Sutekh Hexen - live excerpt 2017 by WICK: 4/4

Sutekh Hexen - live excerpt 2017 by WICK: 3/4

Sutekh Hexen - live excerpt 2017 by WICK: 2/4

Sutekh Hexen - live excerpt 2017 by WICK: 1/4

SH:HS SW2017

Sutekh Hexen / Hissing - Sampler

Dimensional Manifestation

Approved: New 13m+ track titled 'Pareidolian (Symptoms of Sight)' for a split 12" and cassette limited edition split w/Hissing. Pictured here is a fraction of the cover painting commissioned from the venerable Timo Ketola and the test press on deck. Further details and announcements soon... Thank you.

AU:TONE:AL

Available now:

CRUS27: AU:TONE:AL design. The collaborative body of @AndreCustodio, Dave Ed (@neurosisoakland) and myself. Two side-long tracks (30m+) of long-form sonic alchemy with Dre on virtual and analog synthesizers, Dave on MOOG Rogue and effects and yours truly on electric guitar and amps.

Subterranean sounds for ascendant heads.

PURCHASE HERE:
http://cloisterrecordingsus.bigcartel.com/product/pre-order-autoneal-s-t-cs

:umbra:ordo:seclorum:

split 7" w/BLSPHM: This is the remastered tracks from our hyper limited split released on Dead Accents [DA056] in 2014 as a tour exclusive that will finally see vinyl release. Originally available in an edition of 50 tapes and long gone. Side A: Sutekh Hexen - 'Azure Graal' // Side B: BLSHPM - 'Abyss 3'. 

For now here are previews fresh off the press from Ballard, WA of the completed + assembled letter pressed sleeves. Completely new packaging design via Kevin Gan Yuen [viraloptic.com] and omnimous cover illustration by the always great Stephen Wilson!!! Two limited variants for this vinyl edition. More details soon.

Thank you.

Uncloaked Infinite on KPFA

"Utech Records is thrilled to announce Kevin Gan Yuen will be performing live on KPFA 94.1 FM Sunday, May 14 and talking about his new solo album, Uncloaked Infinite. The album will be available via Utech Records on June 9 as a 10” LP. Our friends at Heathen Harvest will be premiering a track from Uncloaked Infinite in a few weeks. A preorder will coincide with the premier. Keep an eye out and tune in to KPFA this Sunday, 10PM–1AM PST.
utechrecords.com
kpfa.org"

Sitting in w/ DISGUST tomorrow evening to summon sub-zero glacial winds: Supporting Terror Apart, Tetrad Veil and Cost at @VAMPmusicart OAK.

SUTEKH HEXEN - 'SALEM' is available now

Available now in limited gatefold vinyl and cassette editions or digitally through our Bandcamp. Purchase details for each edition can be found below at the following links:

Vinyl (options): St Roch Ave. Recordings
Cassette (options): Grey Sun
Digital: Bandcamp

Thank you.

Frozen in Time III: Music to Accompany the Films of Ingmar Bergman

Now available: 

I have three new tracks accompanying the film "The Magician" (personal choice) on this forthcoming, exciting and final installation of the Black Horizons curated Ingmar Bergman series.

PREVIEWS HERE: https://soundcloud.com/kevinganyuen
PURCHASE HERE: http://www.black-horizons.com/bh97.html

KEVIN GAN YUEN: guitar, field-recordings (source), percussion and computer, ZOOM H4 and RECORDED 2012-2015 // ARRANGED and POST PRODUCTION 2015.

sutekhhexen.org « viraloptic.com 

« In the Shadows // Part 1 Queue: 0m - 5m
« Fear and Well-being // Part 1 Queue: 5m15s - 12m18s
« Good Bye, Vergerus Part 2 Queue: 1:25:45 - 1:32:43

Here is more info from the label: 
"the much anticipated BH-97 - Frozen In Time III: Music to Accompany the Films of Ingmar Bergman 3xC40 compilation featuring Kevin Gan Yuen, Æther, Jute Gyte, Thoabath, Victor Eremita, and Common Eider, King Eider..."

Thank you.

I am excited to announce that I will be sitting in with friends in Common Eider, King Eider in supporting (the most excellent) Aluk Todolo and Insect Ark with Alaric at Elbo Room. Event page here: Aluk Todolo with Insect Ark in SF. Thank you.

Jim Kaiser (1971-2017)

Thank you for everything... we will miss you very much.

The last French Radio set (ever) here:
https://petitmalmusic.bandcamp.com/track/last-fr-live-lsg-28april2016

via East Bay Express by Sam Lefebvre:

"Jim Kaiser, a champion of experimental music who worked at Amoeba Berkeley for nearly twenty years, was found dead at home in Emeryville on January 3, family members confirmed to the Express. He was 46.

A buoyant presence with a perennial lock of stringy hair, Kaiser supported pronouncedly dark and austere music with a seemingly incongruous, often playful zeal. In ensembles including French Radio, NF Orchest, and Thomas Carnacki, Kaiser lithely bowed contact-mic'd bicycle spokes to absorbing effect. In cover bands, a feature of Amoeba's storied holiday parties, his approach was more like joyous abandon.

