Coming April 16th! Master craftsman James Welburn’s new LP, "Sleeper in the Void", marks the 50th Miasmah release. The six years after his monumental debut have bred six tracks Welburn brings to fruition with the help of past co-conspirators from the Norwegian underground scene - Tomas Järmyr (Motorpsycho, Zu, Barchan), Hilde Marie Holsen (Hubro Records), and vocal artist Juliana Venter (W/V, Phil Winter)..

300xLP

“In and out of blue” features Tomas Järmyr (drums) and Juliana Venter (voices)

Sleeper in the void

James Welburn - In and out of blue

Single from the new album by Zelienople frontman, Matt Christensen called "Constant Green" (June 18th, Miasmah / 300xColoured vinyl). 

As Matt himself describes: " I Had A Vision That I Could Move Anywhere" is  about how much fear does, or doesn't play in our limitations or unwillingness to do things. What is chemistry, genes and fate, and what is choice (if there is any)? In other words, this is a fantasy about free will."

Constant Green

Matt Christensen - I Had A Vision That I Could Move Anywhere

»Neon City« is the debut release by Erik K Skodvin & Otto A Totland's Deaf Center project, finally re-issued 18 years since its first appearance.

Jan 28th, Miasmah rec.

Deaf Center - Limn

This is a short compilation of excerpts from the piece "Devolve" taken from the upcoming album "Devolving Trust".
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Erik K Skodvin's alter persona “Svarte Greiner” re-appears with another chapter in his “zen music for disturbed souls” series, channeling both spiritual distress and meditation in a live recording from the bunkers of a bombed out brewery.
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CD + Digital. Feb 25th 2022.

Svarte Greiner - Devolve (excerpts)

Mondkopf - "Spring Stories" arrives June 2nd on Miasmah. CD + Digital (for now).

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Deprived of sanity, Paul Régimbeau aka Mondkopf found new territories of expression with "Spring Stories", a collection of post-rapture moods full of glorious chaos, ready to absorb and re-ignite all that is worn. 

As a phoenix raising from the ashes, Spring Stories captures the earth in full bloom. Darkness & Insanity looses it´s grips as the roots and fresh leaves creates a slow dance towards the sun. Similarily, sine-wave drones move around exploding electric guitar improvisations as new light beams on shadow cast corners. The album feels like a 60ies jam set in the post-world psychedelic underground. Heavy, absurd, beautiful and ready to sooth burnt out, depleted minds. Paul has citied that he´s affected as much by folk improvisors such as Master Wilburn Burchette & Robbie Basho as well as the doom drone of giants Earth & Sunn O))). Spring Stories invokes on these, while feeling like a personal blow-out, coming right from the core. Touching and grand, like spring itself.

The album also features Frederic D. Oberland on two tracks playing variously Duduk & Alto Saxophone. Lastly, The Necks drummer Tony Buck shakes & rattles all over the final - and seriously epic - piece “Continuation”, as the world aligns while the sun rises over its near-dead shape.

Mondkopf - Through The Storm, In Your Arms

Teaser clip from the half hour long piece "Myrskymielellä", adapted from a 1891 poem by the Finnish national poet, Eino Leino, taken from the upcoming self-titled album by new project "All That We See or Seem". LTD LP + Digital coming end of October 2022.

"Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream?" This quote from a poem by Edgar Allan Poe sums up the lamenting, primal work that is "All That We See or Seem"; a project conceived between Finland, England and Brazil. The self-titled album consists of two long-form pieces of droning mysticism hailing from the trio of Gruth (concept, production, electronics), Ellen Southern (vocals, field recordings, percussion) and Johanna Puuperä (violin, modular synthesizer, additional vocals).

All That We See or Seem - Myrskymielellä (teaser)

Kreng - Na De Sex

This clip contains 2 tracks from the upcoming soundtrack album from the film "Schächten". 1. "Slaughter" 2. "Hope Through Confusion". Released December 9th. 300xLP + Digital.


