Isis - Celestial 2xlp

Hi,
the repress of the Isis - Celestial 2xlp was announced for last weekend as some of you might know. This release has been delayed until late, May early June. First pressing will be 1500 copies, two limited colors and of course black vinyl. More info about this will be announced as soon as possible.

the Conspiracy

Growing - Live 2xlp

Dear Customers,



The past week we received some complaints about the sound quality of the Growing dbl lp, especially about side D; there seems to be a fair bit of ‘crackle’ in the record, which is really disturbing.
We had one complaint like this a few weeks ago, but we didn’t worry too much about it, because there’s always a chance one copy got damaged, and we listened to the record again, and didn’t hear anything wrong.
But the last few days we’re getting reactions regularly, and we started to listen to several copies we have here, and we hear the same thing on some of them.

We have been talking to the pressingplant since a few days, and they have found an error in the mastercopy which apparantly caused a number of copies to have a bad sounding D side.
Problem is we don’t know how many ‘bad’ copies are going around, so that is why we wanted to post this here. If you received a ‘bad’ copy, please email us so we can send you a new C&D record when it becomes available.

We stopped selling it on our webstore now, cause we first need new copies, in order to get anyone who has a ‘bad’ copy a good one, and to be sure the copies we’re selling now are ok.
We’re really sorry about all this, but it’s clear that the pressingplant made a mistake, and we didn’t notice until some people received bad copies and told us about it.

We should know in the coming days when the new C&D record will be pressed. As soon as we get them, we’ll ship the vinyl to everyone who received a bad copy.

We will definitaly keep you posted on this. Again, sorry for the inconvenience. We always try to deliver the best quality in art/sleeves and music as possible, and it’s really frustrating someone else fucks up then…

We’ll be in touch.


The Conspiracy

Conspiracy Distro @ Roadburn Festival 20-21-22/4 - 013 Tilburg

We'll be selling records on the 3 days of the Roadburn festival in Tilburg! If you'd like me to bring something drop me an email at Nathan@conspiracyrecords.com!

PELICAN Euro Tour 2007

THU 05/4 CZ Prague @ Palace Akropolis
FRI 06/4 DE Bielefeld @ AJZ
SAT 07/4 BE Cortil-Wodon @ Rhaaa Lovely festival
SUN 08/4 NL Haarlem @ Patronaat**
MON 09/4 BE Antwerp @ Trix**
TUE 10/4 FR Paris @ La Maroquinerie**
THU 12/4 CH Lausanne @ le Romandie**
Fri 13/4 LU Esch Alzette @ Kulturfabrik**
Sat 14/4 UK Southampton @ Joiners**
Sun 15/4 UK Birmingham @ Barfly**
Mon 16/4 SCO Glasgow @ ABC2**
Tue 17/4 UK Manchester @ Satan's Hollow**
Wed 18/4 UK Leeds @ The Cockpit**
Thu 19/4 UK London @ Islington Academy**
Fri 20/4 UK Brighton @ Audio**
Sat 21/4 NL Tilburg @ Roadburn festival
Sun 22/4 DE Dresden @ Groovestation
**= plus very special guests THESE ARMS ARE SNAKES (Usa // jade tree)

GROWING // THRONES Euro Tour 2007

WED 04/4 Nl Haarlem @ Patronaat
THU 05/4 Be Brussels @Recyclart
FRI 06/4 De Bremen @ Friessenstrasse
SAT 07/4 Dk Aarhus @ Voxhall
SUN 08/4 Se Gothenburg @ Nefertiti Jazz Club
MON 09/4 No Oslo @ Blä
TUE 10/4 Se Malmo @Inkonst
WED 11/4 Dk Copenhagen @ Loppen
THU 12/4 De Berlin @ Festsaal Kreuzberg
FRI 13/4 De Leipzig @ Ut Connewitz
SAT 14/4 At Vienna @ Fluc
SUN 15/4 It Milan @ Circolo Magnolia
TUE 17/4 Ch Geneva @ Le Kab
WED 18/4 Fr Marseille @ L'Embobineuse
THU 19/4 Fr Paris @ Instants Chavires
FRI 20/4 De Saarlouis @ Juz
SAT 21/4 Nl Tilburg @ Roadburn festival

Interview w. Vincent de Roguin (AEthenor ; Shora ; Odio Terz)

"Now deep in ocean sunk the lamp of light, And drew behind the cloudy veil of night: The conquering Trojans mourn his beams decay’d; The Greeks rejoicing bless the friendly shade." -Homer, Illiad

Æthenor is Vincent de Roguin (Shora), Daniel O’Sullivan (Guapo), and Stephen O’Malley of Sunn0))).

