Artwork by Vincent Adayemo
A 12-inches vinyl originally scheduled for Record Store Day, April 2020, Obriultn is an EP consisting of six tracks that have been composed by as many musicians exclusively using stems from a previous release, namely the self-titled record Bolt Ruin out in 2019 on Circuits. Key contemporary artists such as Obsequies, Fausto Mercier, Julek Ploski, Siavash Amini, and Piano Princess aka bod [包家巷] have been called out to put together original compositions starting from the same sound material employed by Bolt Ruin in recording his last-year staggering outing, a fierce exercise in abstract electronics and sound design.
Out for Consouling Sounds, the compilation lists original productions rather than plain remixes that range from distorted soundtracks for digital nightmares to relentless electronic metal and reconstructed breaks. The very same Bolt Ruin joined the other artists’ effort to craft the eponymous track Obriultn, a 5-minutes, state-of-the-art piece of laptop industrial music in which heavy-processed percussions are melt into layers of seething frequencies, also coming with a poignant animated video clip by Vincent Adayemo. Today, we’re happy to share with you the track premiere of Piano Princess‘ piece that can be streamed via the SoundCloud player at the top of the article.
Already known as bod [包家巷] thanks to their acclaimed releases on Knives, Danse Noire, and Quantum Natives, Piano Princess is the moniker of the Berlin-based artist Nicholas Zhu, hailing from Los Angeles, US, proficiently appearing on the SoundCloud walls with all sorts of noisy, wild edits and reworks. Renowned for their emotional and diverse approach to songwriting, the composer meanders between pop influences, conceptual musical forms, and complex hierarchies of sound reminiscent of their Chinese heritage. Their contribution to the release, called Enginsess, was reportedly built by ripping, editing, and looping the original stems in a true “bootleg style”: the result is a melancholic, clicky serenade of piano, resonating straight out of the basement of one’s self-loathing and culminating into abrupt nothingness.
Due to the Covid-19 emergency, Obriultn will see the light on May 29th both in vinyl and digital form. You can pre-order your digital copy here. Also, remember to follow Bolt Ruin and bod [包家巷] on Soundcloud.
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We are a non-profit organization registered in December 2018, operating since late 2015 as a webzine and media website. In early 2017, we started our own event series focused on arts, experimental, and dancefloor-oriented music. We reject every invocation to “the Future” meant as the signifier for capitalistic “progress” and “innovation”, fully embracing the Present instead; we renounce any reckless and ultimately arbitrary division between “high” and “low”, respectable and not respectable, “mind” and “body”; we support and invite musicians, artists, and performers having diverse backgrounds and expressing themselves via variegated artistic practices.