The story of Immortal Frost Productions and Astral Winter are very similar; a relationship with sort of mutual roots. Actually, the label was initially formed by the Australian musician Josh ‘Slikver’ Young, who’s the same guy behind Astral Winter too, a project which he started one year before the label was born. And it was Astral Winter that released the very first recording for (and on) this label.
I had not heard of this band before, but apparently that is not that strange. You see, this combo from Israel was formed in 2017, but they did not release anything ‘huge’ and ‘official’ yet. But hey, they might put their moniker on the international map as from now on. Why? Because of Corroded By Darkness.
Residing in Seattle, Washington, Randal Collier-Ford is a very productive (and talented) musician, and a member of the great Cryo Chamber community. However, a great thing to notice that each of his (many) releases are, at the same time, coherent and typifying the ideas of this musician, and always inventive and renewing too. This goes once again for his latest creation, Advent.
Stijn van Cauter is a Belgian artist, a multi-disciplinary one, especially known from his sonic outlets, I think (at least, this goes for me). He is the guy behind truly excellent projects like Until Death Overtakes Me, Arcane Voidsplitter, Inframonolithium, The Sad Sun (with U.S.-based musician E.M. Hearst), The Nulll Collective (idem) and several more.
One of the most creative and productive musicians / producers from Switzerland must be Sergio Da Silva aka B aka Bornyhake Ormenos aka Moplat aka S.Rottenvomit (as studio wizard, not as instrumentalist) as, well, whatever, who’s known from the Swiss Chaos Studio, known as the owner of labels like Azif Records and Rotten Vomit Records, and known for being active in uncountable bands and projects such as Kawir, Borgne
I am in touch with different labels from all over our beautiful planet, and I like a lot of them. But one of my most appreciated ones must be Distant Voices from France. It has to do with three things: 1. the great crew behind this label, 2. the sonic side, i.e. the fine recordings this label did release until now (it’s a personal opinion, of course, but I do appreciate about all of the things offered to the audience by this French team), and 3. the personal approach of each single release.
Because this release was the most captivating, overwhelming surprise from 2020 – at least for me – I couldn’t but ignore it; I just have to write down something to express my wonder. Also, this band have recently finished a next opus, so as a prequel to that upcoming full album, foist some thoughts on this one-track mini-album.
In 2018 some East-European musicians joined forces under the moniker of Monumentum Damnati: Abhoth (music & lyrics, also bass guitars), Athame (synths), Shoggoth (guitars) and Nyarlathotep (drums). Somehow they did prefer to stay ‘anonymous’ (with masks), even though it is said that they are ‘known’ artists from Belarus and at least one other country from the Far East of Europe (and maybe the U.S. of A.).
One of the most, eh, how will I put it, eh, let’s call it a ‘weird’ label… So, here it comes: Fish Prints is a weird label (haha, I did it, safely), dedicated to ‘curious sounds, past and present’, with releases by some truly unusual artists. No, seriously, when talking about an open-minded approach, this label by Thor Maillet houses Music(k) from so many angles, yet with one thing in common: not for the grey masses!
…I know that this album got released almost one year ago, but so what?...
