PHALLUS DEI: the new album BLACK DAWN is on its way

Credits:   Phallus Dei:
                Mk. E. / Oliver St. Lingam / Richard van Kruysdijk
                Guests:
                Jacqueline Hamelink – Cello on Starman and Zauberwald
                Peter Brötzmann – Tenor Saxophone on Starman
                Niels van Hoorn – Bass Clarinet on Corpus
                Merzbow – Electronics on Corpus
                Black Dawn was written, performed, Recorded and produced by Phallus Dei
                and engineered, mixed and mastered by Richard van Kruysdijk
                at Dangerous Goods Studio, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
                Cover design by Richard van Kruysdijk
                Sculpture by Marc Bijl

www.phallusdei.net
www.darkvinyl.com

25 Years - A brief history of Phallus Dei

Genesis

"I can make a CD like that", Oliver told Uwe Hoehn from Dark Vinyl Records just for fun after listening to a lot of industrial stuff that was being released back then.

Pontifex Maximus;

their debut CD from 1991, basically was a giant middle finger to a great part of the gothic/industrial scene which in the early nineties had turned into the same idolizing, superficial music scene that alternative, experimental artists once rebelled against. Oliver had created two cassettes already as Phallus Dei (named  after Amon  Düül  II's  legendary  1969  album)  and  ran  the  record  label  Unclean  Production.  Oliver's  (in  his  words)  "atonal  egotrip"  Pontifex  Maximus  was released with the obligatory over-the-top hocum and - surprise! - became a huge success.

Later that year, Phallus Dei toured Germany with Italian band Sigillum S, and was extended on stage, next to Pontifex Maximus -contributor D.A.R.P.A., with guitar player Marc Ernsting, a.k.a. Mk. E. After the tour, D.A.R.P.A. left the band, and Mk. E. became a full member.

Dutch connection

In 1992, Richard van Kruysdijk's cassette release under the moniker Blindfold gained national attention in the Dutch wave/goth scene and Richard was invited to play at a festival in Paradiso, Amsterdam. In the crowd that night was Oliver, who promptly signed Richard to his label, and later invited him (and Mk.E.) to a musical session at his studio. Several recordings made on this very first magical meeting eventually ended up on

Cyberflesh

(1993), their second album and a radical shift in sound. Continuing their work on Cyberflesh in The Netherlands, Richard asked his former band mate Joris Huijbregts to join in. The line-up for the next four years was complete and the band took off to Fuerth, Germany to finish work on the album in the Audiocom Studio with producer Dalibor "Dali" Blazek. Their change in direction was well received, and whilst still preserving their playful approach, Phallus Dei turned into a "serious" band overnight.

Basement years

On Pornocrates and it's offspring Metacrates,

Phallus Dei further refined their sound, recording the basic electronic tracks themselves in Oliver's basement, a.k.a. Studio 7, on their Fostex 8-track tape recorder and adding everything else as well as mixing the whole thing in two weeks at Sunhouse Recording, a top studio in Nuernberg, Germany with producer Bobby Bachinger. The studio complex also accomodated a fully equipped film studio, and in between the recordings, the band would record three video clips that were released on VHS as part of a limited edition box set.

A year later, in 1994, the band would return to the Sunhouse Recording studio to record

Luxuria

, featuring Gitane Demone (ex-Christian Death), who contributed vocals on two tracks. Luxuria was released as a mixed mode CD/CD-ROM with four audio tracks plus the three video clips when Phallus Dei embarked on a German tour with Sixth Comm (UK), Black Rose (I) and Sielwolf (GER) with additional member Sandor Caron on keyboards.

