal Edition\" Boxset","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRight off the back of a 6 months world tour, the Berlin-based atmospheric post metal juggernaut The Ocean (Collective) returns with the follow-up to their critically acclaimed Phanerozoic double album. Holocene sees The Ocean add a closing chapter to their palaeontology-inspired album series, presenting a gear shift towards the electronic world while redefining heaviness at the same time.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eFounded at the dawn of the millennium, the group of musicians helmed by guitarist Robin Staps shows no sign of slowing down even with over 20 years under their belt. Coming together around a shared vision of limitless sonic exploration and unrelenting heaviness, they gained a formidable reputation within the post rock, post metal, progressive metal \u0026amp; hardcore scenes.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eBeing revered as one of the most devastating live bands in contemporary heavy music, The Ocean became a regular fixture on the European festival circuit appearing on metal festivals like Hellfest, Wacken and Resurrection as well as mainstream rock open airs like Roskilde, Dour, Pukkelpop or Oya and tastemakers' indoor boutique festivals like Roadburn and Dunk!. Over the course of their storied career, the band have toured Europe and North America with artists such as Opeth, Mastodon, Mono, Cult of Luna, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Katatonia, Karnivool, Anathema, Between The Buried And Me and Devin Townsend. The band's own Pelagic Records has become one of the world's leading labels for post-rock and post-metal, with a catalogue of over 230 physical releases since 2009.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThroughout the years, the music of The Ocean has become increasingly characterized by a distinct thoughtfulness and maturity, starting with their seminal 2007 album Precambrian, which marked the start of an album series inspired by Earth’s geological time scale. On the following Heliocentric (2010) and Anthropocentric (2010) the band presented a thorough critique of Christianity, but it was their 2013 album Pelagial that really blew everyone away: “a stunning concept album that takes listeners from the ocean’s surface to its deepest, darkest depths, with the music and lyrical themes — often doubling as metaphors for the human psyche — getting increasing heavier, weighty and claustrophobic as the album progresses. And oh, what a journey it is!”, MetalSucks raved. Pelagial married an intricate narrative with unconventional songwriting, and was hailed as one of the best metal albums of the decade by publications such as Loudwire, MetalSucks, About and Visions.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWhere the creativity other bands often wanes after producing such an opus magnum, The Ocean continued their streak of artistically impressive endeavors with another double album released in 2018 and 2020. Continuing their palaeontology-themed album series, the critically acclaimed Phanerozoic I and II saw the band grow musically as well as in terms of numbers with the addition of new members. David Åhfeldt (guitars), Mattias Hägerstrand (bass), Paul Seidel (drums) and Peter Voigtmann (synths) joined Staps and vocalist Loïc Rossetti after the release of Pelagial, and the fact that this lineup has remained stable until this very day has allowed the band to refine their sound and their live performance, becoming the tight behemoth that they are today. Their streaming concerts recorded during lockdown, performing Phanerozoic I and II in their entirety (part 2 for Roadburn Festival) and ambitiously released in 3LP + DVD format leave no doubt of their prowess as a seminal post-metal act.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHOLOCENE\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003ePhanerozoic II ended with a track titled “Holocene”, and now it's clear that this track was pointing in the direction of things to come, both conceptually and musically. The dark, synth-driven track Holocene ends abruptly and yet connects seamlessly with the beginning of the new album: the haunting synth sounds of opener “Preboreal”.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eEnter the Holocene — the latest and thus-far shortest epoch on the geological time scale in which humanity appeared on the planet. Through rapid proliferation and technological progress, our species has shaped and changed our planet in ways unprecedented in history. Moving into the human age, The Ocean have become more intimate and captivating musically, while creeping deeper into their own DNA with numerous references to their earlier discography which older fans will cherish.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eListening to the album Holocene brings back familiar feelings: that wide open spaciousness found on the 2nd half of Pelagial, those dark subdued delay-soaked melodies lingering underneath the aquatic surface all unmistakably carry the trademark of Staps' ingenious writing – but there is also a new emphasis here: the distortion on the guitars is dialed back in favor of radiant synths and horns in every song, and Rossetti's charismatic vocals remain mostly clean.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIt is not until the end of the engrossing “Atlantic”, track 4 of the record, that the Berliners finally rip away this comfortable, brass-saturated oceanic blanket that they have wrapped around you until then and wake you up with what is probably the biggest riff of their career. By taking their time and holding back the inevitable explosion for so long, its impact is twice as devastating.