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Words on Faking Gold & Murder

Boomkat

A third blistering full-length from avant-metal supergroup Aethenor - and on this one the line-up just got that little bit more starry thanks to the presence of David Tibet
of Current 93 and guitarist Alexander Tucker.

They join the ranks of Stephen O'Malley (of SunnO))) and KTL), Daniel O' Sullivan (of Guapo and Mothlite) and Vincent De Roguin (from Shora) whose sinister sound sculptures sound utterly unique within whatever genre you choose to lump them in with. Not quite death-ambient, not quite sludge metal - if anything you could identify an influence from modern classical music, both in terms of the instrumental timbres used and in the manner of the recording, which seems to eschew the aesthetics of studio editing and post-production. On the second track, the gradually unfolding combination of twinkling sonorities and nebulous atmospherics suggests a Messaien influence, but there's always a dark cloud overhead, and harsh, sustained waves of drone soon take hold, only for David Tibet to wade in alongside clanking piano and meandering glockenspiel. The addition of percussionists Nicolas Field and Alex Babel is a significant one, and the duo bring a sense of dynamic variation and counterpoint to the stately swell of doom that dominates the record otherwise. The first piece brings frantic chimes and free-drumming that draws on jazz rhythms, whilst the third begins with the incredibly delicate flutter of hand-played drums, only to erupt with organ-fuelled discord and dark incantations from the Current 93 frontman.

Faking Gold And Murder is a real step forward for both Aethenor and underground metal in general, transcending genre conventions without detaching itself completely from that all-important heart of darkness. Highly recommended.

Aquarius

Not sure how it happened, but the last Aethenor full length completely passed us by. We had it in the shop, but just never got around to reviewing, not cuz we didn't want to, or because it wasn't awesome, it was, it's just that we get so much stuff, as hard as we try, we can never seem to get to it all.

Well we won't let it happen with this one, Faking Gold & Murder, the latest from the 'supergroup' known as Aethenor, featuring one Mr. Stephen O'Malley, who plays in a few other bands you've probably heard of, as well as guys from Guapo and Shora. Oh, and that David Tibet guy. Current 93, you know. Anyway, the sound is maybe not what you'd expect, eschewing the roiling crush of O'Malley's other groups, and the wild psych prog of Guapo. Instead, Aethenor traffic in some sort of otherworldly avant abstract prog, or something, black ambient free folk drift maybe, it's actually pretty difficult to describe.

Four long songs, numbered instead of titled. The group offering up a lush backdrop of rumbling guitars and keening high end, bursts of dense drumming, billowing clouds of cymbal shimmer, moaning minor key melodies, very abstract but not minimal, a very active, roiling sea of sound, over which Tibet does his thing, singing, speaking, testifying, hard not to compare it to C93, maybe if Current 93 were way heavier and splattered with wild drumming, but the same sort of primal alchemical vibe. The tracks do occasionally coalesce into something more propulsive, offering up grinding slow motion riffage, weird looped soundscapes, clattery almost free jazz, thick crumbling distorted walls of guitars, woozy minor key piano, wheezing organ, plenty of bombast and bluster, but also plenty of hushed whisper and delicate drift, all presided over by Tibet, whose high priest vocals perfectly suit the strange blackened backgrounds. Cool stuff. Fans hankering for that old Current 93 sound, well some of this might be the closest you'll get these days, and anyone into the dark and droney, the mystical and mysterious, the heavy and abstract, enter the temple and bow your head in reverence, the ritual has begun.

Gorgeous packaging, super thick three panel, metallic gold on black, letterpressed cardstock sleeves.

Blow up

Faking Gold & Murder

Daniel O'Sullivan
Vincent de Roguin
Stephen O'Malley
Nicolas Field
Alexandre Babel
Alexander Tucker
Anok Pe David Tibet

(From Midheaven.com) ***Faking Gold and Murder is the third earth-shattering full-length by Vincent De Roguin (Shora), Stephen O'Malley (Sunn0))), KTL) and Daniel O'Sullivan (Guapo, Mothlite). This time, the core trio is joined by percussionists Nicolas Field and Alex Babel, as well as renowned guitarist Alexander Tucker and the inimitable David Tibet.

Æthenor's heaviest outing yet is driven by a weighty low-end and the full fury of Babel and Field's free-wheeling drums. The band's electronics, guitar, Rhodes, and organ ride waves of sound in a tightly-controlled blare, leaving plenty of space for Tibet's declarations of the mystical and supernatural. Tibet is in top form, rising out of the tempest at just the right moment, almost plain-spoken in places, grounding the squall at times, voicing the apocalypse at others.

Faking Gold and Murder features another elegant cover by Vincent de Rougin and Nicola Todeschini, letterpressed by Stumptown Printers.

