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Far reaching pleasures will be at hand – Anemone Tube reveals a series of three CDs entitled ‘The Three Worlds: Allegory of Vanity / Forget Heaven / Vanity of Allegory‘, referencing a cosmological treatise on the universe from the Theravada Buddhism of the 14th century, the subject matter of which is the description of three levels of existence of all beings and mythical creatures.

This extensive retrospective release contains selected tracks from various tapes released between 1997 and 1999 – mostly rare and unavailable today – as well as yet unreleased tracks recorded between 1997 and 2013, a.o. outtakes from the “Death Over China” recordings, handpicked and recontextualized by Anemone Tube, representing the project’s roughest and most atmospheric material up to date, ranging from depressive ritual experimental ambient over dark rhythmic industrial soundscapes to whirlwind noise. Sharply mastered by Hunter Barr for a powerful, contemporary sound, each CD comes in a 6-panel digifile featuring beautiful photography by Dario Lehner and is available as single CD as well as a limited edition 3 CD set in a lavish slipcase with poster, sticker and patch.

“The Three Worlds” is a work about transience on many levels, perfectly elucidated in the Buddhist Sutra “Far Reaching Pleasures”, “The three worlds are transient like clouds in autumn / Birth and death of all beings unfold like a dance / Their lives rush away like a mountain stream / Vanish like lightning in the sky”, which serves as the contextual framework for the CD series and is translated in the most beautiful and poetic fashion with three painstakingly arranged photographic scenes based on vanitas symbolism of old masters’ paintings.

The still life composition of the “Allegory of Vanity” cover references an abundance of those symbols: jewellery, a pocket watch, a catholic hymnal, skull and bones, withered flowers, a tipped over jug of wine, an extinguished candle, etc. Two collaboration tracks with Yggdrasil from 1997, two from the “Allegories for the Future” cassette and an unreleased track from 1998 are a perfect representation of Anemone Tube’s early old-school industrial / power-electronics phase, and yet proof that both the musical approach and the topical background were already fully developed at that stage.

“Forget Heaven” addresses more celestial matters and shows the artist playing with soap bubbles (a classic vanitas symbol as well, a hint at the fleetingness of the moment) – reflections of light in the dark create the image of a starry sky, the universe. The CD features the entirety of the “Forget Heaven“ cassette release, plus three compilation and two unreleased tracks. The sound spectrum is more immense, from aggravating noise to ethereal, ritual beauty.

The object photograph “Vanity of Allegory” plays with the dissolution of all phenomena, the transience of all things, all allegories, featuring an extinguished candle, jewellery – and the artist himself, vacuously pointing his finger a skull laughing at the spectator from the mirror. All that is combined with poetry suggesting the dissolution of the ego, seemingly closing the circle. Besides collected tracks from old and recent cassette releases and compilations, this also features three unreleased tracks from the “Death Over China” recordings and therefore represents the newest cut from the trilogy and thus musically bridges the gap to the recent works of Anemone Tube with their profound depth and complexity of sound.

Credits

releases October 23, 2017

Concept, art and design by Anemone Tube 2015/17. Photography by Dario Lehner 2015, set design, photo editing by Anemone Tube 2015/17. Mastering by Hunter Barr 2017.