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThis track can serve as sort of an epitomization of the record as a whole: slow, long build-ups augmented by lush vibraphones and beckoning brass sections eventually lead to dramatic riff eruptions and cataclysmic breakdowns. The degree of polyphony on display here is immense, there are main melodies and sub-melodies lurking underneath the surface, and the same is true for the rhythmical side. Occasionally each member is straying away from the main path and following their own respective trails, blissfully getting lost at times, but always returning in the right moment and converging into the force majeure that the group as a whole have become. The result is a listening experience that brings new discoveries even after the 10th listen.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eStaps explains about the writing process behind Holocene:\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e“The writing process of every album we’ve ever made started with me coming up with a guitar riff, a drumbeat or a vocal idea. This album is different since every single song is based on a musical idea that was originally written by Peter (Voigtmann, synths). He came up with these amazing synth parts that were already sounding huge in pre-production, and he sent me some of those raw, unfinished ideas during mid lockdown 2020... and while it was all electronic, it had that definite Ocean vibe to it. It made me want to pick up my guitar instantly... and so I did, and it didn't take long until we had an inspiring creative exchange that was heading to- wards totally unforeseen but very exciting places.”\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe result is an eclectic album showcasing a palette of sounds that is wider than ever in the history of the collective, an album that hails the riff and Reznor-style bit-crushed vocal extravaganza as much as it bows to Radiohead, as in the stunning 3rd track “Sea of Reeds” with the album's strongest vocal hookline – or early 2000's trip hop, such as in” Atantic” and “Subatlantic”. The Massive Attack influence is quite obvious and makes more sense than you would have ever guessed within the context of this band.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e“We're all huge fans of Mezzanine, which is still one of the best-produced albums to date, it has aged incredibly well”, says synth wizzard Voigtmann. “And for me it is an immensely heavy album too, a different kind of heaviness, but one that somehow connects logically with what we've been doing with The Ocean over the course of the past 2 albums.”\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWhile Staps took Voigtmann's initial ideas and “oceanized” them as he says, Voigtmann still pursued his own vision of these ideas, entirely without guitars. This resulted in an ambient electronic parallel album under his alter ego SHRVL, titled “Limbus”. A part of the ltd. Holocene 4LP boxset which also includes the vocal and instrumental versions of the Holocene album and an extra 10” vinyl EP, Voigtmann's solo album offers an intriguing alternative view on some of the musical ideas of Holocene, and a deep insight into his creative mind.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn many ways Holocene is a departure as much as it is a return to the band's roots. It is only logical that the album was recorded entirely by the band themselves at Voigtmann's studio Die Mühle in the rural North of Germany and at the band's own Oceanland 2.0 studio in Berlin. This approach also led to the desire for a different approach towards mixing the album.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e“While we still think that Jens Bogren's mixes of our previous 3 albums sound great, we wanted a more organic sound this time around, says Staps. “So we set out on a mission to get test mixes done by a number of people, from close friends to some pretty big names, but none of them came close to how we wanted this record to sound, and after a few months we got really frustrated.”\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThis is when Swedish producer and long time ally Karl Daniel Lidén came around as the delivering angel, with a test mix that convinced the band to hire him for mix and mastering. Lidén's mix brings an unprecedented clarity to the sound of the band, with a huge, ambient drum sound contrasting the electronics, and a warm and fat but somewhat brittle guitar tone that suits the diverse string work on the album incredibly well and merges with the tone of the brass into orchestral grandeur.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e“I've always loved the sound of brass but I've become obsessed with it during the writing of this record, and at one point there were bones and horns in almost every song”, comments Staps. “The trombones were recorded by Steve Thompson in London, whom I was introduced to by our mutual friend Jo Quail. We’ve never met in person, I sent him sheet music and pre-productions with MIDI-bones and he interpreted that on the real instrument. Trumpets and horns were recorded by Fritz Mooshammer in Berlin, who already made an appearance on the Phanerozoic records”.