"Brooding, primeval, dark, alchemical epics are full of a ferocious intensity, sounding more like a starlit night being ripped open by lightning than a musical group. Intelligent and primal, like a daemonic workshop, battering up Pandemoniums and dreaming of gold and murder, Æthenor are spectacular." -David Tibet

Æ TOUR 09

Avantgarde-metal.com review

Etymology only rarely serves our truest purpose as a reviewer, which is basically to respect what we're hearing in order to understand and feel, to the best of our bio-abilities, what it really is. In this case, though, I think that going back to the origin of the band name is, at least if both chance and fortune let us pass through, gonna be helpful in our musicologist quest. We hear of Athanor in ancient Arabic: at-tannûr, the philosophical oven which within alchemical processes was used to fire the transmuting matter elements into self-metamorphosis. Its heat could consume even the substantial forms of the elements, essence-shifting these primary properties of microphysical events. On the other hand, Aristotle, let's remember it, called Aether the fifth element, the quinte essence, or what we might simply call cosmic ether. This was where the gods hanged out so to speak, right into a supra-lunar dimension of perfection and incorruptibility. When it comes to our post-modern Aethenor incarnation, Stephen O'Malley (Sunn O)))), Vincent de Roguin (Shora) and Daniel O'Sullivan (Guapo) are at the core of the band, while other experimentalists, such as Kristoffer Rygg (Ulver), drummer and percussionist Alexander Babel and Nicolas Field all joined in. That's right! And together they transpire a dark abstract music close to being some sort of cosmic alchemy of sounds.

Listening to the first song, making myself confortable, I remembered Nurse With Wound at their most droney. As a pulsing bass organ line chops it up in the background, somnolent and psychedelic psycho synthesizers or ambient guitars or whatever, are what let your mind drift out of itself. Much of the composition stays within the realms of dark ambient and gloomy rumbling atmosphere, and in that sense I would say this is another example of genuine cinematic darkness. Mushy clouds breathing in and out canyons of thick fog among flickering glitters would be a good comparison, even though everything is so detailed in the background, as well as on the foreground, that it's all about each of the sounds too. Therefore it's more like a drone band jamming than, say, a one line looping drone. Really heavy but sweet as hell. Number 2 song is another affair indeed! Much more dynamic and intense in its various tones, it contains surprising turns at every corner, using abstract rythms conducted with a convincing tightness to raise the general tension a few degrees up. Guapoesque and Shoraesque bells & zylo polyphonic melodies then innocently lead us to an almost free blast beat intensity. Alright, hand in hand with growing noise pulses underneath, the drums become more apparent and more imposing, free-jazzing their way up to a frenzied sate of percussions, while platforms of tectonic sheer powers rush over. This is where Betimes Black Cloudmasses comes to the hardest of itself, you've been advised.

The third song seems like a mixture of the first two, even if it has a radiance of its own. It won't go back to the percussive insanity of track number two, neither will it flirt with much of the first one. I think I can hear Mr. Rygg "spreading out" a few throatings right at the begnining and doing a few appearances now and then, sounding more like a raspy underground creature rather than the poetic figure he's come to be known for. Soon enough a more spacious atmosphere, so to speak, takes the lead, and once again mysterious abstract melodies are washed over by thick layers of engulfing ambient, only to moreover secretly revel in a most sublime minimalism. Well, this of course is a pretty intense ride throughout, and I suggest to stay open-minded and not to judge right after your first listening session. I'd say it's got a thing or two to share with a boiling volcano just about to ejaculate, and as much as you may get fascinated by its natural beauty, the closer you look inside and the more chances you have to be burned down within a second. These particle transmutations will therefore appeal to both physicians and musical enthusiasts out there.

Olivier Côté

Betimes a Wire review

Roads burn

Æ DÆS

David on Roadburn

Full line-up of the David Tibet curated Sunday 20 April at the Tilburg, the Netehrlands Roadburn festival: Æthenor, Baby Dee, Current 93, Rickie Lee Jones & Skitliv.

David Tibet comments: "I am delighted and ecstatic to announce the full line-up of the artists playing at the day I was invited to curate at the Roadburn. Appearing at the show will be: ÆTHENOR, BABY DEE, CURRENT 93 RICKIE LEE JONES, and SKITLIV."

Al Cisneros of Om and David Tibet are very saddened to announce that OM have had to pull out of their forthcoming European dates, including their appearance at Roadburn 2008, due to the sudden and unexpected departure of Om's drummer Chris Hakius from the group. SKITLIV, the band featuring former Mayhem vocalist Maniac and Shining's front man Niklas Kvarforth on guitar and backing vocals, will replace OM. David has been working with Maniac recently and loves Skitliv's take on Doom, Noise, Ambient & Black Metal, and is very happy indeed they will be appearing with C93 and friends at his Roadburn 2008 curated event.

