Multi brings together the Danish trance-noise duo H E X – guitarist Lars Bech Pilgaard and drummer Anders Bach, both adding electronics to their arsenal and both collaborate also in the avant-rock Svin, with Japanese modular synth wizard DORAVIDEO (aka. Ichiraku Yoshimitsu), known or his frequent collaborations with key figures in the alternative Japanese scene like Otomo Yoshihide, Keiji Haino and Jim O´Rourke and formerly the drummer of the famed psychedelic rock band Acid Mothers Temple. H E X and DORVIDEO first met at a venue in southern Japan in 2019, and already then planned a future project.
The realization of Multi was postponed due to the madness of the Covid-19 pandemic, but finally in 2022 H E X and DORAVIDEO toured Denmark and Germany and recorded their debut album. The album presents the inclusive sonic vision of this ad-hoc trio. The eight free-improvised, free-form pieces are packed with raw, punk energy, dance-like, noise-infested trance beats and abstract and cinematic but almost architectural sonic collages. The vintage, modular synth, electric guitar, drums and assorted electronics mutate, transform and melt into a hivemind of sometimes intimate electronic madness and at other times fiercely cascading pulses. You can find in this nervous but tasteful and spicy sonic stew almost anything, from psychedelic techno (and «A Dry Brain In A Dry Season» brings to mind the Japanese ROVO band) to dark ambient, acid rock, post-metal to free-jazz, but always with a steady, beating heart for the cyclical and the occult. The cover art by the Berlin-based visual artist, drummer, producer and mixing engineer Ludwig Wandinger informs about the shapeshifting spirit of this project.
Brazilian, Copenhagen-based extreme vocal artist Marcela Lucatelli also focuses on the occult. Lucatelli hosts Pilgaard and drummer-percussionist Anders Vestergaard (both collaborate in the noise duos Laser Nun and Klimaforandringer) on her Necromancy, a cycle of ten songs that reference the gods and the magical rituals of the Afro-Brazlian Yoruba death cosmology. These enigmatic songs-incantations-spells are sung in Portuguese and the Yoruba language and attempt to induce a psychoactive, trance state of mind.
Like all of Lucatelli’s projects, the performance of these songs is not merely about its musical essence, but rather an arena in which she struggles for the deeper meaning of life. She is totally possessed with her art, alternating between operatic and guttural vocals – often multiplied as a choir – and the extreme, punkish-tribal and often noisy arrangements. Pilgaard and Vestergaard prove to be the perfect partners in this mysterious and sometimes even horrific ride, often spiced with psychedelic textures and brutal sparks of free jazz.
Eyal Hareuveni
Ichiraku Yoshimitsu (eurorack modular synth), Lars Bech Pilgaard (g, organelle, driftbox, keys, elec), Anders Bach (dr, plumbutter), Marcela Lucatelli (v, vio, objects, elec), Anders Vestergaard (dr, perc)
