![[photo by Katie Hovland]](https://www.earsplitcompound.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/WH-Katie-Hovland-1024x568.jpg)
[photo by Katie Hovland]
On the title track of the album, WREKMEISTER HARMONIES‘ J.R. Robinson was inspired by the eerie story of Don Carlo Gesualdo, a sixteenth-century composer whose madrigal “Ahi Dispietata e Cruda” is reimagined and restructured here. The second long-form track, “Run Priest Run,” tells the story of Father John Geoghan, a priest convicted of molesting some one-hundred-fifty children who was executed by a fellow inmate. Night Of Your Ascension is a commentary on our own fascination with bloodlust and our seemingly insatiable appetite for lurid depictions of depravity. The music on Night Of Your Ascension is as hauntingly beautiful as it is brutal, the questions it provokes are weighty.
“Together, these two tracks tell individual stories of horror and violence in a believable, transformative manner,” issues About.com in a 4/5 review of the offering. All Music concurs in another 4/5 rating noting, “On Night Of Your Ascension, Robinson reveals the inner shadow realities of depravity and violence as the other side of institutional religion’s public persona. Alternately brutal and exquisite, it is chilling, effective, and even necessary.” In an 8.5/10 score, Metal Injection likes the record to a “religious experience,” and, “the soundtrack to your transcendent escape,” further gushing, “WREKMEISTER HARMONIES uses Night Of Your Ascension not just as an artistic statement, but also a piece of art that can bring the listener up along with it. Turning off the lights and listening to this record alone leads to personal growth…it literally can lead to YOUR personal ascension…” While Pitchfork elaborates, “Night Of Your Ascension faces rote themes like killing, death, and despair from a fresh perspective that aspires to be illuminating. It’s also, strangely enough, an album listeners can use to make new friends. Given the way Robinson disposed of musical boundaries to put this music together, it spurs the audience to do the same practically by default. If you’re into experimental rock or metal, Night Of Your Ascension naturally incites curiosity about madrigals and Renaissance composition. The same applies in reverse. If your tastes fall in any of those areas, you can use this album as a bridge to another world by walking up to someone across the aisle and asking, ‘Have you heard this? What’s your take?’ It’s bound to be a lengthy, engaging conversation, not unlike the album itself.”
Listen to WREKMEISTER HARMONIES’ Night Of Your Ascension alongside an in-depth interview with Robinson at THIS LOCATION.
Order Night Of Your Ascension via Thrill Jockey mailorder at THIS LOCATION.
Sample a video excerpt of the thirty-two minute title track featuring Jesus Lizard’s David Yow at THIS LOCATION.
Following a recent West Coast run, Robinson will take the eclectic sound manifestations of WREKMEISTER HARMONIES to the stage on an extensive East Coast trek this February. Instrumentation for the tour will be provided by Bell Witch.
WREKMEISTER HARMONIES w/ Bell Witch:
2/23/2016 St. Vitus – Brooklyn, NY
2/24/2016 Side Bar – Baltimore, MD
2/25/2016 King’s Barcade – Raleigh, NC
2/26/2016 The Earl – Atlanta, GA w/ Pallbearer
2/27/2016 The End – Nashville, TN w/ Pallberer
2/28/2016 Zanzabar – Louisville, KY w/ Pallbearer
3/01/2016 Club Café – Pittsburg, PA
3/02/2016 Kung Fu Necktie – Philadelphia, PA
3/04/2016 O’Briens – Allston, MA
3/05/2016 Turbo Haus – Montreal, QC
3/06/2016 Soybomb HQ – Toronto, ON
3/07/2016 Nectar’s – Burlington, VT
http://www.facebook.com/wrekmeisterharmonies
http://www.thrilljockey.com
http://www.facebook.com/ThrillJockey