Sunday 29 January 2017

Desiderii Marginis – Songs Over Ruins (1997)


Country: Sweden

Tracklist
1. Songs Over Ruins I 04:46
2. Scintillate II 06:28
3. Ephemeral 07:05
4. Chrism 03:59
5. Entombment 04:53
6. Ashes 04:24
7. Solemn Descent 05:00
8. The Core Of Hell II 05:08
9. Embossed In Bones, Hidden... 04:15
10. Songs Over Ruins II 05:02
11. Chreston 05:38

Desiderii Marginis ("Edge Of Desire" in Latin) was formed by Johan Levin in 1993 in Mjölby, Sweden as a solo project.
The initial intention was to release just a few demo tapes with material 
that failed to fit into the repertoire of his main band at the time, The Wounded Meadow.
The first three tapes "Consecrare", "Via Peregrinus" and "Triptych" were released in limited editions. 
Some of these songs later appeared in new versions on his critically acclaimed album "Songs Over Ruins", 
released on Cold Meat Industry label, while these three tapes were released 
as a cd compilation entitled "Years Lend A Golden Charm" later in 2009.
Apart Desiderii Marginis Johan is also involved in the team Galtagaldr, playing authentic medieval music, 
and using instruments like the Greek bouzouki, dulcimer, flute, oboe and other of that era.
Among his other interests, history, medieval art and architecture, calligraphy, philosophy and archeology,  
Johan works in the archaeological department of the museum province of Östergötland.

Saturday 21 January 2017

Evan Albam – Begotten (1990)

 

Composer: Evan Albam 

Tracklist
1. Untitled 44:49
2. Untitled 30:26

Begotten is a 1990 American experimental film written, produced, edited and directed by E. Elias Merhige.
The film narrates the story of Genesis while re-imagining it.
Begotten is considered by Merhige himself as the start of an unofficial trilogy. 
The second film in the trilogy is the 14-minute short Din Of Celestial Birds, which deals with evolution 
and premiered in 2006 on Turner Classic Movies, and was shot in similar visual fashion as Begotten.
Development for the film began in 1984.
Merhige, who was twenty at the time he wrote the script, was inspired by the theories and ideas of Antonin Artaud 
and Friedrich Nietzsche, which in his opinion had not been developed on film to the fullest extent.
The film incorporates many different religious themes and events from Christian and Slavic mythology including Creation, Mother Earth, and various other religious themes on which the events that take place in the film are loosely based upon.
Filming took place over a period of three and a half years in several different locations, with Merhige filling multiple roles in the film's production including working on the film's cinematography, and special effects. 
The film was shot using a 16mm Arriflex camera on black and white reversal film. 
While filming, Merhige would experiment with the film reel to give it an old, withered look. 
This included running the unshot negative through sandpaper in order to scratch it up before shooting. 
Unsatisfied with the overall effect, Merhige decided to use an optical printer but that was over the film's budget. 
He then constructed one himself using old, spare parts that he acquired from camera stores and special effects houses.
The eerie music of the film was composed by Evan Albam.

Monday 9 January 2017

Swordmaster – Wraths Of Time (MCD 1995)


Country: Sweden

Tracklist
1. Wraths Of Time 05:36
2. Upon Blood And Ashes... 05:15
3. Conspiracy - Preview 02:49
4. Outro 00:27

In the summer of 1993 Swordmaster was formed during a metal party in Gothenburg, Sweden.
In the beginning the band played black metal but this only lasted for two demos and an EP, "Wrath Of Time".
After the usual line-up problems they signed a deal with Florida based label Full Moon Productions 
and recorded their mini album "Wraths Of Time" in the spring of 1995.
In 1996 they signed a new deal with the French label Osmose Productions.
In 1997 their first full-length was released, "Postmortem Tales" and it took a whole different approach 
than their previous material leaning more to thrash/death metal territories with some industrial/black metal elements.
In 1999 they released their second full-length album entitled "Moribund Transgoria".
In January 2000 the band played a show at Kafé 44 in Stockholm together with Merciless 
where they gained attention from the label LED Recordings, a label backed up by Universal.
The band signed a new deal and changed their musical direction to industrial/rock/ metal 
and also changed their name to Deathstars.