Der Ohlsen
"Mes isn’t an album which demands to be understood. It remains enigmatic, refusing to decipher its phantasmagoric story. Instead it makes me feel like I’ve been part of something arcane and dangerous, not meant for me to witness, yet leaving a hidden spark of forbidden knowledge in my subconsciousness"
Smouldering in the shadows cast by the advent of their final album Vier, enigmatic collective Hadewych pursued the recording of a penultimate offering: Mes ("Knife") - a now full-length effort that was originally intended as counterpart to the 2014 EP Nu.
The album is a slow trek via monumental vistas, mad & mud-covered sacraments, and spells of existential evisceration that centre upon the festering remnants of the cross. At the medial mark the dissection process halts, upon which restoration is found in 17 minute esoteric ambient epic Het Ware Nader, which also wraps up the 'forest' series that has been a motif throughout the group's oeuvre.
From howling laughter in the shimmer of the ultra grotesque, to an abysmal flight between the nocturnal marches of long limbed phantoms, Mes delivers cuts deeper and more abstruse than any of its predecessors.
Edition of 100 cassettes housed in a deluxe box with hotfoil print.
Haask - tenor choir voice on [Hadewych III] & [Het Ware Nader]
Mette Essë - cello & violin on [Hadewych III] & [Ik Ben Een Mes]
Michael Idehall - additional textures
Stefanie Janssen - soprano choir voice on [Het Ware Nader]
Johanna - natural textures, tree bark, branches
Antoine Panaché - musical saw on [Ik Ben Een Mes]
Kim Sølve/Swarms - additional metal textures on [Het Ware Nader]
Marina Tadic - shouts on [Ik Ben Een Mes] & [Hadewych III]
All grotesque shapes cast by the last apophant Æ d:Orsaigh Askara nOh v=v.
Wÿgrond for [Het Ware Nader] recorded during the autumn equinox in the woods at ’t Grote Ven / Langerak (Gld). It is the final offering in the ‘Forest’ cycle.
Written, recorded between 2018-2021 by Hadewych III.
Additional recording by Michael Idehall, Alexa Norberg, Strala K, Kim Sølve.
Mixed by Nÿland & Álander in 2021 at 4 & Rising.
Mastered by Marlon Wolterink at White Noise Studio.
Cover design by Dan Serbanescu
Photography by Ophalin
Layout by Richard Postma