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eA definite highlight on Holocene is the appearance of the unmistakable, mesmerizing voice of Norwegian singer Karin Park on «Unconformities». Staps comments:\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e“Karin is simply a class and a force of her own. She has a unique, beautiful and dramatic voice and she's an incredibly inspiring musician and person. After releasing three of her albums and watching her stunning performance at Roadburn as well as with Årabrot many times, I became such a fan that I couldn’t help but ask her to guest on our album. The outcome is what is probably the most accessible track of the album, but also the one with the heaviest ending”.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eAcross their vast discography The Ocean have been on a continuous crusade against close-mindedness, ignorance and intellectual obstinacy, from the distinct anti-Christian sentiment of their -centric records through the psychological, Tarkovsky-inspired contemplations on Pelagial to exploring Nietzsche's ideas of amor fati and Eternal Recurrence on the Phanerozoic albums.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eOn Holocene The Ocean continue their strife, tackling subjects like the rise of conspiracy theories during the pandemic («Boreal»), the morbid grand-scheme social quest for eternal youth («Parabiosis») and how our current day’s instagram-society is epitomizing Guy Debord’s visionary socio-economical analysis in the „Society of the Spectacle“ («Preboreal»). The booklet of the album is indeed peppered with quotes by Debord and Raoul Vaneigem. Debord was a founding member of The Situationist Internationale, a French protest movement made up of avant-garde artists and political theorists that sought to create ‘situations’—moments in which the monotony of everyday capitalist routine was disrupted without having to buy commodities. They wanted to encourage people to find moments of truth and real experience among the all-pervasive consumerist lie.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eBy placing their subject matter in the context of Situationism, The Ocean create an overarching narrative for their music, unifying the separate themes of Holocene, as well as the band’s previous releases, into a single universal message: an act of resistance against our Society of The Spectacle.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e“Holocene is an appendix to the 2 Phanerozoic albums and Precambrian, or the final and concluding chapter, making it a quadrilogy if you want so”, Staps comments. “It’s tackling the Holocene epoch, which is the current and shortest chapter in earth’s history, but it is essentially an album about the angst, alienation, loss of reason and critical thinking, rise of conspiracy theories and deconstruction of values in the modern age.”\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWith Holocene The Ocean draw us into their momentum of truly forward-thinking music and relentless live performances. More than 20 years into their career, this Berlin-based collective still shake us to the core, inviting us to reconsider our lives from different angles. Dwelling in the depths of our inner contemplations, while looking up, we can see the light at the surface. A light we might have taken for granted for so long, but of which The Ocean show us a rare glimpse of perspective. Holocene unites the might of this massive act’s past and present, while creating a deeper understanding of their world as well as ours in the process.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The Ocean","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51709143023894,"sku":"554300","price":159.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0690\/8939\/4966\/files\/96e3332d101e870c3d6ab42a67ee67f0.jpg?v=1786639513"},{"product_id":"the-ocean-holocene-3cd-boxset-boxset","title":"The Ocean \"Holocene - 3CD Boxset\" Boxset","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRight off the back of a 6 months world tour, the Berlin-based atmospheric post metal juggernaut The Ocean (Collective) returns with the follow-up to their critically acclaimed Phanerozoic double album. Holocene sees The Ocean add a closing chapter to their palaeontology-inspired album series, presenting a gear shift towards the electronic world while redefining heaviness at the same time.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eFounded at the dawn of the millennium, the group of musicians helmed by guitarist Robin Staps shows no sign of slowing down even with over 20 years under their belt. Coming together around a shared vision of limitless sonic exploration and unrelenting heaviness, they gained a formidable reputation within the post rock, post metal, progressive metal \u0026amp; hardcore scenes.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eBeing revered as one of the most devastating live bands in contemporary heavy music, The Ocean became a regular fixture on the European festival circuit appearing on metal festivals like Hellfest, Wacken and Resurrection as well as mainstream rock open airs like Roskilde, Dour, Pukkelpop or Oya and tastemakers' indoor boutique festivals like Roadburn and Dunk!. Over the course of their storied career, the band have toured Europe and North America with artists such as Opeth, Mastodon, Mono, Cult of Luna, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Katatonia, Karnivool, Anathema, Between The Buried And Me and Devin Townsend. The band's own Pelagic Records has become one of the world's leading labels for post-rock and post-metal, with a catalogue of over 230 physical releases since 2009.