Ok first of all let's talk about the name. Æthenor is quite an extraordinary name. What is it about? I know it's in Lambsprinck's "De Lapide Philosophico" from 1625. Also, "ether" is a Greek-derived word for the heavenly realm – space or firmament. And you can find it in holistic medicine (e.g. the etheric body).

Vincent de Roguin: Well, this is it really, an amalgam of two words: "Athanor", the furnace that supplied heat for the alchemical process and "Æther", which means "upper air" in Greek and generally designated this essence filling the space where the gods lived. Daniel (O’Sullivan) came up with the name and we all liked the way it sounded and the meaning behind it…

The title of your first album "Deep in Ocean Sunk the Lamp of Light" is from Homer's Illiad. How did you stumble upon that line and what's the connection to Aethenor's music?

Vincent de Roguin: The quote is taken from book VIII of The Iliad and we thought it fitted the general idea and atmosphere of the record quite accurately. There is something about the immensity of the ocean coupled with the mysteries of the night that obviously works well and even though it might come up as a tremendously romantic concept, it still sounded valid to us. I was re-reading "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" by Lovercraft the other day and while it’s a whole different world, you can definitely find an underlying thematic connection because of this specific environmental context. But in the end, that’s just a title and I don’t want to sound too literal about it.

As a reader of your nice little Lustprinzip blog I noticed those pictures of a well preserved copy of Athanasius Kircher's "Musurgia Universalis" from 1650. Is this just a personal interest of you in... let's say "philosophy", "alchemy" and "esoterica" or do you found out about those books through scholastics? I mean, I stumbled upon a lot of those books in my studies of German philology.

Vincent de Roguin: Interesting, did you get access to the originals or reprints? I had to dig deep inside local libraries to find original copies but it has been really rewarding… I love books anyway, especially old ones. I’m not too sure how to answer your question because it’s a vast issue and "philosophy, alchemy and esoterica" as you put it, are part of a far greater picture that implies a real education on the subject and a genuine interest to get into it beyond the attractive surface. I think this generalization is a symptomatic mistake and I especially don’t want to fall into this whole spiritual hotchpotch trap. Everything might be potential source of interest and inspiration. I study visual arts and have made some use of these themes in my work but I do not specifically study alchemy or occultism and will never claim to have read Robert Fludd or Kircher’s entire opus for example, most of these texts remain really cryptic to me.

I agree with you on this one. But again I'm convinced you have to find easy phrases for people without that "genuine interest" you've mentioned. So my intention was not to push this into the direction of spiritual muddle, but more into working out if this is just personal interest or if you came across those books through your course of education, e.g. college or whatever.
Speaking of "Musurgia Universalis", according to Kircher the harmonies of music reflect the proportions of the universe. What do you think?

Vincent de Roguin: Well, I surely enjoy this idea on a poetical level! But again, celestial harmony is a very ancient theory, Pythagoras developed it some two millenniums before Kircher. Back then, the universe was still a great unknown with only few real certitudes. Ancient Greeks believed the Earth was the centre of everything with eight spheres spinning around it… Then came the scientific revolution and everything appeared a bit more complex than we thought it really was. But I suppose we’ll need a few pages to get through this… It’s often hard to extract myself from modern rationalism and get back to the essence of some of these concepts, when speculations gave birth to immensely poetical ideas. But when I do, it really affects my perspective and celestial harmony is indeed one of those beautiful ideas I feel I can connect with…

To me "Deep in Ocean Sunk the Lamp of Light" is a sensitive and vulnerable record. It reveals its atmospheric effects not upon the first listen, because its dense, deep and subtle character won't let you. Is this something you were aware of when recording, is this something you tried to achieve?

