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.
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.).
The story of this Flemish band started about a decade ago, when some experienced members of notorious bands like Omega Centauri, Kludde, Toorn, Ignifer or Trancelike Void joined forces. The aim was to create that kind of Doom-Death material that stands miles away from the more romantic and gothic oriented trend, i.e. with the goal to be rather funereal in approach.
I am aware that the second volume has been released in the meantime. That actually is a good thing, for the aim of this promotional series is to support the ‘local’ scene. And yes, a third one is in the making…
I have to admit that I do not know that much bands from FYROM aka the Former Yugoslavian Republic Of Macedonia aka North Macedonia nowadays. Born For Slaughter, Aeon Arcanum, Maras or Tremula are a handful of bands that I do appreciate, but I have to thank Satanath Records’ Aleksey once more for introducing me to Vehementor.
Hailing from Norway, Therapy Productions is a new label for the mentally disturbed, so it didn’t take that long for me to get in touch. Their aim: Pushing the limits of sound / redefining what genres are / exploring new territories / not trying to conform / showing the world something new / crossing boundaries / making art. Please enter the world of sonic deformation…
Robert C. Kozletsky was a known artist in Psychomenteum, but that project did split up, unfortunately, a while ago. He also collaborated in the high-profile collaboration Kerrstillingskozletskynyströmpetrus, with Stephen Petrus, John Stillings, Larry Kerr and Peter Nyström, and he’s part of the Shock Frontier line-up as well. But I think his best-known outfit will be his solo-project Apócrýphos, which he started almost a decade ago.