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Erik K Skodvin's feature-length score to Thomas Roth's thriller "Schächten" feels like the epitome of all his musical projects, conjuring a dark cinematic trip through 1960's post-WWII Vienna in a film that touches on topics such as law, justice & revenge.

Releasing a soundtrack as a stand-alone album can be challenging; and "Schächten" is by no means a typical listening experience. The record contains 24 more or less short pieces evolving through dramatic movements, underlaying menace and deep emotive scenes. One thing that stands out is the linear atmosphere throughout the story which creates a wholeness that keeps your attention to the very end. Set in wintery Austrian landscapes in dimly saturated colours, the film's dramatic events with dark political undertones feels like a perfect situation for Skodvin's atmospheric collages - perhaps sounding closer than ever to his early works as Svarte Greiner or Deaf Center. Cello, violin, piano, analogue synth and plenty of hardly recognizable instrumentation come together in a record that feels very organic in its subdued tones. The score also features percussion by Andrea Belfi as well as a Chopin piano interpretation by Kelly Wyse to the bizarrely schizophrenic piece "Judenfreund".

With the contemporary world sliding into darkness again, listening to the soundtrack feels like coming to terms with ones own anxieties - something that in the end comes through as a cleansing experience. As quoted in the film "Everyone is their own devil. And we make this world our hell".

Short synopsis : "Vienna 1960s - The young Jewish business man Victor has to witness how the prosecution of a Nazi crime against his family fails. The political and legal system is still virtually run by former Nazis with large parts of society being entangled in the past. When Victor also loses his grief ridden father and his girlfriend’s family opposes their relationship and his identity, Victor begins to loose faith in formal justice and takes matters in his own hands."

Schächten

Erik K Skodvin - Schächten (teaser)

Sample track from the upcoming album "Grimoire" by our favorite Belgian occultist, Kreng.

Kreng - Wrak

Short excerpt from the upcoming album "Neutral Star" by The Pitch & Julia Reidy. LTD LP + Digital, September 22nd on Miasmah.

"The Pitch is a quartet made up of Boris Baltschun, Koen Nutters, Michael Thieke and Morten Joh. Founded in Berlin in 2009, they play a hypnotic form of structured improvisation full of acoustic exploration and electronic intervention. On Neutral Star, The Pitch are joined by Australian guitarist/composer extraordinaire Julia Reidy for a record of star gazing electro-acoustic jazz."

The Pitch & Julia Reidy - Endless ≠ Limitless (Excerpt)

Andrea Belfi - "Natura Morta" out november 7th on Miasmah.

Natura Morta, "dead nature" or "still life". This album can be understood as a powerful study of the minute details of the art of electro-acoustic composition, as much as the Renaissance "nature morte" were a masterful display of the artist’s skill in portraying the glow of a ripe fruit, or capturing the light beaming on a vacant chair.

Six tracks, to be listened to as two long explorations in the art of variation and repetition. Layers of drums and percussions intertwine with synth waves making the portrait come to life, detail after detail, until a complex figure emerges from the white canvas. The constant, unsteady sounds, wavering noise, swirling cymbals, and distant feedback gently pull the listener into the picture, letting them enjoy every detail of this beautifully staged compositions.

Recorded at EMS studio, Stockholm, ZKM in Karlsruhe and at the legendary Funkhaus in Berlin, this album mixes influences from both Italian minimalism and the electro-acoustic contemporary scene. Somewhere in between the electronics of Keith Fullerton Whitman, the percussive repetitions of Jon Mueller, and the atmospheric sensibility of Pan-American.

Andrea Belfi - Roteano

From the upcoming Fiasko! by Kaboom Karavan

June 2024

Kaboom Karavan - How to put valium in a madmans drink

Debut album "Hold" by James Welburn, featuring Tony Buck (The Necks) on drums. Coming spring 2015

James Welburn - Naught

The Summoner comes 4 years since the last Kreng album Grimoire and 3 years since the massive retrospective box set Works for Abattoir Férme 2007-2011. A lot has happened in between, and this new recording can be seen as quite the departure from the aformentioned. 