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThroughout the years, the music of The Ocean has become increasingly characterized by a distinct thoughtfulness and maturity, starting with their seminal 2007 album Precambrian, which marked the start of an album series inspired by Earth’s geological time scale. On the following Heliocentric (2010) and Anthropocentric (2010) the band presented a thorough critique of Christianity, but it was their 2013 album Pelagial that really blew everyone away: “a stunning concept album that takes listeners from the ocean’s surface to its deepest, darkest depths, with the music and lyrical themes — often doubling as metaphors for the human psyche — getting increasing heavier, weighty and claustrophobic as the album progresses. And oh, what a journey it is!”, MetalSucks raved. Pelagial married an intricate narrative with unconventional songwriting, and was hailed as one of the best metal albums of the decade by publications such as Loudwire, MetalSucks, About and Visions.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWhere the creativity other bands often wanes after producing such an opus magnum, The Ocean continued their streak of artistically impressive endeavors with another double album released in 2018 and 2020. Continuing their palaeontology-themed album series, the critically acclaimed Phanerozoic I and II saw the band grow musically as well as in terms of numbers with the addition of new members. David Åhfeldt (guitars), Mattias Hägerstrand (bass), Paul Seidel (drums) and Peter Voigtmann (synths) joined Staps and vocalist Loïc Rossetti after the release of Pelagial, and the fact that this lineup has remained stable until this very day has allowed the band to refine their sound and their live performance, becoming the tight behemoth that they are today. Their streaming concerts recorded during lockdown, performing Phanerozoic I and II in their entirety (part 2 for Roadburn Festival) and ambitiously released in 3LP + DVD format leave no doubt of their prowess as a seminal post-metal act.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHOLOCENE\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003ePhanerozoic II ended with a track titled “Holocene”, and now it's clear that this track was pointing in the direction of things to come, both conceptually and musically. The dark, synth-driven track Holocene ends abruptly and yet connects seamlessly with the beginning of the new album: the haunting synth sounds of opener “Preboreal”.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eEnter the Holocene — the latest and thus-far shortest epoch on the geological time scale in which humanity appeared on the planet. Through rapid proliferation and technological progress, our species has shaped and changed our planet in ways unprecedented in history. Moving into the human age, The Ocean have become more intimate and captivating musically, while creeping deeper into their own DNA with numerous references to their earlier discography which older fans will cherish.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eListening to the album Holocene brings back familiar feelings: that wide open spaciousness found on the 2nd half of Pelagial, those dark subdued delay-soaked melodies lingering underneath the aquatic surface all unmistakably carry the trademark of Staps' ingenious writing – but there is also a new emphasis here: the distortion on the guitars is dialed back in favor of radiant synths and horns in every song, and Rossetti's charismatic vocals remain mostly clean.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIt is not until the end of the engrossing “Atlantic”, track 4 of the record, that the Berliners finally rip away this comfortable, brass-saturated oceanic blanket that they have wrapped around you until then and wake you up with what is probably the biggest riff of their career. By taking their time and holding back the inevitable explosion for so long, its impact is twice as devastating.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThis track can serve as sort of an epitomization of the record as a whole: slow, long build-ups augmented by lush vibraphones and beckoning brass sections eventually lead to dramatic riff eruptions and cataclysmic breakdowns. The degree of polyphony on display here is immense, there are main melodies and sub-melodies lurking underneath the surface, and the same is true for the rhythmical side. Occasionally each member is straying away from the main path and following their own respective trails, blissfully getting lost at times, but always returning in the right moment and converging into the force majeure that the group as a whole have become. The result is a listening experience that brings new discoveries even after the 10th listen.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eStaps explains about the writing process behind Holocene:\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e“The writing process of every album we’ve ever made started with me coming up with a guitar riff, a drumbeat or a vocal idea. This album is different since every single song is based on a musical idea that was originally written by Peter (Voigtmann, synths). He came up with these amazing synth parts that were already sounding huge in pre-production, and he sent me some of those raw, unfinished ideas during mid lockdown 2020... and while it was all electronic, it had that definite Ocean vibe to it. It made me want to pick up my guitar instantly... and so I did, and it didn't take long until we had an inspiring creative exchange that was heading to- wards totally unforeseen but very exciting places.”