Deep eklypsis

The Field's second album that has just finished being mixed down by Jörg "The Modernist" Burger here in Cologne @ Kompakt Studios. Titled "Yesterday & Today" folks can expect to buy it 25-May, 2009 courtesy of Kompakt...fans should expect a much more organic sounding affair if compared to it's predecessor, with some surprises that include the mighty John Stanier from Battles.

Once described as “frequently mesmerizing, seamlessly interwoven combination of electronica and ambient guitar..” by the legendary Wire magazine. Stafrænn Hákon has indeed through the last 6 years been described as a mix of post-rock, lo-fi, ambient guitar & electronica. The Icelandic born Ólafur Josephsson has been recording music since 1999 under the name Stafrænn Hákon (sometimes stafraenn hakon, stafrann hakon) which has often confused the media, due to the confusing Icelandic origin.

Late in 2005 and Stafrænn Hákon is hard at work on his 5th album entitled “Gummi”. Ólafur drives up to the countryside in Iceland to meet up with his friend Lárus Sigurðsson in a church to record harps into the opening song of “Gummi”. Still there is no sign of any elf or a ghost there, the reason is simple, and there is no such thing. The delicate and subtle sound of Lárus harps spread over crunchy ambient guitars in opening tones of “Járn” and make the song one of the most complete songs Ólafur has ever written.

The more acoustic alive sound on the album can be clearly heard when Birgir Hilmarsson of Blindfold and Ampop plays the last notes on the harmonium as he stands up and exits the studio in the closing track “Veggur”. The climax of the song comes with Birgir singing harmony vocals over the enormous guitar layers and crunchy drums from Daniel Lovegrove (aka Dialect). Samúel White a long time collaborator and vital part of the Stafrænn Hákon project is delivering one of his most elaborative works with his beautiful picked guitar parts. In the intense melody of “Hausi” Samúel..s guitar is sounding huge with vocals contributed from Minco Eggersman.

“P-rofi” collaboration with the Danish based Efterklang ties the album together with the advanced sonic structure and subtle use of instruments. When Ólafur enters Daniel..s studio to complete the album with additional production, he knows this album is going to be the most complete and solid record he has ever done. With Daniel..s drums and production, the sound stretches to new dimension in Stafrænn Hákon..s soundworld.

After the college indie rock band “Sullaveiki Bandormurinn” disbanded in 1999, Ólafur continued experimenting with his 4-track recorder in his basement. Tapes started piling up in the drawer and finally Ólafur compiled a few songs on a CD to sell at the local record store. Stafrænn Hákon..s first album “eignast jeppa” received some hype around it..s lo-fi DIY production in 2001. Recorded on his 4-track recorder using guitar, bass, melodica and drum machine with the 5th instrument mostly being the tape hiss. The atmosphere was dreamy and laid back with thick guitar layers swirling around the lo-fi drum machine sounds. Two albums followed within the next year of the debut album.

“Í ástandi rjúpunnar” and “Skvettir edik á ref” were a huge development from the lo-fi sound of “eignast jeppa”. Focusing more on ambient driven guitar layers and occasional synthesizer the two albums were more complete and the sound world was more definite for Stafrænn Hákon. Eventually all of them were reissued worldwide on 2 different labels. Resonant Records in the U.K reissued “Í ástandi rjúpunnar” and “Skvettir edik á ref”. The U.S based indie label Secret Eye reissued the debut. In 2003 Ólafur was recording material for forthcoming album to be released on Resonant.

The album was later to become Stafrænn..s most successful album to date. “Ventill/Poki” received staggering reviews and was followed with a 3 week tour in the U.K in September 2004. The album was the first to be completed in a proper studio with live drums recorded and played by Daniel.

Now in late 2006 and Stafrænn Hákon has completed his 5th album and has previously toured U.K and played few festivals around Europe, his new album is ready to hit the stores and a tour to coincide the new album is in the planning stage.

“A wall of beautiful, hard-to-describe sound fills the air……..It’s music of such delicacy and intricate delivery that can just turn, like that, into music of such power and ferocity” (http://www.leedsmusicscene.net/article/3123/)

Highly anticipated and long-overdue, Life Through Bombardment collects virtually every Eluvium song ever released (plus a bunch of rare and unreleased non-album tracks) into one stunning 7xLP set, all on vinyl for the first and only time. Each record is packaged in its own full-color jacket, featuring exquisite new artwork from Jeannie Lynn Paske, drawn exclusively for this set.

The seven jackets are then bound into a beautiful dark green hardbound, linen-cover book, with metallic gold foil stamping and embossed text on the spine, and a beautiful full-color print embossed into the front cover. The inside front cover includes a removable old-fashioned library card, complete with personalized signatures from the artists and designers involved in the creation of this package.

The final name on the library card will belong to the purchaser, hand-written and dated when purchased. The inside back cover includes a mind-blowing 12×36″ foldout double-sided full-color poster insert, featuring more artwork from Ms. Paske.

In addition, each copy of this set will include a unique digital code to download high-quality mp3s of the entire box set collection. This is limited to a one-time pressing of 1,000 copies, pressed onto 100% virgin black vinyl.

(1995 – present) Epic45 joined together as a band in 1995 in high school but only began playing live and recording tracks to tape in 1998. From there they have gone on to record tracks for almost 20 releases (including splits with Laudanum, 100 Pets and Avaray) and done remixes for people such as Portal and Glider. They now have four full albums released, the latest being “May Your Heart Be The Map”, released on Make Mine Records in July 2007.

Melbourne, Australia (1981 – 1998, 2005 – present)

Dead Can Dance was a band formed in Melbourne, Australia in 1981 by Brendan Perry (baritone) together with Simon Monroe and Paul Erikson later to be joined by Lisa Gerrard (contralto). They disbanded in 1998, and temporarily reunited to do a highly successful world tour in 2005 with a view to recording another studio album together. But due to ongoing personal differences between Perry and Gerrard, Perry decided to finally put to rest any prospect of a future collaboration in order to concentrate on a solo career.

After a somewhat muted response to their music in Australia, Dead Can Dance moved to London in 1982, where they signed up to alternative rock label 4AD, a legendary label on the alternative music scene, where it became one of the most important bands on the label alongside the Cocteau Twins. They continued to work closely together, until later in the 1990s when they started to grow apart following the breakup of their personal relationship.

Gerrard returned to Australia, while Perry moved to Ireland, where he had renovated an old church at Quivvy, where he lives and works. It is speculated that the distance between the members was an influence in the band’s eventual break-up, with an argument following the recording sessions for an unreleased album being the final straw, although Perry himself said that distance helped in maintaining a certain individual freedom in creativity.