His most personal album to date, The Summoner is based around the 5 stages of mourning and is made after a year of losing several close friends. Hard enough material to work on, he decided to add a 6th stage, entitled The Summoning to be able to arrive at the finalé, Acceptance. 

Conjuring up the spirit of György Ligeti, the first half of the album is made entirely of 12 string players being directed to play around, make noisey clusters and crescendoes, moving you between Denial, Anger, Bargaining and Depression. In fact, The Summoner is the first Kreng album NOT made by hordes of samples. Music to really dig deep in to. 

Following into the second part of the album, twists and turns are taken and it's hard to know where exactly you are. The Summoning's haunting organs and smoke-filled chambers lead you in to an earth- shaking wall of guitars, drums and bass courtesy of Belgian doom band Amenra. Leaving you in a state of shock, the album closes in an incredibly heartfelt and quiet way with the fittingly named Acceptance.

Kreng - Depression

B/B/S/ - Cosmow

*coming late september on LTD CD/LP through Miasmah rec.

You might be familiar with Matt Christensen as singer and guitarist of atmospheric masterminds Zelienople. His most recent solo endeavour however embodies a song writer deeply involved with his own vision of sound, resulting in an accomplishment strong enough to stand on its own. Matt delivers a longing and emotional outreach through Honeymoons’ six delicate songs and immersing into them provides a feeling of understanding and affiliation that turns solitude into a state of awareness and insight. 

The sparse instrumentation of broad guitar/effects and incisive drum machine adds immediacy to this recording and the airy arrangements keep the perfect balance between song structure, free-form playfulness and silence. Accompanied by Matt’s echoing voice and personal lyrics, his recipe is being formed and dilated into an experience that requires devotion to be fully perceived and appreciated. "Im See-Through" may be the protagonist's self-perception but by guiding his compositions through foggy, pliant tone constellations he leaves us in doubt that Matt's output could ever be considered transparent.

His new album and first for Miasmah is a perfect reminder of how interfering contradictions can make the most interesting installations. The confrontation of organic guitar movements, stirring poetry and patterns of beat arrangements create fascinating tension: Honeymoons’ full scale won't unfold instantly but you will be captivated right away. We’re allowed a deeply moving glance into a contemplative musician's mind by witnessing an outstanding statement for imparting the feeling of companionship.

Honeymoons

Matt Christensen - Honeymoons

"Weir" from Pale Ravine, one of the tracks that will for first time appear on vinyl through the 2016, 2xLP edition of the now classic debut album by Deaf Center, originally released on Type records in 2005. Coming this october on Miasmah

‘Pale Ravine’ is the debut full-length realization of Erik K Skodvin and Otto A Totland under the Deaf Center moniker. More recently known for solo recordings under their own names on the Sonic Pieces label. The album, back then made in their mid 20ies, is an other-wordly sound collagé to Norwegian nature, theatricality and old silent films. The two musicians have looked deep into their own family histories to piece together a dusty and nostalgic epic, blending elements of classical and electronic music with an array of field recordings and a lot of fog.

Pale Ravine

Deaf Center - Weir

Sound excerpts from the track "The Marble" appearing on the forthcoming Svarte Greiner LP "Moss Garden", following in the footsteps of 2013´s "Black Tie" with 2 new sidelong pieces of zen music for disturbed souls. 

Miasmah records nov. 25th

Svarte Greiner - The Marble (excerpts)

Track taken from the upcoming "Skelektikon" album by Marcus Fjellström. Miasmah february 3rd.

Skelektikon

Marcus Fjellström - Skeleton Dance 2

Here´s 2 teaser tracks from the upcoming Gultskra Artikler LP (double EP) Abtu Anet. Release mid-February 2012 on vinyl + download.

"Gultskra Artikler is the throat-tangling moniker of one Alexey Devyanin and while we might not have heard a great deal from him recently, ‘Abtu/Anet’ has been excavated from the dusty Miasmah archives for a long overdue reissue. Not that it ever had a proper release; the astute followers among you might have managed to track down the very rare ‘Abtu’, which appeared back in 2007 on limited 3” cdr, but its companion EP ‘Anet’ never reached the shelves and seemed destined to permanent unavailability.
 
