Dark Star Safari—a newly formed band project featuring Jan Bang, Erik Honoré, Eivind Aarset, and Samuel Rohrer—will present their recording debut, an evocative self-titled song-driven album. 

The album stems from what the group describes as a two-stage process, at the centre of which lies an organic freedom that enables the music “to fill itself in,” to be self-actualizing via the musicians.

It began with an improvisation session initiated by Rohrer, who invited Bang and Aarset to the Candy Bomber studio in Berlin. The session was run by sound engineer Ingo Krauss, who worked in the famous Conny Plank studio, and its recording and mixing employed sophisticated use of vintage analogue equipment alongside cutting edge digital processes. This meeting opened the door for something larger to emerge, and drove all four artists to attentively examine and manipulate the material in order to discover what it had to offer. 

During this second phase, Bang, while meditating upon the possibilities of the improvised material, felt an urge to give additional colour to it by singing. So he stepped into the role of vocalist, a role he had not pursued since the early days of his musical career. He sent the results to Honoré, who penned the lyrics and composed two additional songs, “Mordechai” and “Fault Line,” to complete the project. 

We’re told that the songs conjure shadows of memory, clouds of dreaming, and silhouettes of foreboding through the album’s layered, textured fabrics and Bang’s delivery of Honoré’s lyrics.

Rohrer, a multi-faceted percussionist and producer who forms part of Ambiq, contributed an XLR8R podcast which can be streamed here. 

Tracklisting

01 Labyrinthine

02. Resilient Star 

03. Family Gospel

04. Child of Folly

05. Thoughts and Prayers

06. Mordechai (A Prophecy)

07. November’s Child 

08. White Rose 

09. Your Fathers’ Names

10. Fault Line

Dark Star Safari LP lands May 10 via Arjunamusic with an album trailer below.