Vincent de Roguin: I’m not sure to have been really aware of this when recording the basic improvisations but it all came out naturally. Again we recorded at night up until dawn and I believe that the way we felt, physically and mentally, this bizarre state of lucidity beyond tiredness greatly affected the music. But sleep deprivation does not necessarily imply great results; we played some really terrible bits too, ha.

How is the recording process of the new stuff different from "Deep in Ocean Sunk the Lamp of Light"? And how's the outcome different from "Deep..."?

Vincent de Roguin: Basically the first album was based on various sound-searching activities that Stephen O’Malley and I happen to go through while being on tour back in 2003. We recorded at night in hotel rooms, backstage areas and various other places. A couple of months later we invited Daniel O’Sullivan to join the project, which resulted in a nightlong improvised session in a massive club here in Geneva. The new recordings were recorded live in a huge meat-locker also in Geneva, in one session that spanned through the entire night. The process was a bit different because this was all recorded live but the sub-zero temperatures and the complete abandon of time-related notions again influenced the music we played in a way that definitely relates to our first album.

Any other musicians participate on the next record?

Vincent de Roguin: Besides Daniel and I, Stephen O’Malley is playing guitar, Kristoffer Rygg (from Ulver) and Alexander Tucker both contributed vocals. Alexandre Babel and Nicolas Field are two amazing drummers from Geneva that work together as a duo as well playing in countless other projects. And finally we have a very special guest with us but that’s a bit early to talk about it. Such an amazing line-up, I’m really excited about those new records.

Please tell us about the next release, when it's gonna happen etc. Any live shows of Aethenor on the horizon?

Vincent de Roguin: We just finished mixing those two new full-lengths that we hope to release soon. Both records share the same elements and instrumentation that we’ve worked with on the first album but the sonic palette has expanded drastically. We’re also planning to do some touring, which is something I’m really looking forward to as this the place where this band makes the more sense I think.

As most of our readers know, you also play in Shora, so let's talk a bit about your involvement in the band. First of all, why does it always take ages to release new music? A new record is recorded, so when it's going to be released?

Vincent de Roguin: We have our own way of doing things I suppose and it usually takes a lot of time. We’re all busy working outside of the band and getting things together to record new material is always quite of an adventure. And we’re just one of those bands where the laziness factor manage to take more place than it actually should. But that’s the way it always worked so we’re not too worried about it. We actually just finished mixing 20 minutes of new music for a soundtrack, which is quite a departure from “Maval” (again) and there’s still a lot of work to be done of this new album, more recording, more processing. We want to get it right and that might take a while.

Stylistically you guys made a huge and drastic step from the split with Merzbow to "Malval" and even after seeing you guys live I've got the impression the new stuff is even put further, on a new level. How would you picture that expansion of sound?

Vincent de Roguin: I don’t know, we play better now than before but otherwise, its hard to tell where we stand today. The new songs are quite different from "Malval", more adventurous, less sound orientated and more composed. But the mechanics of this band goes just beyond my comprehension. I have no idea why we make the choices that we make and how we come up with most of this music in the first place.

There's another project in the pipeline, announced some time ago: Odio Terz. What is it about. Please give our readers some basic infos about the music, people involved etc.!

Vincent de Roguin: Odio Terz is a trio we formed in 2002 with Nikklas Todeschini (from Shora) and Mark Blakebrough. It started as a really informal electro-acoustic studio project but we ended up playing some shows around Geneva and getting into more rocking territories. We’ve recorded a couple of things that we expect to release one of these days. The best bits are not unlike late-Boredoms, Cluster or Faust except a bit more radical and modern sounding.

Ok, that's it. Thanks for your time Vincent. Anything else you'd like to add or say?

Vincent de Roguin: Thanks for the interview and if you have the chance to listen to Grails’ new album "Burning Off Impurities" you should, because it’s really good.

Interview conducted by Magnus Jaschke in March 2007.
Taken from www.creative-eclipse.com

Check also Vincent de Roguin's blog here : http://lustprinzip.blogspot.com/

Growing - Live 2xlp

The Growing - Live 2xlp arrived to day. We are currently working our asses off to get all preorders shipped out as soon as possible. We'd like to thank everyone who ordered the Jesu and the Growing records for their support and patience.

the Conspiracy

JESU Interview

"The Eye" has a sit down for a one-on-one conversation with Justin K. Broadrick. Justin talks about his roots in Napalm Death through Head of David, Godflesh, Final, and now Jesu; post-punk post-metal and the love of harmonies; and how nobody should ever expect a Godflesh reunion...ever!

