François Bonnet (Kassel Jaeger) and Stephen O’Malley have heretofore never collaborated for an album, but similar to the way that the respective gravitational pulls of planets in the Solar System will eventually result in a galactic collision that mirrors an explosive Newton’s cradle, so too was it inevitable that the experimental orbits of the two artists would eventually intermingle. After all, O’Malley continues to spearhead the Editions Mego sub-label, Ideologic Organ, and Kassel Jaeger has had a connection with Editions since at least the release of his solo LP Deltas, which came out in 2012. (Don’t ask me why it’s seemingly taken years for the two collaboration-prone experimenters to finally get on stage with one another. Whatcha been up to, Pita? Conspiracies and such?)
In any event, Bonnet and O’Malley have appeared on stage with one another in recent months, and now they’re putting a resultant record out on September 13, entitled Cylene.
O’Malley’s deep efforts as a member of Sunn O))) should inform expectations going into it, but Kassel Jaeger’s dark ambient flirtations mean that daylight’s still a ways away. France-based writer and musician Joseph Ghosn has an interesting description of Cylene in the liner notes. Read it in full below, before the track “Première noire,” and after this handy pre-order link.
Stephen and François deal in those moments and instants that happen after the violence, and the ugliness and the mess. Their music is about chaos being summoned and ordered. It is about the noise that nurtures your ears after a long heartbreaking pain. I have heard the sounds of wars being fought and the noises of hearts being broken, and I have never found a shelter as soothing as this music which makes me think of sunken ships and beauty found in the depths of oceans long forgotten.
Cylene tracklisting:
01. Première Noire
02. Erosion Always Wins
03. Pāhoehoe
04. Deuxième Noire
05. Tephras
06. Dernières Teintes Noires
07. Des Pas Dans Les Cendres
More about: François Bonnet, Kassel Jaeger, Stephen O'Malley