\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe result is an eclectic album showcasing a palette of sounds that is wider than ever in the history of the collective, an album that hails the riff and Reznor-style bit-crushed vocal extravaganza as much as it bows to Radiohead, as in the stunning 3rd track “Sea of Reeds” with the album's strongest vocal hookline – or early 2000's trip hop, such as in” Atantic” and “Subatlantic”. The Massive Attack influence is quite obvious and makes more sense than you would have ever guessed within the context of this band.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e“We're all huge fans of Mezzanine, which is still one of the best-produced albums to date, it has aged incredibly well”, says synth wizzard Voigtmann. “And for me it is an immensely heavy album too, a different kind of heaviness, but one that somehow connects logically with what we've been doing with The Ocean over the course of the past 2 albums.”\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWhile Staps took Voigtmann's initial ideas and “oceanized” them as he says, Voigtmann still pursued his own vision of these ideas, entirely without guitars. This resulted in an ambient electronic parallel album under his alter ego SHRVL, titled “Limbus”. A part of the ltd. Holocene 4LP boxset which also includes the vocal and instrumental versions of the Holocene album and an extra 10” vinyl EP, Voigtmann's solo album offers an intriguing alternative view on some of the musical ideas of Holocene, and a deep insight into his creative mind.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn many ways Holocene is a departure as much as it is a return to the band's roots. It is only logical that the album was recorded entirely by the band themselves at Voigtmann's studio Die Mühle in the rural North of Germany and at the band's own Oceanland 2.0 studio in Berlin. This approach also led to the desire for a different approach towards mixing the album.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e“While we still think that Jens Bogren's mixes of our previous 3 albums sound great, we wanted a more organic sound this time around, says Staps. “So we set out on a mission to get test mixes done by a number of people, from close friends to some pretty big names, but none of them came close to how we wanted this record to sound, and after a few months we got really frustrated.”\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThis is when Swedish producer and long time ally Karl Daniel Lidén came around as the delivering angel, with a test mix that convinced the band to hire him for mix and mastering. Lidén's mix brings an unprecedented clarity to the sound of the band, with a huge, ambient drum sound contrasting the electronics, and a warm and fat but somewhat brittle guitar tone that suits the diverse string work on the album incredibly well and merges with the tone of the brass into orchestral grandeur.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e“I've always loved the sound of brass but I've become obsessed with it during the writing of this record, and at one point there were bones and horns in almost every song”, comments Staps. “The trombones were recorded by Steve Thompson in London, whom I was introduced to by our mutual friend Jo Quail. We’ve never met in person, I sent him sheet music and pre-productions with MIDI-bones and he interpreted that on the real instrument. Trumpets and horns were recorded by Fritz Mooshammer in Berlin, who already made an appearance on the Phanerozoic records”.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eA definite highlight on Holocene is the appearance of the unmistakable, mesmerizing voice of Norwegian singer Karin Park on «Unconformities». Staps comments:\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e“Karin is simply a class and a force of her own. She has a unique, beautiful and dramatic voice and she's an incredibly inspiring musician and person. After releasing three of her albums and watching her stunning performance at Roadburn as well as with Årabrot many times, I became such a fan that I couldn’t help but ask her to guest on our album. The outcome is what is probably the most accessible track of the album, but also the one with the heaviest ending”.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eAcross their vast discography The Ocean have been on a continuous crusade against close-mindedness, ignorance and intellectual obstinacy, from the distinct anti-Christian sentiment of their -centric records through the psychological, Tarkovsky-inspired contemplations on Pelagial to exploring Nietzsche's ideas of amor fati and Eternal Recurrence on the Phanerozoic albums.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eOn Holocene The Ocean continue their strife, tackling subjects like the rise of conspiracy theories during the pandemic («Boreal»), the morbid grand-scheme social quest for eternal youth («Parabiosis») and how our current day’s instagram-society is epitomizing Guy Debord’s visionary socio-economical analysis in the „Society of the Spectacle“ («Preboreal»). The booklet of the album is indeed peppered with quotes by Debord and Raoul Vaneigem. Debord was a founding member of The Situationist Internationale, a French protest movement made up of avant-garde artists and political theorists that sought to create ‘situations’—moments in which the monotony of everyday capitalist routine was disrupted without having to buy commodities. They wanted to encourage people to find moments of truth and real experience among the all-pervasive consumerist lie.