Devyanin’s complex, surreal world was explored to wide acclaim on the ’07 album ‘Kasha Iz Topora’, and thematically ‘Abtu/Anet’ feels like a continuation of that record. Devyanin’s deeply original fusion of  Radiophonic-era electronics, musique concrete, early European folk music and 1920s film scores is highlighted far further here, and somehow the record sounds more relevant now than it did five years ago. In an era where nostalgia is musical currency, Devyanin’s Vaseline-smudged visions are refreshingly free of kitsch and Youtube-era restlessness. He retains a deeply Eastern European, near-theatrical focus in his work that is as intricate as it is unnerving, and he manages to keep the nostalgia to a specific (and unfamiliar) area of the world. For most of us, the album feels like a lonely journey in the light of a half-moon, with crumbling, curled branches glancing off our ragged clothes. Frightening and unrepentant yet deeply compelling – ‘Abtu/Anet’ should remind you that stories can be told without a single word of dialogue.

Gultskra Artikler - Daesh Uglya

"Apart" is a mini-album containing a set of cello improvisations, concieved during days of solemn recording in the basement of an unused industrial space outside of Bern, Switzerland in 2015.

Released 6th of october 2017 on LTD edition dark green or black LP

Apart

Svarte Greiner - Passage

Svarte Greiner - Knive (2017 re-issue) coming oct. 6th. on Miasmah

11 years since it´s inception, the surreal and darkly romantic Knive still sounds like a mystery and something that´s hard to pin down. Svarte Greiner´s debut album feels like a trip into the forest at midnight, with all the sounds and impressions that comes with it. Spiritual, horrific and fragile in essence, it´s melancholic core is hard to shake off, and feels as present today as it did back then.

While starting off the sub genre of “Accoustic doom” back in 2006, it´s difficult to say what else to name it now, with it´s inspiration and elements from countless genres. The record flows through the dissonant cello´s and washed out vocals of “Ocean out of Wood” past the introverted church organs of “The Black Dress”, distorted guitars and wooden beats of “The Dining Table” to the operatic finalé of “Final Sleep”. Everything scattered with field recordings from crows, branches, walking, sleeping, rain, wind and who knows what. Knive stands on many feet, wherever they may be.

Erik K Skodvin´s path as Svarte Greiner have since been dwelling more and more into this world, picking each element apart to focus on them, stretching them out or cutting them down, looping, experimenting and flooding with reverb - trying to make time stop and night fall. But for now a re-visit to where it all started seems appropriate.

Knive

Svarte Greiner - Ocean out of Wood

Twin is a 40 minute interpretation of Deaf Center´s Owl Splinters by Erik K Skodvin under his Svarte Greiner alias. The record takes the long-form, ghostly sections of it's parent album and expands them into crushing drone epics. The two parts are cut into four sections, pieced together by used and unused material from the recording session. It first appeared in form of an accompaniment CD that came with the initial 100 LPs of Owl Splinters in 2011.

Available as standalone digital or in 2LP form together with Deaf Center - Owl Splinters (MIA042). 22nd March 2019. 

Cover photography by Joshua Zucker-Pluda

Svarte Greiner - Twin (excerpts)

Deaf Center's second album Owl Splinters from 2011 gets a lavish re-packaging as a gatefold 2LP. It includes the Svarte Greiner re-interpretation album Twin as well as new cover-art with photos by cinematographer Joshua Zucker-Pluda.

Owl Splinters was originally released 6 years after DC's debut Pale Ravine. In contrast to their previous work, it was recorded in a studio setting (Nils Frahm's Durton studio, to be exact), and the lo-fidelity, haphazard techniques of their early recordings where all but gone. With the benefit of high-end engineering and analogue equipment, Erik K Skodvin and Otto A Totland's murky compositions were transformed from sketches into glorious widescreen spectacles. 8 years later the album sounds as moving, beautiful and obscure as it did back then.