Watch Part 1 ; Part 2 ; Part 3 .

(taken from brainwashed.com)

Jesu - Conqueror 2xlp Update

The new Jesu is now online. The clear edition sold out in a matter of seconds, the gold edition is going fast as well. The record came out great, they're all 180 gr high quality vinyl inside a heavy gatefold sleeve.

Our servers went down for a short moment due to the massive amount of traffic. We are aware of the problems that occured during ordering and know that a lot of people have placed multiple orders, we'll delete all extra orders automatically. We had 70 copies of the clear vinyl available but because of the heavy traffic more of those were sold, this will mean that some of the later orders will not receive clear vinyl, we'll contact you about this as soon as possible, please try to avoid unnessecary emails as we are flooded by both mails and orders.
Our excuses for the inconvenience and please give us a few days to get back to all of you,
Thanks to all of you who've ordered!
the Conspiracy

KNUT announces new guitarist

Swiss outfit Knut has solidified its line-up in the wake of the departure of guitarist Jeremy Tavernier several months ago. First the group added a guitarist named Tim. Now, most recently, a friend of Tim's by the name of Christian has also joined the band. Here's a comment from the band:

"We found a hard-working dude willing to take the chance. His name is Christian, he's an old friend of Tim's and he seems to be working out fine. He's got his own gear, he's got a sound and can play fast. Plus he's alarmingly mellow and will be a father for a second time this summer. So it looks like we're a functioning band again, a goddamn five-piece ready to shred - live and hopefully on record before Bush gets kicked out of office..."

Jesu - Conqueror & Growing - Live

Here's an update on the Jesu - Conqueror 2xlp and the Growing - Live 2xlp. The Jesu 2xlp will go online on Thursday, March 15 at 12.00 pm CET. From that moment on you'll be able to preorder the Growing 2xLP as well. Any order containing the Growing 2xlp will be shipped out from Wednesday March 21 on. We have pressed 1500 copies of the Jesu: 100 on clear (of wich 70 will be availble through our mailorder), 400 on gold (250 availble through mailorder) and 1000 on black. The clear one will be limited to 1 per customer, the gold one to 3.
The Growing album will be limited to 1000 copies, 200 on blue and 800 on black. 150 copies of the blue version will be availble through our mailorder and will be limited to 1 per customer.

The conspiracy

RED SPAROWES European Tour 2007

19/4 Ru Moscow @ Ikra Club
20/4 De Krefeld @ Kulturfabrik
21/4 Nl Tilburg @ Roadburn festival
22/4 Be Hasselt @ Muziekodroom
23/4 Fr Le Havre @ Cabaret Electric
24/4 Fr Lyon @ Grrrnd Zero
25/4 Fr Perigeux @ Le Reservoir
27/4 Es Madrid @ Moby Dick
28/4 Es Barcelona @ Be Cool
30/4 Fr Paris @ Nouveau Casino
01/5 Ch Geneva @ L'Usine
02/5 Fr Poitiers @ le Confort Moderne
03/5 Ch Bern @ Dachstock
04/5 Ch La Chaux de Fonds @ Bikini Test
05/5 It Mezzago @ Bloom
06/5 It Rome @ Circolo Degli Artisti
08/5 Sl Ljubljana @ Channel 0
09/5 Hr Zagreb @ Galerija Sc
10/5 At Linz @ Kapu
11/5 Cz Prague @ Palace Akropolis
12/5 Pl Wroclaw @ Firlej
13/5 Pl Warsaw @ venue tba
14/5 Pl Poznan @ Eskulap
15/5 De Berlin @ Lido
16/5 De Munich @ Feierwerk
17/5 At Vienna @ Szene
18/5 De Leipzig @ Ut Connewitz
20/5 De Hamburg @ Molotow
21/5 Se Malmo @ Inkonst
22/5 Se Stockholm @ Debaser
23/5 No Oslo @ John Dee
24/5 Se Gothenburg @ Pusterviksbaren
25/5 Dk Aarhus @ Voxhall
27/5 Nl Amsterdam @ Paradiso
28/5 De Koln @ Gebaude 9
29/5 De Bielefeld @ Forum
30/5 Be Brugge @ Cactus Club
31/5 Gr Athens @ An Club