Their  uncompromising,  continuous  eclectic  musical  approach  alienated  them  further  from  the  goth/industrial  scene  and  Phallus  Dei  deliberately  manouvered themselves into an outsider position. In 1995, Joris and Richard laid down the foundation for their last record with this line-up:

Orpheus & Euridyce

Joris wrote and recorded the theme for violin that set the mood for the album and the band finished the recordings in Studio 7. Two years after Cyberflesh, rock and metal were definitely out the door, as the band dived into hypnotizing atmospherical sounds with only a hint of traditional pop arrangements. At night, when they had finished work on O&E, they would continue to record
ambient tracks, improvising intuitively by candlelight. These recordings eventually made up the first PHD2 album:

Universum

Although the band was very productive, musical discussions became increasingly harsch, and in 1995, Joris chose to leave the band. Both albums were mixed in the Cocoon Studio in Erlangen by Oliver, Marc and Richard and were released in 1996. Appropriately, this period was closed by a compilation, released in 1997 in the USA by Hollows Hill / Triple X Records:

Adorations
.
Intermission

In 1996, Richard chose to direct all his attention to his newly founded solo project Sonar Lodge, and combined with turbulent times in their private lives, Phallus Dei came to a hold. The lines remained open though, and it was a matter of time and circumstance before the band would pick up from where they left off.

Loose ends

After a five year break, the dust had settled and when unreleased 8-track recordings resurfaced, the idea arose to make another PHD2 album. Marc and Oliver joined Richard in his new studio, and they finished the whole thing in one weekend. Appropriately entitled

Resource

, the band had found new elan to investigate and rework their unfinished recordings from 1996 and within a year Nature Mortes
 (2001) was released; a new Phallus Dei album that musically continues where they stopped five years before. Back in 1996, Richard had started creating reworks from Pontifex Maximus. The trio also finished these and Osmose was released (like the original 1991 album) on Dark Vinyl Records in 2004. With the release of Seelenriff / Versuchung ; a limited 7" on the Austrian Klanggalerie label, all loose ends from their work in the previous century were tied up and all the signs were there for another change in sound.

Tabula Rasa

In 2005, Richard had become deeply involved in his record label Music for Speakers (est. 2000), and new band Strange Attractor (with Niels van Hoorn from The Legendary Pink Dots and Marie-Claudine from Sonar Lodge) when Phallus Dei received a request to create film music for a movie by Heiko van der Scherm (currently in post-production). In 2006, Phallus Dei started creating many new songs during their weekend sessions at The Lodge (Richard's studio in the Netherlands). Meeting up only a few times a year, these weekend sessions were outbursts of accumulated creative ideas. Regardless of their low output in the last decade, by 2010, Phallus Dei's uncompromising attitude and lust for investigating new musical territories with every release had gained them cult status and their critically acclaimed album

A Day In The Life Of Brian Wilson

was released by Big Blue Records (PL) accompanied by one, exclusive concert at the beautiful Kuppelhalle during the WGT festival in Leipzig (GER) featuring Michael Schaffer (Birdmachine) on guitar and electric sitar. The album featured  guest  vocalists  Clara  Engel  and  John  Walker  (The  Walker  Brothers)  and  showcased  a  new  Phallus  Dei,  cut  loose  from  all  the  genre-specific  musical treatments and confident in their own carefully cultivated language. Also that year Oliver founded [moss] with Michael Schaffer.

The stand-out track from A Day In The Life Of Brian Wilson: "Will You Come Now" featuring John's vocals was radically reworked on the CD Love, With The Tiniest Red  Torch,  Branded  To  Your  Heart (2011)  by  Strange  Attractor,  Birdmachine,  Wicked  Messenger,  Blackhouse,  Bohren  &  der  Club  of  Gore  and  Phallus  Dei themselves. On top of that, the label WKN released a limited LP with remixes of Will You Come Now from Der Blutharsch and the Infinite Church of the Leading Hand and Bohren & der Club of Gore, and different remixes by Blackhouse and Phallus Dei.

25th Anniversary

Phallus Dei kicked off their 25th anniversary year (2016) with a "pay what you want" download album on the netlabel Nostalgie De La Boue. Vapour Unwinds The Dolls contains 5 more radical remakes of their track "Will You Come Now".

Later in 2016, Phallus Dei will present their new album

Black Dawn

Combining industrial guitar drones with minimal music, Phallus Dei's signature elements melt together  creating  a  repetitive,  orchestral  wall  of  sound  on  what  is  definitely  their  heaviest,  deepest  album  ever.  Featuring  guest  performances  by  Merzbow, Peter Brötzmann, Niels van Hoorn and others.

contact

oliver@phallusdei.net                

www.phallusdei.net

P h a l l u s   D e i