David Tibet -who insistent that there is no headliner, and that the performers are listed in alphabetical order - introduces the other artists involved in his special event at Roadburn 2008:

"I met Stephen O'Malley some years ago, and we became friends. I slowly became aware of how remarkable and extensive is his work and collaborative projects. One of my favourites amongst them is Æthenor, comprising Stephen, Daniel O'Sullivan and Vincent de Roguin, whose brooding, primeval, dark alchemical epics are full of a ferocious intensity, sounding more like a starlit night being ripped open by lightning than a musical group. Intelligent and primal, like a dæmonic workshop, battering up Pandemoniums and dreaming of gold and murder, Æthenor are spectacular. For this rare live show Æthenor will be joined by some very special guests, including Ulver vocalist, Kristoffer Rygg."

"I was introduced to Baby Dee's world and work some years ago by Antony. Dee and I became friends, and she started working with, and playing in, Current 93. My label Durtro released her first two albums, as well as a recent compilation, and her new album, "Safe Inside The Day' is just out on Drag City. When she played with Marc Almond last year, I wrote this: "NYC titty bar dancer, church organist, accordionist, street-theatre tricycle-riding harpist, carnival side-show bilateral hermaphrodite, tree-worker, freak-show musician, an epiphanic at Anne Frank's house. I love Baby Dee's music more than I can say. I think that you will too."

"Rickie Lee Jones is an artist of profound lyrical and musical power, and her album "The Sermon on Exposition Boulevard" easily ranks as one of my favourite albums ever. Returning to her earlier albums in 2007 after hearing "Sermon...", after a hiatus of almost 25 years, I was mesmerised by the stark beauty of her work, and I determined to invite her to the day I am curating at Roadburn, eager to have her perform to audiences who may never have been lucky enough to come across her music before. To anyone who hasn't heard Rickie Lee Jones yet, I envy the discovery that awaits you. And those who have heard her will know just how magical and transforming her live appearances are. Thank you Rickie Lee."

Founded in 1982 by David Tibet, Current 93 has created a highly personal musical and aesthetic entity over 23 years, subliminal and dramatic, an opulent and complex music made of psychedelic Coptic jazz, distorted folk memories, apocalyptic ballads, gothic chorals, nursery rhymes and Roman electronics. Tibet's musical influences are wildly diverse, ranging from psychedelic rock bands from Ramases to Patripassian, from Gregorian Chant to Sahidic Threnodies. David Tibet has worked with Steven Stapleton [Nurse With Wound), Antony and the Johnsons, Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Marc Almond, folk goddess Shirley Collins, Stephen O'Malley, Attila Csihar, Andrew W.K., horror writer Thomas Ligotti, Nick Cave and Ben Chasny [Six Organs of Admittance] and many others artists.

For more info & tickets, please go to: www.roadburn.com or www.myspace.com/roadburnfestival

Betimes Black Cloudmasses

vhf#111 Æthenor Betimes Black Cloudmasses LP/CD

Highly-anticipated second album from the trio of Vincent De Roguin (Shora), Stephen O'Malley (Sunn0))), KTL) and Daniel O'Sullivan (Guapo). Like their genre and audience-confounding debut “Deep In Ocean Sunk the Lamp of Light,” “Betimes” is an atmospheric, constantly changing piece that encompasses a mind-boggling array of different performance and processing techniques. The deeply psychedelic and affecting results present a soundstage that is continually evolving, with new elements entering and leaving the fray every couple of seconds. Betimes includes significant contributions from free percussionists Nicolas Field and Alex Babel, who sprinkle the sound field with an almost FMP-style rush of splattering drum sound, raising the intensity of the music (without resorting to bashing). Betimes also features a brief but perfect vocal from Ulver mastermind Kristoffer Rygg, who will make his first live appearance in over a decade when Æthenor plays the Roadburn festival in April 2008. Æthenor’s third LP, featuring vocals and lyrics by David Tibet, will be released in Autumn 2008.

