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  • Limited Edition Deluexe Cassette
    Cassette + Digital Album

    Cassette comes house in a double sized case. All tapes a pro dubbed on Gold Faced Shells, the 2 panel inlay has been printed on 300gsm recycled paper

    Includes unlimited streaming of Night Realms via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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1.
Night Realms 40:34

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DIGITAL COPIES HERE: dikemanserriesaquarius.bandcamp.com

Like a slow crawl from midnight into the dawn, Night Realms by Saxophonist John Dikeman, guitarist Dirk Serries and drummer René Aquarius is sustained force in atmosphere, mood and colour and at its very core a brilliant and totally unified example of instant composition. Ignoring the tried and tested interplay of similar trios in a free improvisational setting, Dikeman, Serries and Aquarius astonishing first meeting at Kunstgroep de Compagnie in the Netherlands almost feels narrative in its delivery, all three players contributions creating a dense and slowly evolving drama that is so welcomingly refreshing precisely because it goes exactly what it expected of this grouping of instruments. It is this fact definitively that attracted me to releasing this awesome piece of music. Aquarius percussion thunders on the toms and bass drums and adds scenes of fragility in his propulsive cymbal work. Serries conjures sheets of sound from his guitar that grow slowly in mass, accenting his chords with tasteful tone manipulation and slow curls in volume. Dikeman is the most busy of the trio, spiralling round Rene and Dirk’s miasmas of sound with blustering multiphonics, raw blues power and an inquisitive delicateness that show the huge range of one of the music’s most accomplished and deservedly acclaimed saxophonists. It is as if all three are stalking the moonlight like wolves, howling in unison in a very spiritual way. Honouring tradition, but never allowing themselves to be stunted by it. I not only applaud them for that, but for the sheer will they’ve shown in creating their own entire scene in Europe for this music, for which ‘Night Realms’ will surely be held as a key document of.
- David McLean, April 2016

"I’ve been looking forward to having a gander at this recent release by three well versed improvisers; drummer Rene
Aquarius (Dead Neanderthals), guitarist Dirk Serries (VidnaObmana) and John Dikeman (Cactus Truck). Night Realms
brings us an intense and orphic improv piece of impressive and electrifying development.
Serries unfolds a blanket of wailing guitar drone on which this ceremony initially takes place. Dikeman’s saxophone
narrative slowly evolves from what feels like a middle eastern lullaby to a maniacal slur – to return again to something
that meanders between those two, whilst Aquarius’ restrained primitive pounding remains a constant drive in the
background for at least the first 15 minutes of the track. Then slowly, without becoming jarringly incongruent, the
percussion rises to the foreground as the drone fades and the plucked phrasing of the guitar follows in its wake to
an ostensibly serene pointillist ad libitum with the occasional bass-heavy cymbal blow. The layers of looped guitar
and fickle saxophone phrases snail-pace towards a solid drone again, but this time a fragmented, less homogeneous
one than the one the track began with, as if to portray the pluralism of the divided world that the light of dawn confronts
us with after the dense monolith of night.
I feel this specific combination of instruments and improv styles worked exceptionally well together. During the entire
run of the tape images of Elias Merhige’s Begotten filled my head and for some reason I felt that I was witnessing
something secretly sacred, like indeed a rite of spring. Maybe it’s the time of year. (PJN)"
- Vital Weekly

credits

released April 4, 2016

René Aquarius - Drums
John Dikeman - Tenor Saxophone
Dirk Serries - Guitar

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Tombed Visions Records Manchester, UK

Tombed Visions is a Manchester based cassette label specialising in improvisation, ambient music, experimental electronics and noir aesthetics and aims to showcase the fringes of contemporary independent music. All releases are limited edition and packaged with care, combining a love of graphic design, photography, typography with the wondrous sounds released. ... more

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