Famous for his various genre-pushing bands and projects, artist and multi-instrumentalist Jason Köhnen created a unique form of Darkjazz with THE LOVECRAFT SEXTET in 2020. The first album, “In Memoriam“, was unveiled by Denovali Records in 2021. As evolution and experimentation are two essential aspects of this new entity, the coming releases are not limited to one single genre, style and form of Art. Thus, Debemur Morti Productions proudly announce the signing of THE LOVECRAFT SEXTET to collaborate specifically for their darkest and most sinister offerings.
Jason comments on signing to DMP:
“Artistically and creatively, I find DMP one of the most interesting extreme labels around. I first bumped into Debemur Morti Productions due to AKHLYS‘ “Melinöe” album – and definitely my personal favorite Black Metal release of all time. Making me curious concerning the label, seeing this release had such a great sound and energy, composition, concept, and artwork… So, I was sure the label had something more to offer. The overall aesthetics is what makes DMP stand out. There is a lot of great individual identity linked to the label. One can easily see this, and it clearly attracts real music lovers. Be it MÜTTERLEIN, BLUT AUS NORD or CAILLEACH CALLING – these artists are all unique, but still the overall aesthetics make them a whole and they appear complete within the label.“
The first collaboration between THE LOVECRAFT SEXTET and Debemur Morti Productions will appear in form of a new album in autumn 2022. Self-described as a Doomjazz Blackmass, inspired by Psalm 51 and the act of repentance, “Miserere” will see Jason explore the grimmest regions of Darkjazz:
“As some might know, I have been experimenting with the ‘Darkjazz’ style since I coined up the name back in 1998. Later on, I founded THE KILIMANJARO DARKJAZZ ENSEMBLE in 2001. It has many possibilities as a style, and I have enjoyed how a band like WHITE WARD is also incorporating it so well into their music. Darkjazz is a very creative genre, and it grants a lot of crossover possibilities within its musical palette. For the “Miserere” album I wanted to go very deep into the grimness and darkness that Darkjazz has to offer. Purely dive into grief and penance and suck out as much despair as I could. There’s enough misery in the cosmos to feed on. My purpose was to create this Doomjazz Blackmass where I take the listener into some abstract musical form of penitence. Pure and unrelentless despair!“
More information about “Miserere” will be unveiled in due time.
THE LOVECRAFT SEXTET is one of the many projects from multi-instrumentalist Jason Köhnen. Renowned for his previous projects BONG-RA or THE KILIMANJARO DARKJAZZ ENSEMBLE and THE MOUNT FUJI DOOMJAZZ CORPORATION.
Köhnen coined the term “Darkjazz” back in 1999 when he composed a track entitled ‘Darkjazz‘ for his 2001 “Darkbreaks” EP. From that point embarking on a long musical journey into dark experimentations with the jazz sound palette in combination with a plethora of genres.
THE LOVECRAFT SEXTET was evoked after a void appeared with the ending of his other Darkjazz outlets, firstly TKDE and TMFDJC and then the short lived THE THING WITH FIVE EYES project which saw Köhnen‘s first flirtations with Arabic scales and instruments, progressively transforming into his MANSUR project together with ex-PHURPA member Dmitry El Demerdashi and avantgarde metal THY CATAFALQUE vocalist Martina Hórvath.
Köhnen‘s approach to his releases with THE LOVECRAFT SEXTET are to open the spectrum of Darkjazz in all its wonderful and mysterious facets. Seeing each release as a script and soundtrack to a different movie, setting a different pace and atmosphere and playing with unorthodox climaxes and atmospheres. The projects hosts a list of dedicated guest musicians, who all participate as the leading actors in these scripts, all playing a crucial role in the soundtracks of these non-existing movies.
THE LOVECRAFT SEXTET releases albums on Denovali Records and Debemur Morti Productions, in a way where the Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde part of this project comes to its best and most creative fruition.
Apart from the conceptual audio releases, THE LOVECRAFT SEXTET also navigates through the multi-disciplinary arts. The “In Memoriam” release saw a first in a series of short stories and audiobooks combined with an album. Future releases will see more art disciplines combined as a release.