François J. Bonnet (a.k.a Kassel Jaeger) and Sunn O)))‘s Stephen O’Malley will release a collaborative album on Vienna’s Editions Mego next month. 

Cylene, the duo’s first collaborative album, represents a melding point between minimalism, drone, and ambient. O’Malley performs cerebral guitar through an array of pedals, while Bonnet adds compositional framework and studio-based audio reorientation. They recorded it at GRM Studios, Paris, in May 2018. Post-edits and mixing were conducted by Bonnet a few months later. 

France-based musician and author Joseph Ghosn adds in the Cylene liner notes: “Stephen and François deal in those moments and instants that happen after the violence, and the ugliness and the mess. Their music is about chaos being summoned and ordered. It is about the noise that nurtures your ears after a long heartbreaking pain. I have heard the sounds of wars being fought and the noises of hearts being broken, and I have never found a shelter as soothing as this music which makes me think of sunken ships and beauty found in the depths of oceans long forgotten.”

Cylene will be pressed as a 2LP vinyl version on Editions Mego, with pre-order available here, a stream of “Première noire” below. 

Tracklisting

01. Première noire

02. Erosion always wins

03. Pāhoehoe

04. Deuxième noire

05. Tephras

06. Dernières teintes noires

07. Des pas dans les cendres