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eBy placing their subject matter in the context of Situationism, The Ocean create an overarching narrative for their music, unifying the separate themes of Holocene, as well as the band’s previous releases, into a single universal message: an act of resistance against our Society of The Spectacle.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e“Holocene is an appendix to the 2 Phanerozoic albums and Precambrian, or the final and concluding chapter, making it a quadrilogy if you want so”, Staps comments. “It’s tackling the Holocene epoch, which is the current and shortest chapter in earth’s history, but it is essentially an album about the angst, alienation, loss of reason and critical thinking, rise of conspiracy theories and deconstruction of values in the modern age.”\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWith Holocene The Ocean draw us into their momentum of truly forward-thinking music and relentless live performances. More than 20 years into their career, this Berlin-based collective still shake us to the core, inviting us to reconsider our lives from different angles. Dwelling in the depths of our inner contemplations, while looking up, we can see the light at the surface. A light we might have taken for granted for so long, but of which The Ocean show us a rare glimpse of perspective. Holocene unites the might of this massive act’s past and present, while creating a deeper understanding of their world as well as ours in the process.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The Ocean","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51709144367382,"sku":"554301","price":65.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0690\/8939\/4966\/files\/69d5a76525efd336de4bf5c25f8c798a.jpg?v=1786639710"},{"product_id":"i-haxa-i-haxa-special-edition-boxset","title":"i Häxa \"i Häxa\" Special Edition Boxset","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMysterious, multifaceted collective i Häxa have unveiled their epic self-titled, full length debut; a ground-breaking conceptual double album shaped by a collision of ancient gods and bleeding-edge technology…\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eReleased as four distinct Parts over the course of the year, ‘i Häxa’ now comes together as a singular vision that weaves together genre-defiant soundscapes, abstract cinema and ancient meteorological mythologies from singer-songwriter and visual artist \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRebecca\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e Need-Menear \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e(also of electronic alt-rock duo \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAnavae\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e) and forward-thinking producer \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePeter Miles \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e(\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eArchitects\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDodie\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFizz\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e). i Häxa is a ritualistic dissection of the world as we know it, a forceful separation of the monotony of modernity from the rites and rituals that for centuries formed the foundations for who we are, how we came to be and where we claim to belong. Disjointed fragments of time collide. Two sides, one of logic and one of chaos, seeking unity and balance through an expression of freedom. This is i Häxa. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA sonic culture clash that envelopes organic alt-folk storytelling, harsh industrial electronica and a dream-like ambience that conjures the golden age of the UK’s pioneering trip hop scene, Parts One to Three evolve in symbiotic unison with their visual pairings made in collaboration with filmmaker Daniel Broadley. The eerie folk-distortion of Part One’s ‘\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eUnderworld\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e’ and ‘\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLast At The Table\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e’ soundtrack a nameless, wraith-like woman as she journeys through an ever-shifting fever dream before Part Two’s ‘\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Well\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e’ introduces a more intimate and tender dynamic palette as i Häxa emerge as a physical entity in their own right, captured as myth made manifest in a breathtaking live performance. In jarring contrast Part Three is visceral and menacing, with bone-shaking basslines on tracks like ‘\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDryland\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e’ and ‘\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDestroy Everything\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e’ interrupted without warning by abrupt, high-gain percussion as Need-Menear’s spellbinding voice and cryptic lyrics float effortlessly above the maelstrom.