www.redsparowes.com

www.myspace.com/redsparowes

www.neurotrecordings.com

CREATURE WITH THE ATOM BRAIN

Things have been a little bit quiet in the CREATURE WITH THE ATOM BRAIN camp (due to MILLIONAIRE & other obilgations) but that is all about to change now ....

The Creature has now become a 4-piece as Michiel (formerly of DEAD STOP Fame) has joined them on guitar ! Two brand new songs have been posted on their Myspace page, some shows are scheduled for April '07 and later ...

In case you speak Dutch (No subtitles !) you might want to check the following documentary on CWTAB.

Conspiracy spring 2007 releases

Here's an update of how things unfold at Conspiracy for the coming few months.

FEB 27: JESU Conqueror 2LP > new releasedate: March 15. We do not take any pre-orders. The release of this record is delayed to March 15. Listen to 'Conqueror' here : www.jesuconqueror.com

MARCH 21: GROWING Live 2LP
> See our yesterday's post for more information.

MARCH 21 : THRONES tour 7" ltd
> Intented for the Thrones / Growing European tour, but we have yet to receive the masters, so if this one will gets done on time is yet to be seen... keep fingers crossed.

APRIL 23: ISIS Celestial 2LP
> Escape Artist Records did the Celestial album on vinyl back in 2001 when the album first came out. The record was difficult to keep in print, and to coincide with Isis upcoming European tour May / June this year we are gonna make this album available on vinyl in Europe for the first time.

MAY 21: FEAR FALLS BURNING / NADJA CD > On their first full-length collaboration CD Fear Falls Burning and Nadja display their wilful approach to drones with 4 epic songs, full of sustain, pulses and dynamics. Grand in theme, sound and atmosphere. This album draws inspiration from their critically-acclaimed lp for Conspiracy Records while pushing the boundaries on their sound as an entity. This album entirely consists of new material. Limited to 1000 copies, in digipak.

MAY 21: PLEASURE FOREVER 'Bodies need rest' LP/CD > Bodies Need Rest is a posthumous collection of unreleased and rare Pleasure Forever recordings. This release was originally intended to be an EP of cover songs that in one way or another fit the gestalt of Pleasure Forever. At long last, this album consists of four cover songs from that unfinished EP, plus four rare tracks forming a comprehensive timeline from the band's beginning. This album includes 5 previously unreleased Pleasure Forever tracks as well as two B-sides previously released on Sub Pop and one track from the out-of-print Buddyhead Gimme Skelter compilation. PLEASURE FOREVER is not currently active, but the long-awaited release featuring unreleased songs (some of which have been posted here in the past), B-sides and compilaiton tracks is set for official release worldwide on May 22, 2007 via Conspiracy Records. Each band member lives in a different city on the west coast and is involved in other musical projects at this time. Andrew Rothbard released his first solo album Abandoned Meander in late 2006 on Smooch Records. David Clifford currently plays drums in RED SPAROWES and bass guitar in THE SAGITTARIANS. Josh Hughes has a new band called RABBITS featuring ex-Lion Fever drummer Kevin Garrison. Pleasure Forever was once known as SLAVES and all thee members played previously in The VSS.

ISIS In The Absence of Truth 2LP - limited vinyl edition temporarely available again

We received a return from one of our distributors including 6 Isis In the absene of truth 2LP's white with red streaks vinyl. Only 300 were made, and they are available in our webstore now. First come first served.

GROWING Live 2xLP

GROWING 'Live' 2xLP

edition of 1000

200 blue vinyl
800 black vinyl

Expect this record to go on sale in our webstore starting March 14.

Oficial releasedate is March 26.


72 Min Live 2xLP of complete drone bliss, contains two complete live shows.
These recordings were released on cd through Archive Recordings and are long sold out.





