WRAITHS & PYRAMIDS – Magpie & Raven

Years in the making, fraught with difficulty and still, even now, a bearer of bad blood and woeful tidings but Magpie & Raven is undoubtedly the most accomplished project Wraiths have been involved in as Pyramids, under the guiding eye of R Loren, manage to snatch a fragile beauty from the filth-smeared maw of Wraiths’ vileness…

Originally released on vinyl and tape by Aurora Borealis, Magpie & Raven is now available as a digital edition.

INCLUDED WITH THIS DOWNLOAD; the original Wraiths recording that forms the foundation of the track in both its edited and 50-minute full-length versions. These tracks were created from sound samples, provided by Pyramids and subsequently played through manual manipulation of a broken tape-player.

“Come here,” he said. “And I’ll give your flesh to the birds.” – 1 Samuel 17:44.

DR_1 – How Angels Fly On Burning Wings & Eternity Is The Death Of Time

Very much an outlier in the musical world of the Ordo, DR_1’s two EPs were released in our early days to little fanfare but contain some quite perfect moments of deep-space ambience and stand up even now. Both debut release How Angels Fly On Burning Wings (tracked here for a non-existent tape release) and follow-up Eternity Is The Death Of Time are now available on the Ordo Pestilentia Bandcamp for free streaming and pay-what-you-want download.

As much as How Angels Fly On Burning Wings’ slow crackles and wide bass-synths lull the listener into a zero-g stupor it is the blistering noise, rocket booster intro of Eternity Is The Death Of Time that sends them hurtling out through the solar system and off to the galactic fringes, where space-time itself starts to break down into hyperfoam and nothing.

Interplanetary, interstellar, intergalactic.

BRENNENDES GEHIRN – Epidemics Of The Modern Age

The only release on Ordo Pestilentia to not feature any musical input by label-magos Gaendaal is, sickeningly, perhaps one of our best. A dizzying, woozy journey into the kind of unpleasantly urban beats promulgated by the likes of Techno Animal and Dälek but with even more grime and detuned radio fuzz layered over the top. Voices echo from nowhere as strange rituals rumble up from the sewers.

Previously only available as in a now sold-out CD form and as stream-only, Epidemics Of The Modern Age is now available as a high-quality download from the Ordo Pestilentia bandcamp page.

Clemens Scheitz (2 September 1899 – 24 October 1980)

SIGILLUM DEI – There Is A Father In The Sky, There Is A Mother In The Ground

Sigillum Dei’s ghost drone opus “There Is A Father In The Sky, There Is A Mother In The Ground” is now sold out at At War With False Noise and only a few copies of the tape remain in the Ordo’s vaults, so we have decided to make the track available for high-quality download on the Bandcamp site for only £3.

The download bundle also includes all twenty of the random insert images, only one of which was included with each of the tape versions.

Familiar notes on the Stars & Planets…

LVTHN – Empire In Flames

LVTHN’s ‘Black Lake’ is now sold out from both Ordo Pestilentia and Paradigms Recordings (but still available through the aether). If there are a few remaining in distros, we know not of them. In honour of this we’ve decided to make a recording that came from the same sessions as ‘Black Lake’, but one which eventually followed its own path to oblivion, available on the Ordo Pestilentia Bandcamp page as a free stream (or downloadable for an exceptionally fair price).

‘Empire In Flames’ sees a deviation from LVTHN’s forays into a fog-shrouded past and turns to the dust-caked present that so very nearly was. Some of the elements that make up this 28-minute track were eventually re-envisioned and pressed into service for subtle harmonics on ‘Black Lake’, but in this exclusive release they are allowed to follow their own bleak path.

“…listen carefully to these instructions, your life depends on how well you follow them…”

LVTHN – Black Lake

LVTHN’s ‘Black Lake’ is now sold out at the label, so we’ve made it available to stream and download from the Ordo Pestilentia Bandcamp page. The final few physical copies we have in stock are also available to purchase through Bandcamp.

“With LVTHN, Wraiths’ Gaendaal conducts a harrowing descent into the darkest abyss and is here inspired by the haunted shores and murky depths of Scotland’s ancient lochs to bring forth the Black Lake. 4 excursions into the unknown over 48 minutes. Presented in finely screen printed arigato pack and issued in a strict edition of 100 exemplars only.”

A hypnotic, unnerving yet strangely tranquil meditation upon the horrors that drift upon the wake…

Sigillum Dei – There Is A Father In The Sky, There Is A Mother In The Ground

Absolute minimal drone created from restricted and restructured sound sources. Released through At War With False Noise on strictly limited cassette, now available for purchase and stream via the Ordo Pestilentia bandcamp page.

“Sigillum Dei is a project by Gaendaal of Wraiths which builds on singular sound sources and creates something entirely new and often beautifully haunting from them. 45 minutes of minimalist textural drone bliss, a tidal ebb and flow of waveforms creating a truly haunting ambient soundscape.“

LVTHN – As Flesh Turns To Stone

Another recent discovery in the Black Archives…

A previously unreleased track from LVTHN, intended to bridge the gap between Throne of Bones/Shrouded by Fog and the later era but which could never find a suitable home, now available for stream and download through the Ordo Pestilentia bandcamp page. In some ways, this is a spiritual successor to the themes initially explored in The Sea-Witch’s Lament. 

LVTHN – Fog On The Barrow-Downs

Buried by time & dust…

Originally released as the opening track from the Sonic Visions of Middle Earth compilation on Foreshadow Productions, we’ve made LVTHN’s ‘Fog On The Barrow-Downs’ available for stream and download through the Ordo Pestilentia bandcamp page. Featuring Gaendaal’s first, and likely only, vocal performance for LVTHN, this 12-minute piece is a requiem dirge for those who linger still in the the hollow hills.

Cold be hand and heart and bone,
and cold be sleep under stone:

LVTHN – Black Lake

LVTHN’s Black Lake is now available from Paradigms Recordings and through our own bigcartel shop.

“WRAITHS may very well be familiar to you from their Paradigms debut and recent releases on Aurora Borealis, including a recent colaboration with Pyramids. With LVTHN, Wraiths’ Gaendaal conducts a harrowing descent into the darkest abyss and is here inspired by the haunted shores and murky depths of Scotland’s ancient lochs to bring forth the Black Lake.

A hypnotic, unnerving yet strangely tranquil meditation upon the horrors that drift upon the wake. 4 excursions into the unknown over 48 minutes. Presented in finely screen printed arigato pack and issued in a strict edition of 100 exemplars only.

FILE UNDER : Haunted Soundtracks / Dark Ambient.“

A sample of ‘Drowned Cathedral’ is available here.