Norwegian dark/industrial/ambient/experimental pioneers Penitent has signed with The Circle Music. The collaboration as started with a new incarnation of their debut album Melancholi, originally released by Cold Meat Industry almost 30 years ago in 1996.
This is an enhanced rerelease as almost everything has been changed with rerecorded music and rewritten English lyrics – Out now, it goes under the moniker Melancholia Redux and they’ve released videos for ‘Beyond the Whispering Echoes‘ and ‘The Path of Shadows’ that you can check out here at RAMzine.
“Bringing these older tracks like ‘The Path of Shadows’ back to life for Melancholia Redux and creating visuals for them allows a new perspective on the original feelings and poetry. This piece holds a particular significance from the original album, and working on the video allowed us to explore its atmosphere visually,” said Karsten Hamre, Penitent‘s heart and soul.
“Creating the visual counterpart for ‘Beyond the Whispering Echoes’ allowed us to delve deeper into the atmosphere of Melancholia Redux. The video aims to reflect the introspective and melancholic journey of the track, bringing the reimagined lyrics and music to life in a new dimension,” Hamre continued.
Hamre, has followed a peculiar personal path and for more than three decades has remained consistent, dressing his poetry in black and eerie melodies. Not only did the passing of time not deter him, on the contrary, today he is possessed by a freshness that is like doing a complete restart. He has rerecorded a large part of the ten albums he has released to date, while at the same time making new plans for the future.
“After nearly 30 years, the Penitent debut album Melancholia is set to be released in a new incarnation,” said Hamre before its release. “The music and instrumentation has been re-recorded, and the lyrics have been rewritten and are now all in English. Thanks to the good people at The Circle Music this reincarnation, now dubbed Melancholia Redux is set to be released on both CD and LP.“I am thrilled about this cooperation, which should be a long-lasting one, and it should include more reworks as well as new and updated versions of the Penitent back catalogue (some to have voice/vocals added to them).”
“Other future Redux versions may include The Beauty Of Pain, As Life Fades Away and Roses By Chaos Spawned. Reworked version of “Deserted Dreams” and “A Shapeless Beauty” will for sure come, and then with added vocals/voice in order to be closer to how the songs in the past were performed live (in mainly Iasi and Bucharest, Romania and in Sofia, Bulgaria).
“This is also the way future live performances will be done as well.”“Naturally, there will also be new and never-before-released music in the pipeline, so there’s quite a bit to look forward to in the future. Finally, I would like to thank the team at The Circle Music for making all this happen.”
