Allowing a second glimpse into the forthcoming album, THE LOVECRAFT SEXTET unveil the new composition ‘Miserere [Opus III]-Sanctum‘. The song is defined by sorrowful instrumentation and the expressive as well as versatile female vocals of Jason Köhnen‘s long-time collaborative partner Lilian Tong. By adding eerie and sinister saxophone, noise and ambient elements, the track transforms itself from a neoclassical piece into a Jazz noir mélange. Composer Jason Köhnen narrates on the conceptual background:
“The song opens with a lamentation and gradually progresses to repentance and the penitence of sin. With this composition I tried to transpose religious expressions into a specific musical journey … a confessional journey of a heretic. I composed the classical part and instructed Lilian Tong on the theme and emotion for the song. She is singing a specific part of Psalm 51 which reflects on the concept of the ‘Sanctum’ piece. As a classical trained soprano, Lilian is incredibly fine to work with, she really understands the vocal desperation needed for this song.“
Check the song and the accompanying video below:
The images used to create the clip stem from the 1928 classic French silent movie, “The Passion Of Joan Of Arc / Le Passion de Jeanne D’Arc“. Jason comments:
“When I was composing this song, I had the images of this film as inspiration. There is an intense lingering sadness, denigration and degradation in this movie that weighs really heavy. It carries this profound load of injustice and suffering … but in the end the relief and the acceptance of death for staying true to one’s convictions. It’s incredibly bittersweet and tells that same story of repentance which is the concept of ‘Miserere’. There is nothing more powerful than someone willing to die for their beliefs and their convictions. The earthly suffering for universal truths.”
“Miserere” will be released on CD, vinyl and digitally via Debemur Morti Productions on October 7th. Pre-orders for the album are possible via the label’s EU, US and Bandcamp stores.
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.