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FORGOTTEN BLOOD

Bruno Nunes de Sousa, Apartado 195, 4560 Penafiel, Portugal.

UPDATE

Solis Rota (Sun Wheel) is Forgotten Blood's first compilation tape and it features Zwickau, Wolfskin, Warriors of Nature, Listen to the Reapers and Forgers, In Articulo Mortis, Soluctu Mors, Draukrubna, and Silence. It's a rich feast of dark folk, ritual-ambient and atmospheric music. Although within the 'industrial' genre it really tends more towards the 'organic'.

Taking you deep into Europe's pagan, warrior roots, it provides an excellent introduction to a range of Portuguese groups which deserve wider exposure.

The C-60m tape comes in a cork envelope with a parchment and is limited to 88 copies. It's highly recommended and I hope some FluxEuropa readers will make the effort to contact Bruno directly.

Although a modest cassette label, Forgotten Blood issues some of the best ritual-ambient music I have ever heard. A lot of projects are in the pipeline, including a Warriors of Nature CD.

Rik 18 June 1997

FORGOTTEN BLOOD is a Portuguese tape-label started by Bruno Nunes de Sousa in 1994 and specialising in experimental music with a mystical theme drawing on the religious traditions of pagan Europe. Its artists form a very distinctive stable and the sound quality of the tapes reviewed has been very good. Special features of the label are limited editions and unusual packaging.

ZWICKAU

ZWICKAU is Bruno's own project. Following the release of Vincit Omnia Veritas it has now issued its second recording, The Serpent's Law, a C-45m cassette tape of dark ambient music and industrial sounds dealing with the image of the serpent in magical tradition.

The sounds are all acoustic: samples and keyboards are spurned in favour of real flutes, bones and stones etc! Given the prevalence of synths in this area of music, the full sound achieved here is quite remarkable.

The release is limited to 222 numbered copies.

WOLFSKIN

WOLFSKIN is the solo project of Johan Madju and has issued a debut C-70m tape entitled The Hidden Fortress. Like Zwickau, Wolfskin is a project of mystic inspiration and influenced by esoterica. The music is experimental, dark-industrial and ritualistic. The cassette comes in a hand-made cloth box and is limited to 77 numbered copies.

WARRIORS OF NATURE

WARRIORS OF NATURE is a collaboration between Bruno and Johan and has issued a debut C-30 tape entitled The Roots of Blood, which features songs about the area of the north-west Iberian mountains, Callaecia (now North Portugal and Galicia). This tape is what you'd expect from two practitioners who are both passed masters at creating a convincing ritual-ambient soundscape. The C-30 cassette comes in a velvet pouch with leather strap and bell and is limited to 60 copies.

IN ARTICULO MORTIS

IN ARTICULO MORTIS have issued a cassette, The Death of the Horseman, and it's another dreamy ritual-ambient soundscape. This is packaged in a black wooden box suggestive of a coffin! This ingenuity with which Forgotten Blood designs its packaging reinforces the ritual magical and naturalistic quality of its artists. This album is limited to 63. IAM have started recording material for a CD album but are still looking for an appropriate label.

Rik - 17 August 1996

FORGOTTEN BLOOD

UPDATE

ZWICKAU

WOLFSKIN

WARRIORS OF NATURE

IN ARTICULO MORTIS

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