“Musically, Æthenor summon the most somnolent examples of Bernard Parmegiani, Organum, Nurse with Wound, Klaus Schulze, Igor Wakhevitch, Coil, Iancu Dumitrescu and Charlemagne Palestine. Acousmatic drones ebb and flow into crackling and bubbling sonic clusters. Lulling piano motifs and lamenting chants shimmer into distant lunar horizons while oscillators spin and drove serenely into unchartered audial regions. Sometimes as calm as a silvery sea, so that every gentle cat's-paw and lapping wave is deafening. Sometimes as tempestuous as a fuming lava beach, spitting and popping at the surface.” - Daniel O'Sullivan

Available April 2008

Pi=Æ2

Æ street

Date : Wed 16th April '08
Country/City/Venue : Switzerland / Geneva @ Theatre de l'Usine
Other acts: tba

Date : Thu 17th April '08
Country/City/Venue : Switzerland / Martigny @ Les Caves Du Manoir
Other acts: Marc Ribot + Lucien Dubuis Trio

Date : Fri 18th April '08
Country/City/Venue : France / Paris-Montreuil @ Instants Chavires
Other acts: Keith Rowe

Date : Sat 19th April '08
Country/City/Venue : Belgium / Hasselt @ Kunstencentrum Belgie
Other acts: Witch + Grails + Graveyard

Date : Sun 20th April '08
Country/City/Venue : Netherlands / Tilburg @ Roadburn Festival
Other acts: Current 93 + Baby Dee etc

Conspiracy records / booking
Pobox 269
2000 Antwerp 1
Belgium
Ph: +32/(0)3.225.19.29
Fax: +32/(0)3.295.39.49
www.conspiracyrecords.com
www.conspiracyrecords.com/booking

Roadburn

Durtro Announcement

David Tibet contributes vocals and texts to the new Æthenor album

David Tibet sings and contributes lyrics on the forthcoming Æthenor album; other guests are Kristoffer Rygg (Ulver) and long time Æthenor collaborator Alexander Tucker.

Tentatively titled ‘Faking Gold and Murder’ from a line in the text, Æthenor is the project of Sunn O)))'s Stephen O'Malley, Vincent de Roguin (Shora) and Daniel O'Sullivan... A musician/composer/arranger with a classical background in piano and guitar, Daniel O'Sullivan has become known for subverting these mediums with his avant-rock bands, Guapo (Neurot Recordings) and Miasma & the Carousel of Headless Horses (Web of Mimicry/Rise Above Records).

Terrascope Review

The numerous gloom spores scattered upon the wind by the berobed figure of Sunn O)))’s Stephen O’Malley continue to thrive and mutate. ‘Deep in the Ocean Sunk the Lamp of Light’ CD is the debut of Aethenor, his collaborative project with Daniel O’Sullivan of British ‘zeuhlists’ Guapo and Vincent de Roguin of the Geneva-based Shora, who I believe have recording links with Merzbow. Split into four distinct instrumental segments, the trio’s skill in the editing and mastering departments have resulted in a strangely shifting cinematic collage, at times mysterious, at others threatening in the extreme. The multiple keys, nocturnal electronics and ‘playing the room’ (the latter credit mirroring that found on the ‘Sights’ CD by Russell / Wehowsky on Corpus Hermeticum) make even the harshest of elements bend to their will. A message that’s perfectly encapsulated in ‘Part One’s combination of breakers captured rushing to the shoreline and clanking shipyard ambience which can surely see Aethenor justly installed as Poseidon’s sole representatives on terra firma. The album's also available in limited vinyl format. (Steve Pescott) (Phil adds: I recently bought a copy of the Aethenor album on vinyl, and I have to say Steve is if anything understating the sheer power and elegance of this record. The sounds pull you into their undercurrents and leave you feeling either elated or unsettled, depending on the state of your mind at the outset. The sleeve photo doesn't do the letterpress justice either. Top marks!)

Ground and Sky Review

Æthenor is a supergroup of sorts involving members of Guapo and Sunn O))), but fans of the former are probably not going to get what they expect. The latter band is the better comparison: if Sunn O))) make doom metal for ambient music fans, Æthenor make ambient music for doom metal fans. Deep In Ocean Sunk the Lamp of Light is an evocative title taken from Homer's Iliad, and is true to the music: claustrophobic, dark, submerged, suffocating, yet somehow simultaneously sweeping and epic.

The density and structure of Guapo or Sunn O))) are altogether absent here; instead, Deep In Ocean consists mainly of fragmented keyboard and organ lines surrounded by carefully placed bumps and scrapes. The sound comes in waves, ebbing and flowing like, as the title might imply, a creaking ghost ship swaying on a dark and turbulent sea. While the tinkling Rhodes in "III" reminds of Guapo at their most formless, the rest of the album is something else entirely. The meat of this brief (barely over 30 minutes) record is in "I" and "II," which seem less like linear pieces of music than they do nightmarish soundtrack fragments. But Æthenor are too clever to fall for cheap horror-movie soundtrack clichés; instead, their tapestry of sound is unsettling by its very amorphousness.

Sound boring? For many, it might be. But for those with the ability to revel in pure sound and texture, Deep In Ocean Sunk the Lamp of Light is a creepily evocative ambient album that, while simple on the surface, is in fact deceptively deep and rewards repeated listening.

Audiodrome Interview

Here.