The Quietus
“A masterpiece of ardent abjection”
★★★★★
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One of our records of 2022.
Diamanda Galás
Broken Gargoyles
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Employing a vast array of advanced vocal and instrumental techniques, Broken Gargoyles is arguably Diamanda Galás' most intellectually, sonically and viscerally formidable work to date. The album finds the visionary artist deftly probing the weaving, warping transformation on the nervous systems of her post-traumatic soldiers and dying diseased. The album's first part, "Mutilatus," contains the Georg Heym poems "Das Fieberspital" and "Die Dämonen der Stadt," and concerns the suffering of the soldier in the trenches and during innumerable operations in the hospital. Composed in 2020 during the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, the first incarnation of Broken Gargoyles was played as a sound installation at the Kapellen Leprosarium (Leper's Sanctuary) in Hanover, Germany.
This sanctuary was built around 1250 and served as a quarantine for those who suffered from the plague and leprosy in the Middle Ages. The work was finalized in 2020 in collaboration with the artist and sound designer Daniel Neumann.
"Broken Gargoyles makes most contemporary black metal, edgelord power electronics or exploring-feminity-through-witchcraft-wailers (there are a lot of Fisher Price Diamandas around at the moment) sound like they’re auditioning for a role in a local production of an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical.“ The Quietus
Details
Cat. number: ISO007CD
Year: 2022
Release notes
In 6-panel Digipak. Includes one 12-page and one & 24-page booklet w/lyrics.
Tracklist
| I | Mutilatus | 23:41 | |
| II | Abiectio | 17:21 |
Credits
- Diamanda Galás
- Concept By, Composed By, Performer
- Heba Kadry
- Mastered By
- Ben Moore
- Recorded By [Sound Recording]
- Willy Bopp
- Recorded By [Sound Recording]
- Kris Townes
- Recorded By [Sound Recording], Mixed By, Producer
- Daniel Neumann
- Sound Designer, Mixed By, Effects [Electronic Processing], Edited By
Read review
Flood Magazine
“Still a pillar of the avant-garde in 2022, Galás has neither mellowed or pulled back when it comes to rage on the two extended tracks that fill her latest LP”
★★★★★
Pitchfork
“Based upon early 1900s German poetry about sick patients and maimed soldiers, these two side-long tracks of experimental vocalizations highlight the singer’s conceptual, confrontational heft”
★★★★★