2019 edition coming 22nd March(MIA042)

Owl Splinters

Deaf Center - Hunted Twice

This September it´s two years since our good friend and fellow artist, Marcus Fjellström, passed away only 37 years old (1979-2017). We want to keep his memory alive by remembering and re-visiting his bizarre and beautiful music.

His two first albums "Exercises in Estrangement" & "Gebrauchsmusik" (German for Utility Music) released 2003/2004 on the now defunct Lampse label, finally get´s a LP and digital release. Both in LTD editions of 300x with adapted artwork. On top of that, his 2010 shadow filled opus "Schattenspieler" also get´s a 2019 edition, wrapped in the unprocessed drawing by Anton Grandert and comes on Purple vinyl. All 3 editions includes booklets of his drawings, interpreting the music.

Pre-order soon through Anost www.anost.net/en/Labels/Miasmah-Recordings/
Fully available in September

miasmah.com/recordings/

Marcus Fjellström - Campane Morti E Acqua Crescente

**taken from the upcoming Zelienople album "Hold You Up", coming March 13th on Miasmah.

"For their first album in 5 years, Zelienople turns on the current time with a record of low-key decaying songs wrapped in hypnotic, driving rhythms.

The Chicago based trio is back with a stunner of an underground pop album. Their most reverb heavy bombast is gone in favour of pure earth bound intimate tunes that feel like they summon the spirit of the late Mark Hollis. Shrouded tribal percussion and rippling vocals are at the forefront, while looped atmospheres echo in the distance.

Since the release of their last album, vocalist Matt Christensen has been known for pouring his soul out in countless bandcamp releases of singer/songwriter, experimental and ambient offerings. It's hard to keep up with him, but one can't but to admire the dedication and extremely high quality of it all. Mike Weis on the other hand is less prolific, but has become a focused student of Korean Shaman and Buddhist music, often performing in zen based percussive rituals when he's not involved in side projects of improvisational music. Brian Harding is perhaps the most anonymous of the three, yet he is the steady, grounding element on bass that keeps them as one. Together, they create a beautifully realised own voice that feels especially close on their new album. Hold You Up is like a slow walk through a withering world, though one with a sense of refuge. This is music with heart - navigating darkness through light."

Hold You Up

Zelienople - You Have It

Folk music from another dimension by singular artist Kaboom Karavan and his new album "The Log and the Leeway", following a 6 year journey of personal exploration and drastic change. 

"The Log and the Leeway" is released 17th of July 2020 and features amongst others a bizarre cover painting by John Lurie (of The Lounge Lizards). It also comes with a 16 page booklet of musical illustrations by Walter Doogh & Erik K Skodvin that more or less connects and confuses the stories behind the record.

Red and Black LP editions.

The Log and the Leeway

Kaboom Karavan - Silk Skin Armor

4minute excerpt including material from both longform tracks from forthcoming Svarte Greiner LP "Black Tie". Coming on LTD edition LP & CD on Miasmah april 26th.

Svarte Greiner - Black Tie (excerpt)

"Erik K Skodvin's first solo film score evokes otherwordly dreamscapes that capture the atmosphere of the film Anbessa (2019), shot in Ethiopia by director Mo Scarpelli." 

Listen to the title track from the LP here. Pre-order in link.

As a "creative" documentary the film follows Asalif, a 10 year old imaginative boy caught between the ancient and the new, navigating modernization on his own terms. Asalif tries to make sense of things while living in a shed on the outskirts of Addis Ababa with his mom. A place where capitalism and “progress” is closing in on all fronts, and threatening their lifestyle. By becoming a lion (anbessa) he can fight back against the forces outside of his control.

Watch the film on MUBI from August 26th (for one month). Also available for rent or purchase through Video on demand.

Anbessa

Erik K Skodvin - Anbessa

'Chão Vermelho' (Red Floor) is a collection of ritualistic, lamenting pieces influenced by the increasingly dry ground of the surrounding area of central Portugal from where cellist and singer Joana Guerra resides.

LP (300xBrick red vinyl) + digital coming November 13th on Miasmah.

https://joanaguerra.com/
http://miasmah.com/recordings/

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