Style: Black Metal, Avantgarde, Baroque, Progressive Metal
- New Mastering by Thomas Tannenberger (Abigor).
- New cover & artwork by Bernd Grünwald & Michael Haas
- Printed Inserts (12 pages including original lyrics)
- First time on vinyl.
- 180 gr vinyls.
Format
Limited Double Gatefold (250 copies)
Cat Nr: TCM027LP
Barcode: 0634240189333
The Circle Music proudly announces the release of Angizia’s - ” Die Kemenaten scharlachroter Lichter” for the first time on vinyl. This is basically where it all started for this very special & unique band. The first demo Kissarna (1995) & the split release with Amestigon (1996) never foresaw the release of this monumental debut album that appeared 26 years ago like a bolt of lighting.
From then on, nothing would be the same. Angizia without a trace of exaggeration, invented a new path in black metal, perfectly grafting so many musical genres. Perhaps the first thing we had to describe “Die Kemenaten...” was that they introduced a progressive black metal avant-garde aesthetic to the baroque.
“Die Kemenaten...” is a genius album, full of bold ideas and innovative techniques, which flloods the listener with images and emotions. Its 5 chapters comprise not only one of the best albums ever released by Angizia, but also one of the most historic that will be remembered by music scholars of the future.
26 years ago, the solid foundations were laid for all the exciting moments that these amazing Austrians would generously give us since then!
The Circle Music
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Story behind the album:
Angizia’s debut album “Die Kemenaten scharlachroter Lichter” was intended as a homage to the Baroque era of the 18th century. A gloomy poet named Konstanz Bürster had chosen to inhabit a (female) chamber for his old age to write down his memoirs. In the midst of thick castle walls and in scarlet candlelight this wise man sat in a small secluded bower and wrote down his life story in a book, which he named “Die Kemenaten scharlachroter Lichter”.
While he was writing Konstanz screamed terribly and in a rage. He cried bitterly. He laughed incessantly. He mourned constantly (over and over). He hated himself. He loved his thoughts and held each one tight (as tightly he could). The old man wistfully bit into an overripe cherry fruit. Now, in the evening of his life, he again staggered mentally through the cherry orchard of his childhood. At once red candle wax dripped onto the leather cover of the book, as if ripe cherries were falling from the treetop. In his last book Konstanz Bürster descended into the vast morass of all the ponds of his life. He nostalgically saw himself sitting there together with his childhood friend Lavater. In his mind he wandered through extensive forests, cut dozens of vines, sheltered countless birds and accompanied his life’s work himself on his own cello. He looked back sadly on a life full of snowy green grapes. Tenor and soprano singing put a smile on his face, a string quartet and a clavichord accompanied him and a wonderful night song rang out in the stillness of all these gloomy nights. In the end, it wasn’t the lights of those bowers - it was the bowers of those scarlet lights that made up his book. He closed his work and found that only the title was missing. Then he wrote it down - in one font and in large letters: DIE KEMENATEN SCHARLACHROTER LICHTER (THE BOWERS OF SCARLET LIGHTS).
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Michael Haas on the album’s special relationship to Baroque:
“Die Kemenaten scharlachroter Lichter” was intended from the outset as a homage to the Baroque: It was important to us to find our own artistic expression in a Baroque atmosphere. Personally, I was very fascinated by baroque artworks by Vermeulen, Baschenis, Rembrandt, Rubens, De Zur and Caravaggio.
What I appreciated about Baroque literature was the very pictorial, artificial language and contrasting themes such as love of life (carpe diem) and longing for death (memento mori). In this dichotomy and on this tightrope walk I also saw Konstanz Bürster, the main character of “Die Kemenaten scharlachroter Lichter”.
“Die Kemenaten scharlachroter Lichter” was intended as a monodrama in 5 chapters, with the curtain falling after each chapter from a theatrical point of view. Therefore it was a “monodrama in 5 acts”.
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Michael Haas on the origin of the music of “Die Kemenaten scharlachroter Lichter”:
Back then, Cedric Müller (Szinonem) and I (Engelke) often sat together for 4-5 hours at a time to draft all the compositions for this album on his grand piano (and often several days in a row, over many weeks). At that time, Cedric Müller played the piano for 6 to 7 hours a day and was one of the best classical pianists of his age in Austria, and I think you can hear that on the album too. We were 18 and 20 years old at this time. “Die Kemenaten scharlachroter Lichter” was an incredibly powerful “snapshot” and the result of an immensely intense and excessive time together as a band: Irretrievable, unforgettable and iconic...
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Michael Haas about the reason for a re-release on vinyl:
The CD version of “Die Kemenaten scharlachroter Lichter” has been sold out for about 20 years. I’m really proud and happy that we can now re-release ” Die Kemenaten scharlachroter Lichter” on vinyl together with our label THE CIRCLE MUSIC. The layout will be completely redesigned. In contrast to the CD version, all lyrics will also be available and will therefore be part of the libretto booklet of the LP.
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- Layout by Bernd Grünwald & Michael Haas
- Recorded and mixed by Georg Hrauda & Angizia at Studio Hoernix (November 1996 - January 1997)
- Vinyl Mastering by Thomas Tannenberger (Abigor) (August 2023)
Line up:
Michael Haas (Engelke), vox
Petra Schweinberger (Aastedet), vox
Irene Denner, soprano
Fritz Rieder, tenor
Cedric Müller (Szinonem), piano
Sophie Müller, cello
Sabine Kastner, flute
Markus Fröhlich, acoustic guitars
Jürgen Prokesch, electric guitars
Claus Nedoschil, e-bass
Johannes Amon (Henning), drums