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePart Four is an awe-inspiring and unsettling amalgamation of what came before as plaintive piano refrains collide with shimmering drum and bass grooves, all interspersed with rich string arrangements and truly apocalyptic synthesiser soundscapes. ‘\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eVessel\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e’, Part Four’s opening piece, is pulsating synth suspense and eerie effected spoken word as Need-Menear’s already otherworldly vocal delivery is played forwards and backwards, akin to a tape-looped ghost in the machine. ‘\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBlue Angel\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e’ immediately bursts into life with a fluttering, syncopated breakbeat that channels the likes of Goldie, Massive Attack and Björk as Need-Menear’s presence also gathers momentum before receding back into a deep droning menace that would make i Häxa labelmate and dark ambient pioneer \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLustmord\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e proud. ‘\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eInfernum\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e’, a twisting, cyclic callback to Part One’s ‘\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eInferno\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e’, is as incendiary as its name suggests. The breakbeat from ‘Blue Angel’ returns with a vengeance; this time bitcrushed, compressed and relentless, conjuring the chaos of IDM icons like Squarepusher and Aphex Twin, but paired with a plaintive string motif that adds a distinctive human melancholy to the machine-like madness. Not just the final piece of Part Four but the closing chapter of the entire i Häxa saga, ‘\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCircle\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e’ is a work of staggering intimacy and emotional candour. The sparse piano, string and vocals arrangements that make up ‘Circle’ are somehow more powerful than the barrage of breakbeats and basslines that precede it and, whilst in this direction the dynamic shift might appear abrupt, ‘Circle’ crucially echoes the latent alt-folk ambience of ‘Underworld’, the very first track of i Häxa’s Part One. As such, ‘Circle’ begins the project’s epic arc again, with Need-Menear’s last words “I see a light, I see an end \/ And a start, I see it all” serving lyrically and literally as the project’s open and close. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhilst the album is composed of four distinct movements, each consisting of four distinct tracks themselves; pulling them apart into easily digestible, standalone singles isn’t an easy feat and, as is now clear from the project’s sprawling cyclic nature, was never the intention. In an age of fast fun and instant gratification, the ties that bind these works together are intended to transcend tracklisting. True to its shifting, ephemeral nature, ‘i Häxa’ will be released in two formats: a Double LP in a gatefold sleeve and a deluxe box set housing all four Parts as individual EPs with screen prints on each b-side as well as a bonus LP entitled ‘\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFishnets\/Oceans\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e’ featuring three vinyl-exclusive tracks as well as a 36-page photobook documenting the making of Part One’s mesmerising short film.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWith aural, visual and lyrical themes freely intertwining, i Häxa is something to be consumed whole; just as it will, in time, consume you. Charting an existential journey to the very depths of what makes us who we are, with every dark corner illuminated in glitched out, discordant glory; i Häxa is a project years in the making t\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003ehat draws simultaneously from rituals for old gods and the modern day deification of data. i Häxa is both heartwarming and horrifying; i Häxa is ancient history and hyper-real; i Häxa is everybody and no one at all; i Häxa is for you and for me; i Häxa is here and it is happening now.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"i Häxa","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51709303947542,"sku":"608326","price":98.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0690\/8939\/4966\/files\/8fd0772516541579ecc66e37ae9e470f.jpg?v=1786646306"},{"product_id":"the-ocean-the-ocean-heliocentric-anthropocentric-8lp-boxset-dawkins-edition-boxset","title":"The Ocean \"THE OCEAN - Heliocentric \/ Anthropocentric 8LP Boxset\" Dawkins Edition Boxset","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTo celebrate the 15\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003csup\u003eth\u003c\/sup\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eanniverersary of THE OCEAN’s trailblazing albums „Heliocentric“ and „Anthropocentric“, this is a one-time reissue of the 2010 vinyl boxset– and unlike the original, this boxset also containts the instrumental versions of the albums: 8 LPs \/ 4 gatefold sleeves in total.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe „-centrics“ albums were the first with vocalist Loïc Rossetti. „Heliocentric“ ventures into calmer territories as compared to its predecessor „Precambrian“: the album is defined not by walls of guitars, but by careful orchestrations of piano, upright bass, strings and textural electronics. 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