"Reptilica Polaris" - Afenginn

Afenginn

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Bastard-ethno
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  • artist:Afenginn
  • featured artist:Afenginn
  • release year:2008
  • style(s):East European, Contemporary
  • country:Denmark
  • formats:Audio File / Digital, CD (Compact Disc)
  • record posted by:Afenginn / Klingra
  • label:Tutl
  • publisher:TUTL
  •   buy this record

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Our third album, Reptilica Polaris, is a our biggest and probably most ambitious piece of work. The album is composed as one long piece, almost like a symphony in 11 parts. It is generously orchestrated with a 12-piece brass band, male choir, extra percussion, guitars, string etc.

The idea to make Reptilica Polaris span off from the “Bastard Kompleks” suite on Akrobakkus and was composed during 2006-2007.

The lyrics are written by the Finnish poet Timo Haapaniemi and are built up as a homemade syntax error lingua of latin, english, greek, finnish, swedish, german words - some kind of “street latin” if you wish. It is poetic and lyrical and has much meaning although it takes some decoding to get the most out of them.

We started rehearsing and recording almost simultaneously, which made the recording session a rather time-demanding affair. We began working on the album late 2007 as a quintet, recording basic tracks and building it up piece by piece.

As we couldn’t afford having a male choir and brass orchestra in the studio all the time, we had to imagine those parts while recording our basic tracks. This was a rather challenging quest, but turned out to work great when we got a hold on it.

The recordings were ready in March 2008, and Reptilica Polaris is released by TUTL in June the same year. It was very well received and won us a Danish Music Award for “Best Contemporary Artist”

Recording engineer: John Fomsgaard
Produced by: John Fomsgaard and Afenginn
Additional recording: Lars Nissen, Frank Grønbæk
Recorded at Reptile Studios, Copenhagen 2008
REVIEWS
Impressive and vital...

"It's epic, ambitious and a decided step on from their previous work. Time will tell if this is an important work, but it's certainly impressive and vital in Afenginn's career"
(Chris Nickson, Sing Out!
Read the full review at Sing Out!

Certainly deserves the attention...

"Reptilica Polaris is an excellent album. This is not hard to access avant garde with strange dissonant sounds and weird time signatures. Reptilica Polaris is actually a pretty melodic album and even though it´s very challenging I think it´s fairly easy to access. This is a well deserved BIG 4 star rating. It certainly deserves the attention."
(Progarchives, )
Read the full review at Progarchives

You have to hear this...

"While the CD starts beautifully with the calm Salveamini as soon as the male choir takes over it’s just a sequence of rhytms, melodies and unexpected twists. This album is like a symphony, there is no escape possible, you just have to listen. I completely understand why Afenginn is nominated for the Danish Music award as folk artists of the year. You have to hear this to believe it. "
(Eelco Schilder, FolkWorld