Avantgarde Music

Atmospheric Black Metal from Slovakia

Digipak with booklet

Standard black vinyl (200) 

New Enisum album, digipack A5 CD

A5-sized digipak with extended booklet, printed on offset paper

Apokryphon is the new project by Zorgh, Darkspace founding member and bassist. This new band has nothing to do with Darkspace, hence it would be inappropriate to make any kind of comparison between the two. Quite the opposite, after twenty years crafting a certain kind of music (and a certain kind of black metal), the Bern-based musician wanted to explore something different, and this is why you should expect a totally distant approach to both themes and sounds. The multi-instrumentalist even chose a new alias for herself, here going by the name of Ophis.

We asked Ophis herself to express her thoughts about this new adventure she embarked on, which you can read hereunder: Apokryphon literally means "hidden" or "dark" and refers to the apocrypha, old esoteric scriptures written by a variety of people that were either actively hidden or controversial and therefore excluded from public viewing or biblical content, for example. Many of them were found to be heretical, some were related to gnosticism. Many of them were written in the geographical area of the Middle East about 2000 years ago. ”Subterra" thematically relates to themes treated in the apocrypha. Musically, it is rooted in black metal, decorated with oriental spices. It is an expression of my own personal and musical identity and themes that touch me generally. I have chosen to liberally interpret both apocryphal texts and black metal in my very own way. And with "Djinn" I have found the perfect voice to interpret most of the vocal aspects. 

After more than a decade of cooperation, at Avantgarde Music we have the utmost respect for the Swiss trio, and when one of the few women in the black metal world expressed her wish to produce an (almost) solo album we knew we wanted to give her our full support before even hearing a single note. Once we had Subterra in our hands, we were but proven right.

We hope you’ll find Apokryphon as interesteing as fascinating as we did. Subterra is scheduled for release on the 14th of February, 2020.

Digipack con finiture in UV

first press misprint, missing one title on back cover

this one: https://www.discogs.com/Mesarthim-Isolate/release/10621232

extra limited 100 copies in black vinyl

Anyone with the slightest interest in darkwave music and the goth counterculture is familiar with Lycia. Born in Tempe, AZ, in 1988 from the creative mind of Mike VanPortfleet, Lycia is as seminal and influential as a band can get. Devoted to cold, somber and synthetic sounds, these pioneers of the ethereal are responsible for some of the most acclaimed underground albums of the ‘90s. 

The current lineup of the band is John Fair, David Galas, Tara Vanflower and Mike VanPortfleet, who has been the only constant member since the band’s formation. Although only achieving minor cult success, the band is notable for being one of the groundbreaking groups in the darkwave and ethereal styles. Their 1995 album The Burning Circle And Then Dust "remains a high point of American dark rock" according to AllMusic, and 1996’s Cold has been cited as one of the genre’s best by Post-Punk.com and Alternative Press. Lycia's sound is characterized by rich soundscapes and layers of heavily effected guitars, dark atmospheric keyboards, heavy reverb drenched drum machines, VanPortfleet's somber raspy vocals and Vanflower's vivid melodic voice. 

Avantgarde Music had the pleasure to bring the 1991 debut full-length Ionia to a vinyl edition for the first time in early 2021, and this brought along the chance to cooperate on new music. This turned out to be a rich studio EP, Casa Luna. We reached out to Mike VanPortfleet, who describes Casa Luna as a followup to 2018’s In Flickers, with a more varied approach, stylistically and thematically. “In Flickers and Casa Luna are Lycia’s purest releases. Originally planned as a split 7” with the song “A Quiet Way to Go”, as more songs were written they evolved to an EP”.

edition 200 copies

Anyone with the slightest interest in darkwave music and the goth counterculture is familiar with Lycia. Born in Tempe, AZ, in 1988 from the creative mind of Mike VanPortfleet, Lycia is as seminal and influential as a band can get. Devoted to cold, somber and synthetic sounds, these pioneers of the ethereal are responsible for some of the most acclaimed underground albums of the ‘90s. 

The current lineup of the band is John Fair, David Galas, Tara Vanflower and Mike VanPortfleet, who has been the only constant member since the band’s formation. Although only achieving minor cult success, the band is notable for being one of the groundbreaking groups in the darkwave and ethereal styles. Their 1995 album The Burning Circle And Then Dust "remains a high point of American dark rock" according to AllMusic, and 1996’s Cold has been cited as one of the genre’s best by Post-Punk.com and Alternative Press. Lycia's sound is characterized by rich soundscapes and layers of heavily effected guitars, dark atmospheric keyboards, heavy reverb drenched drum machines, VanPortfleet's somber raspy vocals and Vanflower's vivid melodic voice. 

Avantgarde Music had the pleasure to bring the 1991 debut full-length Ionia to a vinyl edition for the first time in early 2021, and this brought along the chance to cooperate on new music. This turned out to be a rich studio EP, Casa Luna. We reached out to Mike VanPortfleet, who describes Casa Luna as a followup to 2018’s In Flickers, with a more varied approach, stylistically and thematically. “In Flickers and Casa Luna are Lycia’s purest releases. Originally planned as a split 7” with the song “A Quiet Way to Go”, as more songs were written they evolved to an EP”.

digipack leggermente bozzato sullo spigolo superiore sinistro

Russian blackgaze duo Olhava is back with their new studio album. Frozen Blooom is the natural follow-up to self-titled Olhava (2019) and Ladoga (2020), and integrates some dronescapes the band experimented on Never Leave Me Alone (2020), the drone version of their debut.