“While Growing continually return to that near-ambient tranquility, the record is a series of meandering excursions into MASSIVE slow motion, melted-riff soundscapes, notes and chords unfurl impossibly slowly, as if someone had doubled the gravity and the sound waves were actually visible, drizzling lazily to the floor like molasses or honey, rich golden globs of thick distorted throb. Like Earth and Skullflower meshed into one buzzing blurry soundfield, all muted melody and crunchy riffage, a pulsing swirl of feedback and guitarral grrrr! The sound is basically phenomenal…” (Aquarius)
Growing is a band from Olympia, Washington that was formed by Kevin Doria, Joe Denardo, and Zack Carlson (who left the band following the release of their first album) in 2001. They play instrumental drone rock with elements of noise and ambient music. Their live shows are known for being incredibly loud, playing straight through their set without break or pause. They have released albums on Kranky, Animal Disguise, Archive and Megablade, and currently have a new full length album out on Troubleman.

CLIMAX GOLDEN TWINS announces live dates

From the Climax Golden Twins website:
After far too long we have updated our humble website: www.climaxgoldentwins.com
There are new mp3s to steal in the "Listen" and "Victrola Favorites" sections. There is a "Look" section with many many many photographs...of us...of our friends...of our enemies...and of our pulchritudinous interests. This section is still somewhat under-construction but you can enjoy it in all its nascent glory right now, even as we speak, and rest assured it will soon be up-dated and expanded upon.

ALSO! Take note! There is a blog like creature lurking on the site for news, photos, quotes, fragments, links, bits, pieces, events, releases, climax occurrences, sounds, films, stuff for sale, and more besides. It will be updated frequently so check back. Hell, make it your home page or download it to your frontal lobe and insert it some place nice.

In other news, CGT is again venturing out into the world for some shows. We'll keep the website updated with any changes...but for now here are the facts:

PORTLAND, OR
February 14
(Valentine’s Day, so bring your intimate apparel)
at Towne Lounge 714 SW 20th Place
with Factums and Ilyas Ahmed

SACRAMENTO, CA
February 15
at Fools Foundation 1025 19th street Suite O
with Factums and Charalambides

SAN FRANCISCO, CA (three shows! and they'll all be different...in theory...)
February 16
at Hemlock Tavern 1131 Polk Street
with Factums and The Why Because

February 17 EARLY SHOW!
at the Exploratorium in San Fran: 3601 Lyon Street
Early show at 1:00pm!
This will be an ambient/collage show with accompanying film all based on our collections of 78rpm records and ephemera: music and design from all over the world, or rather the world of pre-1930…
February 17 EVENING
705 Peralta Street
in lovely West Oakland, near the 7th street BART station
probably starting around 9:00pm or maybe later? more info on this later...really...I promise...
featuring a crazed turntablist, 78rpm DJ, Factums, and Marauder and Alibi

SEATTLE, WA
February 21
at Gallery 1412 1412 18th Ave East
with Matt Valentine & Erika Elder and Charlambides

BURIAL CHAMBER live in Brussels

FEAR FALLS BURNING

Fear Falls Burning, our friend and ally joined the Conspiracy Records roster, and we're very excited about that! We've known Dirk for a long time, followed his work with Vidna Obmana over the years and we're happy we can now function as his homebase and as a platform to release his music as well as representing him in our booking roster.

In the works is a brand new collaboration album with Nadja due for release May 21. Fear Falls Burning and Nadja released an LP in our limited LP series (which sold out in no time), but the collaborative album will consist of entirely new material.This album will be released in an edition of 1000 digipak cd's, and will be followed with a second collaboration CD he's currently working on with Birchville Cat Motel, also in a limited edition of 1000 digipak cd's. His first proper solo album 'Frenzy of the absolute' for Conspiracy is sheduled for an early 2008 release.

Fear Falls Burning has a few February 2007 shows planned with Cult Of Luna, check tourdates for more info :
http://www.fearfallsburning.be/
http://fearfallsburning.blogspot.com/

New website online now!

As of now our new webstore is fully operational. We put a lot of work in it and hopefully our webmaster Jan can now get some decent amount of sleep again.

To celebrate the opening of our new webstore, all ordered items get a 10% discount for the next 7 days!

Please check it out at www.conspiracyrecords.com, we hope you dig it as much as we do!