In 2015 NEW FIRMAMENT is reviving the recordings collection. We are planning a new release from NEW FIRMAMENT and taking on the added herculean task of reissuing select out of print releases on vinyl and cd (See breakdown below). As the collection is an individually maintained small-run project outside the sphere of label proper, the detail of funding is paramount. Through sales of assorted New Firmament-related items, donations, etc. we're hoping to fund in 2015:
VINYL REISSUE:
Feast of the Epiphany - Temperance
Feast of the Epiphany - Indivinity I
Derek Reinhardt - Filthy Flamingo
CD RELEASE/REISSUE:
New Firmament - Living Mithridate (new recording)
New Firmament - Retrospective release of out of print early ambient albums Indivinity III/Forever Carry Us, Forever Destroy Us
N.P. ARTWORK FOR SALE (All original/one of a kind):
A series (as seen above) of 10 black and white pen and ink 11"x14" unframed drawings made specifically for this occasion. $125 each or the entire series for $850.
Additionally we have two original one of a kind show flyer calligraphies (black and white pen and ink).
Sizes vary but are roughly 11"x14" unframed
$175 each or both for $300
Flyers are:
- Oneirogen/New Firmament/Epistasis @ Trans Pecos FEB 28 2014
- New Firmament/Worth/Luke Moldof @ Machines With Magnets OCT 24 2014
*Additional 14"x17" unframed pen and ink drawings available mostly black and white. A few black and red.
prices vary depending on size $100-$150.
$5 - digital copy of a New Firmament release of your choosing
$15 - digital copies of 3 New Firmament releases of your choosing plus extended special edition NF playlist digital mix
$20 - digital copies of ALL New Firmament releases plus extended special edition NF playlist digital mix
ALL PURCHASES/DONATIONS ETC:
PAYPAL to: nickpodgurski (at) gmail (dot) com
It's our aim to facilitate music in all its forms be heard. No idiom. New Firmament.
"In equilibrium be torn apart."
-N.P.
To begin 2015 I've finally attempted to get words around one of the more outstanding records I've heard in some time, Menace Ruine's 'Venus Armata.' Finding the appropriate thoughts/words for this took not only a strong initial round of listening, but a marked time spent away so as to re-approach with a better lens informed by that first experience. In short, this release encourages my absolute favorite kind of listening. (Let me preface this by making clear it's NOT that I believe this album to require your ears to start working weekends in order to comprehend but that, rather, it brilliantly accomplishes the much rarer feat of remaining incredibly familiar, even nostalgic, yet non-idiomatic thereby allowing the mind to review it more intently.) Menace Ruine cut old circuitry from the path and advance a purer current. This new field open and electric: allows the listener to non-laboriously trace these familiar streams of color and emotion, illuminates their ubiquity in music as a whole, and identifies the absolute uniqueness of their coalescence on Venus Armata. Obvious comparisons abound (black metal, neo-folk, etc.) but the pool seems much more vast speaking volumes of its integrity. The tropes of these styles are beautifully stripped away and we arrive, the core of their content in tact, via richer alternative routing. There's an undeniable weight to these songs forged in songcraft itself. The music of Catherine Ribeiro, Brigitte Fontaine, Desert Shore-era Nico all comes to mind; again, only as a familiar launching point now very much in the distance. A distorted, longing cloudiness embraces the whole of Venus Armata and leads it boldly and isolated across innovative horizons. I look forward to continuing to find new words with future listens. That phenomenon in itself is a testament to its absolute profundity. Menace Ruine's 'Venus Armata' is out now on Profound Lore Records and I highly recommend you hear it.