Kaiser self-released much of his voluminous solo material, heavy on field recordings and lustrously charred ambiance, through Petit Mal. In 2012, he told this writer that he liked the way the phrase, a French term for a short seizure that literally means "small evil," resonated with the label's primary format: three-inch CDs. "This music has no commercial appeal," he said at the time. "But there are enough weirdoes here for it to sustain itself."

Such was the appeal of the East Bay, where Kaiser arrived and quickly landed a job at Amoeba Music's flagship Berkeley location in 1997. Immediately, recalled former coworker and partner Elise Yousouffian, Kaiser seemed acquainted with the underground venues hospitable to experimental music; he'd already connected with many local artists by booking their tour dates in New Orleans and, before that, Kansas City, Missouri.

Kaiser also started a store ritual: cramming Marshmallow Peeps into CD cases and filing them for sale in the bins, marking each with a pun on the corresponding artist sections (e.g. "Nick Cave & the Bad Peeps").

That's how Kaiser connected with Gregory Scharpen, leader of the Thomas Carnacki ensemble. "He's always known for the bicycle wheel," Scharpen said. "But with us, he'd also use multiple reel-to-reel decks and a shortwave radio that he'd control almost like a Theremin, modulating static by tapping on the antenna. ... Even though the music tended to be dark or somber or melancholy, we'd be grinning like loons from sheer delight.""By way of this job, he was able to get involved with some of the most interesting musicians in the area," said Amoeba co-founder Marc Weinstein, noting how Kaiser dotingly curated the shop's experimental selection. "They'd often meet at the counter."

"He beamed with the type of light and exuberant spirit that always has another side, an alter ego," friend and co-worker Rebecca Burgan wrote. "Often the intense darkness could be channeled into musical pursuits, where he created and collaborated until the light of dawn let him rest."

Kaiser wrote that his last recording, a piece called Blood Has Taste and released in 2015, was "provoked and inspired by several weeks, no, months of near constant pain and discomfort thanks to impacted vertebrae in my neck and upper back."

Yousouffian said that she'd begun offloading her record collection in recent years — a good excuse to visit Kaiser at the buy counter. "There'd inevitably be some record that he just wouldn't let me part with," she said. "He'd go, 'Sorry, no, take that one back home and listen.'"

Kaiser is survived by his mother, Margaret Kaiser of Ridgedale, Mo., and three siblings, Elizabeth Vaughn, Joseph Kaiser, and Paul Kaiser. The family asks that memorial donations be made to Band of Angels in Kansas City."

Last batch of CS j-card designs for Cloister (US)

New album cover designs, etc:

Updates to \O: Scaling back the design/commissions for a while to focus on family + recording obligations: Ultha (DE) for their forthcoming album 'Converging Sins' //black metal from Germany and Toby Driver (US) and his upcoming solo release 'Madonnawhore'.


One more for the year for SUTEKH HEXEN's 'Salem' LP, but more on that later...

Kevin Gan Yuen live@Trouble Coffee Roasters // 21 August 2016

V:Z:U:L : AUG2016

Recently completed design/illustration/multi-medium commissions that I had updated earlier this evening at viraloptic.com (primary design port.)

Keeping the format faithful updated on here as well. On that note: I will continue updating this spot for the time being despite the options of immediacy through other "social" media platforms, which more or less render others obsolete.

Those who wish to know further on these and related projects which I am involved with here or there, please feel free to contact me directly: kevin at viraloptic dot com.

Many thanks to the collaborators and those supporters who continue to entrust my vision with theirs... We make this happen:

New logo for Seattle/New Mexico based Black/Death maniacs PREDATORY LIGHT.

Packaging/Typographic Design for mysterious Barcelona based Black/Death/Noise-wall entity, BLACK EARTH.

LP jacket design for Los Angeles based electronic/dubstep project THIEF (member of weirdo plant-based metal band BOTANIST). 

LP jacket layout for Swedish Death/Industrial spectre TREPANERINGSRITUALEN (his best album in fact).

New batch of design work from the past few months:

It has been busier than usual in this dept. and I have lagged in providing any updates on here.  Detailed previews/notes at viraloptic.com.  

I had the pleasure of art directing some great projects recently for excellent labels: Neurot Recordings, Osmose Productions and was asked to oversee the creative direction for San Francisco based label The Flenser... it has been pretty busy!!! 

Various other updates on related activities will happen shortly, news of the forthcoming Sutekh Hexen release (3xLP/C30), a new solo 10" and collaborations.  The visual extension of my work will be slowing down a bit as I focus on family, writing/recording and self.

Thanks to everybody involved for supporting and trusting the vision up to this point and am continually thankful to be offered these amazing opportunities.

Onward,

Alaric - Adore

THE SUTEKH HEXEN INCIDENT | thepitchcontrol

SUTEKH HEXEN - LIVE IN OAKLAND (for those not present)