FLUXEUROPA: MONTHLY MUSIC NEWS MARCH 1998

FluxEuropa - dark music and more

FluxEuropa has suspended active publication and no longer requires items for review. The site is, however, being maintained as an archive and you can still order Amazon products which helps to subsidise its continuation.

MUSIC NEWS MARCH 1998

Camerata Mediolanense have issued the first of three 7" vinyls in a limited edition of 500 hand-numbered copies. The texts of the trilogy are taken from Dante's Inferno. The style, which combines operatic voices and harpsichord accompaniment, is very classical and somewhat different from their CD albums.

Beyond Dawn from Norway have progressed from death metal to a Swans-style sound, and their second full-length CD album, Revelry, is issued this month by Misanthropy. Guitar work on the opening tracks has suggestions of power electronics but the vocals are always prominent and clear.

Recording under the name of Caul, Brett Smith has released Reliquary (1997 Eibon Records CAU008 CD), a truly cosmic experience. Although ambient-industrial with an eerie edge, it's quite relaxing, won't start the dogs barking, and will be tolerated by other members of the household.

Rather more likely to fail the latter test, Franz Nigl's Allgrena is an industrial project working with iron and steel percussion, pianos, flutes and water noises. A rather minimalistic 7" red vinyl is available from Erdgut, PO Box 323, A-1171, Vienna, Austria.

Renée Rosen, who formerly helped to run the World Serpent Distribution email discussion list, is now running one for Dead Can Dance. The list also covers Lisa Gerrard's solo releases, Elijah's Mantle and This Mortal Coil. For more information see the aion-l homepage.

Luis Couto's Crepusculi Aurora is a new Portuguese-language fanzine devoted to dark folk, ritual, experimental and industrial music, as well as poetry, photography and European pagan culture. The first issue has interviews with Ordo Equitum Solis, Allerseelen and The Moon lay hidden beneath a Cloud, reviews, and a section on the Portuguese label, Forgotten Blood. The 40-page A5 zine is available from Bairro Económico 32, 9500 Ponta Delgada, Açores, Portugal.

The evolution of the Web has considerably facilitated the availability of information about alternative music. You wouldn't, after all, expect to find much in your local library about the sort of groups covered in FluxEuropa. I was recently lent, however, a copy of Charles Neal's Tape Delay (SAF Publishing 1987), a hefty paperback of interviews with artists ranging from Dave Tibet and Boyd Rice to Mark Almond and Lydia Lunch. One to look out for second-hand.

Rik - 17 March 1998