Death is a Dream

Fast Friend (Demo)

lilos 1st song

April 25
vaulted chambers
@https://soundcloud.com/vaultedchambers

27th Position/vaulted chambers

Pollution Opera - s/t
Cat. Nr: DN027
Format: DL / LP
Release Date: April 24, 2024
Buy / stream: dansenoire.ffm.to/PollutionOpera

Elvin Brandhi and Nadah El Shazly refuse to turn away from the horror. The intercontinental duo’s Pollution Opera album is an uncompromising futurist depiction of our disfigured, dystopian, and dying reality. Facing hell in full defiance, the experimental noise album catapults itself through a volatile compound of breathless shouts, screams, and screeches, in collision with vocal samples, environmental recordings, and acousmatic sounds. Ten tracks cover the spectrum of electroacoustic fragments and vocalizations, treacherously suspended between the roar of engines and synth distortion, of evocative intonations or guttural retching.

First conceived in 2020, Pollution Opera bubbled up organically from a first tandem motorbike ride through El Shazly’s hometown of Cairo. Singing and screaming through the second-loudest city in the world, Brandhi and Shazly found the extreme noise pollution served as catharsis from the suffocating smog that surrounded them. They then took these sonic specimens into studios across years and countries—from the initial recording and sessions in Egypt to Uganda, where their so-called “cacophony carbon orchestra” would carry into simultaneous but separate residencies at Nyege Nyege in Kampala. There, Brandhi and Shazly reprised the role of the motorbike as their “stage,” in a city where motorbikes are the main mode of public transport. They then developed a live A/V performance from video material captured by Arno Mery, collected from their travels, and reworked by Egyptian artist Omar El Sadek during Banlieues Bleues Festival 2023 in France.

The result is what the artists themselves describe as “an uncompromising world-spew, a shameless alloy of love and hate.” Haptic knocking, barking dogs, and human growls trample El Shazly’s famously evocative Egyptian singing style on “CRÎi Me A River.” Breathless vocal cut-ups and samples are bulldozed by arrhythmic acoustic percussion on “Danse Le Flou.” There are moments of respite within all the chaos, however, whether in the heavily pitched, Auto-Tuned opening of “Pollute Bold” or the wonderfully melodic closer of “Crisp Heart”—its derelict rhythmic thrust giving a listener something to dance about.

Both artists lend their unique positioning and idiosyncrasies to Pollution Opera, whether it’s in artist, vocalist, and musician Brandhi’s avant-garde noise music pedigree as both a solo artist and member of father-daughter duo Yeah You, or
singer, composer, and producer El Shazly’s hybrid catalogue combining electronic music with contemporary classical. Together, in asking the question of what a postmodern opera might sound like, the duo offer their existential answer in the true spirit of the often playful and ironic philosophical position by offering no answer at all.

Voice & electronics: Elvin Brandhi & Nadah El Shazly
Violin on ‘Crisp Heart’: Ocen James
Soprano on ‘Attention’: Marie Requa Gailey

Artwork by Omar El Sadek & Niels Wehrspann
Mastering by Rashad Becker

Pollution Opera

Pollution Opera - Bite

caught inna rowel กงจักร

(Verse 1)
There’s a hum behind the ceiling fan,
A song no one remembers how to end.
The air tastes like old porcelain,
And the walls pretend they’re friends.

(Pre-Chorus)
I stitched the curtains to the dusk,
So morning wouldn’t find me out.
Every clock here keeps its trust —
They never make a sound.

(Chorus)
I’m lost in rooms without corners,
Nowhere to run, just circles tighter.
Lights flicker slow — they never warn us,
I fade, I fade — a little quieter.
I’m lost in rooms without corners,
I fade, I fade — a little quieter.

(Verse 2)
There’s a chair that’s learned my shape,
It holds me better than my name.
The flowers dried, but stayed in bloom —
They know the art of looking sane.

(Pre-Chorus)
I write letters I’ll never send,
Seal them with the same old sigh.
Even shadows start to blend,
When you stop asking why.

(Chorus)
I’m lost in rooms without corners,
Nowhere to run, just circles tighter.
Lights flicker slow — they never warn us,
I fade, I fade — a little quieter.
I’m lost in rooms without corners,
I fade, I fade — a little quieter.

(Bridge)
If I spoke, the air might break —
So I hum through the static instead.
Even silence has its ache,
It just hums a note inside my head.

(Final Chorus)
I’m lost in rooms without corners,
Where echoes dream and time grows lighter.
Lights flicker soft, the dark adorns us,
I fade, I fade — but feel brighter.

A little quieter

Locked And Frozen

A song for the moment you face what you’ve become and choose the light anyway.

Verse I — Huntress
I wore my face like silk and thorn,
A mask of mercy over stone.
They read me sweet, but I was sworn
To claw the dark and walk alone.
I could have learned the hunger’s path,
To rule with shadow, chain, and flame—
But every dawn I fought it back,
I chose a brighter name.


Ты — моё отражение, моё проклятие.


⸻


If God will see, I bend to light,
If God turns blind, I’ll cry to night.
I hold my hands from bloody pride,
I teach my hunger where to hide.

⸻

Chorus —
You are my mirror— skuggi hamr.
I am the river— ziibi biskaabiiyang.
Your chain is fire, my chain is bone,
We tear, we bind, we break, alone.

⸻

Verse II —
I learned the tracks where silence feeds,
The secret places hunger breeds.
They named me Caine, they named me wolf,
I loved the ache, I loved the proof.
Your eyes are sparks I recognize,
A soul half-broken, sharp with flame.
I taste the road you will not take,
And want the woman you became.


Ты — моё отражение, моё проклятие.

⸻

Chorus 
You are my mirror— skuggi hamr.
I am the river— ziibi biskaabiiyang.
Your chain is fire, my chain is bone,
We tear, we bind, we break, alone.

⸻

Ты — моё отражение, моё проклятие.
I drink the river, I return.
Я пью твой страх, ты пьёшь мою тьму.

⸻

We could be him—no, we are not him.
We could be him—no, we are not him.


I chose, I clawed, I chose the light.

⸻

Final Chorus —
You are my mirror— skuggi hamr.
I am the river— ziibi biskaabiiyang.
Your chain is fire, my chain is bone,
We tear, we bind, we break, alone.
You are my shadow, I am the dawn,
I stitch the wound with iron prayer.
If I fall, the river takes me on,
If I rise, I leave the wolf to air.

⸻

makwa ziibi… fjǫturr broken.

Reflection

giil ediit

'Sweeper' was written by @yoong & @boudycloud

The debut EP 'Inner City' from @yoong is out now: smarturl.it/yoong

Artwork by @fluffylord
Mastering by @inkmidget

Inner City

Download

Yoong - Sweeper (ft. Boudy)

This is one of the alternative version of the track I did last year for Philip Ullman & Carl Herner video released in September 2019 on AQNB.

Original Video - Carl Herner & Philip Ullman
Music - My Sword
Poetry - Philip Ullman

https://www.aqnb.com/2019/09/19/philip-ullman-carl-herner-share-a-love-poem-to-the-cloud-as-forever-in-your-arms-explores-memory-loss-accumulation/

Fast Friend (Demo)

HTRK