Roadburn festival is arguably the world’s most cutting edge boutique music festival out there, and has been a fertile breeding ground for innovative acts from a broad spectrum of musical genres for many years. Last year saw the unique collaboration of Danish electro-industrial duo John Cxnnor and Hungarian doom-folk artist The Devil’s Trade take the stage to deliver a sonic journey into the void of deep space. Today, we are excited to release this iconic set on vinyl to immortalise this one-time convergence of three akin artistic minds.
For over two decades, Roadburn Festival has been a driving force in the international music scene. Next to organising a well-visited four day festival being named ‘Best Small Festival’ at the European Festival.
Awards recently, the organisation led by artistic director Walter Hoejimakers commissions special pieces and collaborations under the motto of ‘Redefning Heaviness’ in order to stimulate innovation and creativity in the underground music scene. The convergence of Danish electro-industrial duo John Cxnnor with Hungarian doom-folk artist The Devil’s Trade is one prime example of how powerful these collaborations can be, and those who were present at this already legendary show in Tilburg can attest to that
John Cxnnor is made up of one half of Danish sci-fi-sludge metal juggernaut LLNN and sees the brothers Rasmus G. and Ketil G. Sejersen collaborating with numerous fellow artists to explore the synth side of their main project. Inspired by the Terminator-franchise and the scores of other sci-fi movies, the Sejersen brothers have been creating menacing industrial electronic opuses, the first of which a crushing rendition of a The Devil’s Trade track.
“We’ve been enjoying the music from The Devil’s Trade for quite some time now,” commented the duo on the release of «Dead Sister Merope», describing it as “an interesting match of musical expressions formed by the same DNA.” Indeed, the haunting atmospheric folk compositions of The Devil’s Trade mastermind Dávid Makó carry a similarly cavernous quality which, when taken to the stage of Roadburn, is only reinforced by the sonic violence of John Cxnnor.
“When Walter invited us to do this collaboration here, we had only one song released”, explains Dávid from the stage. “We had to do a whole set, so we wrote this whole set for you.” Due to a tight scheduling the trio had only three days to piece together a collection of songs, but the result is nothing short of astonishing. Consisting of several reworked and reinforced originals from both acts, as well as some original material, this live recording takes you right down to the darkest depths of outer space.
In the hands of the Sejersen brothers, a track like the album closer «The Call of the Iron Peak» of the same-titled The Devil’s Trade’s album becomes a skull- crushing neurofunk-infused industrial piece in the reworked version, now titled «The Call Of The Doom Mons». Like an infnitely evil uni- verse parallel to their originals, these songs are dark ambient opuses on steroids in which everything comes painted in red and black. With its ghostly trip hop beats and haunting piano shrouded in ghostly ambient textures, the album’s frst track is a grasp for the throat. Equally bleak is the trio’s rendition of «I Can Slow Down Time, Pt. 2», which is a textbook example of how everything these gentlemen lay their hands on takes a defnite turn for the demented. At the same time it is the quiet, sombre synth break before the grand fnale which reveals the fne cinematic aspirations of the trio, and which are carried through in the rest of the set to great avail.