Victoria Lukas' Final Release - Vita ALTAR'

Victoria Lukas' final project, Altar' under her Vita alias, is now available for the first time to see and hear. In total there are six tracks, this link will bring you to five of the videos that were all directed by her regular collaborator Julia Pello (the other video by Anaïs Boudot is linked here). 

It's quite an experience to listen and view them all together, she really was making her best work right at the end of her life. She had been writing on her FB page about this project in the year before she died (see below). Also be sure to check out the Altar' website, as this was approached as a multi media project. 

It's fantastic to experience this new work and see her living on like this. She was a member of Zerkalo with Heinrich Mueller, I wrote a post here to mark her passing. You can find some of her other music here.

'hi everyone,

Its been months that we are polishing a project called the VITA Alta'r Ep. It is a multimedia project which has its own site where some medias and writings are posted frequently: https://vitaaltar.tumblr.com/

We are intensively working on the videos actually, there is one directed for each of the 6 tracks of the Ep...under my alias VITA i release some very personal electronic music which is experimental, sentimental and dark, so don't expect any electro following the codes. w/ Julia Pello and an unique and marvellous participation of Anaïs Boudot, for the astounding video intro of the project, the song called "The Awaiting". Alta'r is a multimedia project about dedication, love, and eternity ...

The 6 tracks has been recorded and produced by Victoria Lukas. 

It contains collaborations with Pierre Bastien and Christoph De Babalon.

The videos have been directed by Anaïs Boudot & Julia Pello.

The poems have been written by Julia Pello.

Before selling the tracks we would like the videos to stay online to be seen as a whole.'

VITA ALTAR'

1 The Awaiting 

2 I wish 

3 Muse

4 Let's have no more nights

5 As long as I stay 

6 Oblik

New James Stinson interview uncovered from Lotus magazine 2002 and more

One of my readers has very kindly sent me a copy of a short interview with James Stinson from the US music magazine Lotus (#36 March 2002). You can click on it and it will open in a bigger size to read. I'm told it was a mag from Los Angeles and the piece was written by Thomas Kelley. I was not previously aware of it so it was a real surprise when it turned up. I'm trying to archive whatever I can here so please keep an eye out in old magazines from about 1992-2002 and you never know what you might find (particularly in the final two years). I've now added the interview text to Drexciya Speaks (all of James' interviews compiled) and below. 

Asked about his move to Atlanta 

"It's the weather. The weather up here in Michigan is really getting to me. I have to get to a warmer climate, but I really don't want to move to Florida because I don't want to deal with no damn hurricanes."

On the Storm Series

"It's like a whirl storm, all of the music was done within one year. It was one helluva storm brewing when all of this music got made. That's the best way to describe it. So we decided to release our music in different spots around the world and whatnot. The last three (albums), I'm not going to say when and what they are. I'm leaving it as a sudden storm that brews up on you! It's on a need to know basis. But it's also like the release of one of our recent records, 'Wavejumper'. The definition of 'Wavejumper' is what we're doing with Dimensional Waves. We're going from record label to record label around the world and jumping to different portals. There is a mystery to a lot of the things you an follow in each project, looking for little things, reading the track titles for clues. Linkage."

Drexciya have been cited in this piece by the Guardian as an influence on a plan for an underwater memorial for slaves lost during the middle passage.

Following on from a recent post on the DRL FB page about a cartoon James Stinson used to watch as a child, Abdul Haqq was in touch to say he consulted with Tyree Stinson and found out that the cartoon was Battle of the Planets. BOTP ran from 1979-1980 and totalled 85 episodes. Its story has roots in an earlier Japanese anime series. Most interestingly, G-Force had an underwater base called Centre Neptune. 

Dopplereffekt were interviewed for Azimuth 2020, an online event they played live at recently. You can listen to the interview here. 

There is now a new Tactical Airspace FB page. TA is described as, 'Audiovisual and educational program founded and develop by H. Mueller, Ruben Benabou, Christina Vantzou, Dr. Katarina Markovic, Philip Washington. This program's goal is to educate on the military Aeronautical and Aerospace fields.'

You can listen to one of the tracks Dopplereffekt created for The Book of Drexciya vol. 2 fundraiser here. 

On YouTube I came across a copy of the a capella/skit version of Doppereffekt's 'Scientist' from their debut 7". 

You can listen to Dopplereffekt's recent live show from Vilnius, Lithuania (6/11/20). It was streamed on radio for one time only last night. Quality is excellent

Adult. have two recent pieces online where they cite Drexciya as an influence. The Quietus and London in Stereo.

On Ebay I noticed that someone is selling a copy of Hard Sync #5, a US electronic music zine from 1995. Luckily one of the pages they scanned was a full page advert from Dopplereffekt (looking for a female collaborator). 

By now they would have already released their Fascist State EP. I'm not sure how serious the advert is, it may have been meant to be humorous, provocative or totally sincere (I wonder if anyone got in touch). 

They obviously had some kind of theme going on as previously, from the same zine (#3), I've previously scanned another full page Dopplereffekt advert (Fascist State 4018). Click on image to read at larger size.