VĪS
A lavish four chapter chronicle that imagines an alternative evolution of mankind through sound, VĪS (Latin for energy or force) is the result of a lengthy process of self-discovery, collaboration and research for Italian-German composer David August.
He wrote the album's 13 pieces to play like a linear storyline, tracking the development of culture from its illusory beginnings in Plato's cave into the wider world and observing its progression and adaptation. August represents these themes with levitational orchestral drones, choirs and bells that slowly bend to long-forgotten ancestral rhythms, inevitably colliding with the digitized chaos of the information age. But VĪS is more than music, it's an ambitious multi-disciplinary project that arrives five years after his last album. August linked up with Moroccan artist Hiba Baddou to develop an imaginary alphabet that visually represents the concept, working with choreographer Franka Marlene Foth and visual artist Marcel Weber (aka MFO) to translate the ideas into a kinetic audiovisual live experience. He tapped Egozen collective to puzzle out a special interactive website (Fall 2023), while Turbo Studio's Abu Jaber and Mothanna Hussein assembled an art-book (Fall 2023), using Baddou's layouts and photography from Daniel Feistenauer with choreographies by Philipe Kratz.
VĪS sprung to life after a two year period when the composer took time out in and around Rome to write music and process ideas compulsively, using the pauses to inhale books about language, quantum physics, movement and Middle Eastern mysticism. As his understanding of these concepts deepened, his technique blossomed and the first breaths of VĪS began to turn into full words. He began to see the record as a way for him to propose an objective musical statement, a place to release his ego and separate the personal from the impersonal, letting an honest version of himself speak through the noise. "As much as this sounds like a rational process," he admits, "it was based on intuition and channeling a feeling." Simultaneously, August fed Baddou his ideas and musical sketches to help generate a new form of language, making an alphabet of 121 symbols derived from VĪS' main symbol (present on the album's cover), and divided into 13 groups. Unspeakable and untranslatable but still perceivable, it's an attempt to free us from the trappings of established concepts, its 13 main characters mapped to the album's tracks.
Transparent in debossed heavyweight gatefold sleeve with silver metallic print and screen printed PE sleeve.
Credits:
All music written, recorded and produced by David August
Mixing by David August and Francesco Donadello
Additional mixing by Anne Taegert
Mastering and lacquer cut by Kassian Troyer at Dubplates Mastering
Additional recordings on LIBRA by Wanja Hüffell
Imaginary Alphabet created and drawn by Hiba Baddou
Vectorisation by Pascal Richon
Design and packaging by Saeed Abu-Jaber and Mothanna Hussein at Turbo
Creative direction by David August
Manufactured and distributed by !K7
℗ + © 99CHANTS – in association with !K7
Contributions:
Cello on ÆRA, Y’SAR and LIBRA by David Adorjan
Piano on ÆRA by Louis Sterling
Voices on VAHA by Cansu Tanrıkulu
Saxophone on RAI by Mark Wyand
Harp on Y’SAR by Anastasia Markopoulou
Guitar on Y’SAR by Arne Jansen
Drums on ELAH by Peter Gall
Violin on LIBRA by Rahel Rilling
NADIR contains a sample of Ihor Tsymbrovsky - "Brilliant Small Poetry"
Total running time: 46:19 min