Multi-instrumentalist Andrey Novozhilov and drummer Timur Yusupov describe their new journey with words of thoughtful contemplation: “When winter is just starting to fade and give some space to the first steps of spring… When life starts to reappear and the very early flowers peek through the thawing soil, a sudden drop of the temperature can leave them petrified and frozen back again, punished by the “Queen of Fields”. This statuesque dead beauty, being infinitely alive and dead at the same time is the main metaphor of this album. Frozen Bloom is about unfulfilled dreams. About how we sacrifice everything today for some abstract “tomorrow”, which may never come. But tomorrow and yesterday don’t exist – only this very moment of static contemplation is real”.

Frozen Bloom is Olhava’s fourth opus in three years, and here the duo took some different routes compositionally. Two of the four tracks are traditionally storm-like blackgaze passages, while the other two are leaning towards a more meditative drone experience. The album also features A. Lunn, who kindly agreed to record an electric guitar solo as well as acoustic parts and choral parts on “Frozen Bloom I”.

Frozen Bloom was recorded at Olhava home studios, as well as at the local rehearsal space. Mikhail Kurochkin took care of mixing and mastering.

This is a special offer, limited to 40 orders 

For all ISON maniacs out there, a chance to collect in one only parcel (and save money) the three colors variants: cyan/white (effect "Aside/Bside), grey/black ("galaxy" effect) and solid White vinyl.
Please note this is a preorder, the record will be released in late June!
A digital download code for the full album will be provided upon request, for the bandcamp maniacs

This is a special offer meant for all of you who have missed the very first two Olhava albums and want to get all of them at once:
'Olahava' LP + 'Ladoga' DLP + 'Never leave me alone' LP + 'Frozen Bloom' DLP
and save an helluva money: the total cost of these 4 vinyls (when individually purchased) would be in fact 78.00€ plus shipping.
All LPs will be shipped in their colored vinyl editions

This bundle is an opportunity for you to join a copy of the limited press of "Never leave me alone" vinyl with a copy of the new Olhava album 'Frozen bloom'.
We are talking here about color vinyls editions for both titles
This has to be intended as a preorder to be shipped when 'Frozen Bloom' will be released in May, saving money as well (the records are otherwise individually priced 22.00€ + 17.00€)

Russian blackgaze duo Olhava is back with their new studio album. Frozen Blooom is the natural follow-up to self-titled Olhava (2019) and Ladoga (2020), and integrates some dronescapes the band experimented on Never Leave Me Alone (2020), the drone version of their debut.

Multi-instrumentalist Andrey Novozhilov and drummer Timur Yusupov describe their new journey with words of thoughtful contemplation: “When winter is just starting to fade and give some space to the first steps of spring… When life starts to reappear and the very early flowers peek through the thawing soil, a sudden drop of the temperature can leave them petrified and frozen back again, punished by the “Queen of Fields”. This statuesque dead beauty, being infinitely alive and dead at the same time is the main metaphor of this album. Frozen Bloom is about unfulfilled dreams. About how we sacrifice everything today for some abstract “tomorrow”, which may never come. But tomorrow and yesterday don’t exist – only this very moment of static contemplation is real”.

Frozen Bloom is Olhava’s fourth opus in three years, and here the duo took some different routes compositionally. Two of the four tracks are traditionally storm-like blackgaze passages, while the other two are leaning towards a more meditative drone experience. The album also features A. Lunn, who kindly agreed to record an electric guitar solo as well as acoustic parts and choral parts on “Frozen Bloom I”.

Frozen Bloom was recorded at Olhava home studios, as well as at the local rehearsal space. Mikhail Kurochkin took care of mixing and mastering.

'Phase One' is a box set including ALL Mesarthim recordings so far, now released on cassette: it's a full colors box with lid, including 8 tapes / cassettes.
Alongside Mesarthim classic albums like 'Isolate' or 'Ghost Condensate' this compendium includes also single and eps that never had a physical release (i.e. "Spire" or "Presence").
This box set is strictly limited to a one-only press of 250 numbered units.

Third Ad Hominem album, so far the best , killer totalitarian black metal

1. Loading genocide
2. Climax of hatred
3. As I long for...
4. The upper art
5. Death to all
6. Join or perish
7. My loudest scream of hate
8. Achtung!
9. Crypt of fear (Mysticum cover)

Grey Vinyl 

Single LP, splatter vinyl  

Please note: New copy but comes with a small seamsplit on the INNERSLEEVE

Please note: New copy but comes with a small damage on one corner of the cover

Color Vinyl

Second press in marble vinyl 

Drone edition of Olhava's "s/t" debut! 

extra limited edition, one-only press

 JEWELCASE Edition. first press

Cover MINT

innersleeve: very small seamsplit

vinyl: VG  -some scartaches but playes perfectly (tried)

Felpa NERA stampata fronte, retro e maniche: marca "Just Hoods"