Consouling Sounds

Those who are trusted with Flemish label Consouling Sounds will certainly recognize the name of Aidan Baker.

Vermilion are a Belgian quartet, consisting of Michael Penson (keyboards, synths, sampling, production, mix, mastering), Timmy Segers (6- and 8-string guitars, lyrics and artwork), Tom Vansteenkiste (drums, samples, programming), and Tom Everaert (fretless & 5-string bass).

This album is a response to the hallucinatory crossworlds between delirium, sadness and loss…

Soul Grip are a new formation from the city of Ghent (Dutch-speaking part of Belgium). They wrote and created some songs that eventually were recorded at the end of December 2014 at the famous Hearse Studio with Lander Cluyse (think Leng Tch’e, Amenra, Wiegedood, Hessian a.o.).

He’s quite a productive guy, this Dirk Serries, and quite experienced since he’s active within the spheres of Aural Art for several decades. His best known outfits might be vidnaObmana and Microphonics, but he created many other things under different monikers, or in collaboration with same-minded artists. Very recently, on June 8^th 2015, we did upload the review for the album Buoyant, which was a collaborative work in between Dirk and Dutch colleague Rutger Zuydervelt.

Belgian one-man outfit Monnik (Dutch for ‘monk’) debuts with Vondeling (which means ‘foundling’) on the magic / magisterial label ConSouling Sounds. That choice isn’t an accidental coincidence at all, for this solo-outlet by Charnia’s vocalist Thibaud perfectly fits to this label’s roster.

French act Le Seul Elément is a one-man outfit by someone who wants to stay incognito, because his Music has ‘an air of danger […] that seems to come from a ghost or some other force out of this world, as an abstract shadow-play translated to music’. My first idea was: yeah, whatever… Yet still, some mysticism; I’ve always liked that, so why not giving this project a chance?

Pretty soon I will come back to the new full length by Dirk Serries - you know, the guy behind acts like (defunct) vidnaObmana, Microphonics, Continuum, The Void Of Expansion, Fear Falls Burning, Streams Of Consciousness and so many more. That album, for your information, is called Unseen Descending And Lamentations and has been released as well via ConSouling Sounds; stay alert!

Once again, Consouling Sounds have quite an impressive band signed to their roster, though some of the members are / were working with this label before. Anyway, it does not matter, for this is another superb release done via this Flemish label: De Doden Hebben Het Goed (meaning something like ‘the dead are all right’) by Wiegedood (‘death in the cradle’ or ‘sudden infant death syndrome’).

One of the things Nele from Consouling Sounds did send to our headquarters is the Deuil-album Shock / Deny, the successor of 2013’s Acceptance / Rebuild. Once again the material deals with life and death, as the title suggests, and this time, more specifically, with the first two levels of the mourning / grief process (the bad news-shock and denial), and feelings of loss, sadness and loneliness.