The gods of drone. Not the flying kind; the kind that roils and crawls through the lowlands, the low frequencies. The kind that envelops you, flows through you, shakes your body to the core and turns your spirit upside down. Stephen O’Malley, drone metal and Southern Lord Records guru, visited Šiška in its very beginnings,
The gods of drone. Not the flying kind; the kind that roils and crawls through the lowlands, the low frequencies. The kind that envelops you, flows through you, shakes your body to the core and turns your spirit upside down. Stephen O’Malley, drone metal and Southern Lord Records guru, visited Šiška in its very beginnings, performing with the KTL project in autumn 2009, together with Editions Mego label boss and electro-noise artist Peter Rehberg. Now the time has finally come for Stephen’s return with the full lineup of the imposing incarnation of Sunn O))) that recently spawned a new album, Kannon.
The Cathedral will darken, fog will settle over the land and a bang will go off. And then, there will be thunder.
*Warning: due to the extreme loudness of the music we recommend usage of ear plugs available free of charge at our info point.
Sunn O))) was formed in 1998 by Stephen O’Malley and Greg Anderson. They were initially based in Seattle, shortly before moving to Los Angeles, and O’Malley now resides in Paris. The band have become known for their very recognisable “drone metal” sound, and extremely loud live performances. Widely considered pioneering, their music can be described as very slow, with distorted guitars, and an emphasis on texture rather than rhythm. Their name, pronounced “sun”, is a reference to the Sunn amplifier brand, and their logo is that of the amplifier’s too.
Over their seven solo studio albums and scores of EPs, live albums and other releases, Sunn O))) have collaborated and recorded with artists across the globe, including Scott Walker, Attila Csihar (Mayhem), Kim Thayil (Soundgarden), Japan’s Boris, Norway’s Ulver, Nurse With Wound, Petra Hayden, Julian Cope (The Teardrop Explodes), John Wiese, Oren Ambarchi, Malefic, Julian Priester, Eyvind Kang, Dylan Carlson, Stuart Dempster, and many more. Their early releases were met with acclaim across various underground music scenes, and steadily their profile has risen, becoming something of a household name in the alternative music, and arts worlds.
The band have played across the world at many prestigious festivals and venues, in the past year at David Byrne’s Meltdown at the Southbank Centre in London, and curating a four day program at Le Guess Who? Festival in Utrecht. Other notable appearances include Barcelona’s Sonar (2009), Krakow’s Unsound (2009), CTM Berlin (2013), Japan’s Earthdom (2007) and Leave Them All Behind (2012), North Carolina’s Hopscotch (2012), Australia’s Totally Huge New Music Festival (2007) and All Tomorrow’s Parties/The Nightmare Before Christmas (2003, 2004, 2007 and 2009) and Supersonic (2007 and 2009) in the UK. Sunn O))) also curated the 2011 edition of Holland’s legendary Roadburn Festival. The band have an archive collection of their recorded live performances (often fan-made) dating back to 2002 available to listen to online through Bandcamp.
Sunn O))) have released the vast majority of their music on the label that Greg Anderson (who also appears in Goatsnake and Engine Kid) formed in 1998, named Southern Lord. Southern Lord has gone on to be a successful venture in its own right, releasing many over two hundred records in the genres of metal, punk, and other experimental sounds. Stephen O’Malley (who also appeared in Burning Witch and Khanate) also launched the label Ideologic Organ in 2011, which focuses more on experimental sounds.
Building spectacular, inverted rock constructions that sound many magnitudes bigger than one would suspect a trio was capable of, BIG|BRAVE has been in existence since 2012, with members spread across two guitars and drums respectively. Unhurried and untouchable, BIG|BRAVE possess that same valued independent spirit which pervades their local contemporaries, and is at the root of their intense and exploratory musical offerings. Au De La lulls and lurches between passages of rhythmic noise pollution and vocal led awe, using considered juxtapositions of force and restraint to warp the senses across its lifespan. Remarkably quiet at times, their ambiance is not one of minimalism, but of dawning, foreboding power with the need to be vented, and when the hot flushes of blighted percussion and monochromatic guitar scrapes arrive, they arrive with triumphant force.
With five expansive movements which transmit BIG|BRAVE‘s creative sounds with exceptional production values, Au De La was recorded at Hotel2Tango with Efrim Menuck (Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Thee Silver Mt Zion Memorial Orchestra) and mastered by Harris Newman at Grey Market (Front Line Assembly, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, C H R I S T). Presenting forty-five minutes of luminous, exploratory, post/avant rock, with multiple personalities intertwining organically, the album sees vocalist/guitarist Robin Wattie, guitarist Mathieu Bernard Ball and drummer Louis-Alexandre Beauregard delivering a layered, engaging, memorable, visceral voyage.
