13.08.12
Samadhisound will be releasing Uncommon Deities on the 24th September 2012. Last year's Punkt Festival played host to Uncommon Deities, an unusual confluence of talents and media. Walking into the gallery’s large space, visitors were greeted by a series of paintings by Atsushi Fukui that culminated in the striking, hermaphroditic figure in “The Botanist.” An audio installation by David Sylvian filled the space, and the opening night celebration brought poets and musicians into the mix: the acclaimed Norwegian poets Paal-Helge Haugen and Nils Christian Moe Repstad read alongside Evan Parker and Arve Henriksen, and their works were read in English by Sylvian, whose recorded voice was accompanied by John Tilbury, Philip Jeck, and Sidsel Endresen.
The CD release of Uncommon Deities isn’t a document of the installation, but a reinvention: the poems and Sylvian’s readings are placed in new settings by Jan Bang and Erik Honoré.
The cofounders of the Punkt festival and close collaborators on the original installation, Bang and Honoré draw on new performances by the deeply sympathetic trumpeter Arve Henriksen and the startling, elemental singer Sidsel Endresen. These improvisations join live material captured at last year’s Punkt events, in a production that’s spacious and atmospheric, somber and escapist, light-hearted and steeped in history—a recording as rich as the ancestry of the work that inspired it.
Standard Edition ($15.99)
Presented in a 6 panel digipak (with a matte laminate finish) featuring artwork by Hannah Bertram, art direction by David Sylvian, designed by Chris Bigg, the standard edition CD comes with a credit sheet folded and inserted into the digipak itself. This is limited to a pressing of 3000 units.
Limited Edition Deluxe Version ($40.00)
Limited to a print run of 1000 units, this deluxe version of Uncommon Deities is A5 in size (150mm x 210mm), and comes with a rigid hardback cover, with matte laminate finish. This is inserted into a half size 150mm x 105mm O-Card belly band, which is made of grey back board with blind embossed typography.
The book itself is 44 pages in length, 4 colour with special 5th colour gold print, and contains the album's poetry in both English and the original Norwegian with the CD housed in a pocketed sleeve.
The package features artwork by Hannah Bertram, art direction by David Sylvian, and was designed by Chris Bigg.
Please click here to be taken to the Uncommon Deities microsite.
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