photos by David Brenner
Today, New York experimental solo outfits GRIDFAILURE and MEGALOPHOBE present their third collaborative album, Harbinger Winds, through Nefarious Industries.
Shortly after both acts formed in 2016, GRIDFAILUREâs David Brenner and MEGALOPHOBEâs Benjamin Levitt began recording together and became incredibly close-knit, contributing to each otherâs albums, Levitt being a live member of GRIDFAILURE, Brenner creating videos for MEGALOPHOBE, and so on, and they issued their first collaborative album, Dendritic, in April of 2017. By the time Dendritic saw release, they had already amassed additional material, and ideas began flowing, expanding upon some of the more ambient and jazz elements of Dendritic. The Harbinger Winds concept was born, and additional sessions immediately took place, yet, during the process, some of the material became more volatile and spastic, than the concept theyâd envisioned: Harbinger Winds was put on hold and the two created the schizophrenic Tasukete, releasing the album through Nefarious Industries in October of 2018. Returning to the Harbinger Winds material, the album was finally completed in February of 2022, concluding nearly five years of work.
Harbinger Winds sees the two architects performing a wide array of vocals, guitars and basses, keys, synth, drums/percussion, accordion, theremin, cello, harmonica, electronics, tape manipulation, nature recordings, and more. The visuals were created by Brenner with additional material from Levitt, and the album was mastered by Dan Emery at Black Matter Mastering (Kool Keith, Lost Dog Street Band, Thetan).
Harbinger Winds also features wide array of guest contributors helping shape its post/avant lo-fi jazz direction, including platinum session musician/performer Mac Gollehon (Duran Duran, Chaka Khan, Buddy Rich, David Bowie, Blondie, Onyx), Leila Abdul-Rauf (Vastum, Ionophore), Sally Gates (Titan To Tachyons, ex-Orbweaver), Christian Molenaar (Those Darn Gnomes), Morgan Evans (Walking Bombs), Matt Bacon, Rosa Henriquez, Rob Levitt, and Denise Fillion. The fourteen-minute closing title track sees all nine guest collaborators converging with Brenner and Levitt.
GRIDFAILURE & MEGALOPHOBEâs Harbinger Winds is now available on all digital providers and as a limited hand-numbered cassette at Nefarious Industries where three official videos from the album are playing HERE.
Watch for additional videos from Harbinger Winds to be issued alongside new live performances and more over the months ahead.
âIs this a collaboration made in heaven or hell? A question you should consider as once again Messrs Brenner and Levitt, along with a plethora of guest musicians, have teamed up to bring us their latest foray into the world of haunting soundscapes and dark ambience with the new long-player Harbinger Winds…â – The Sleeping Shaman
 âAs their previous collaborations have been extraordinarily avantgarde in nature, this one ups the ante in every possible way⦠GRIDFAILURE and MEGALOPHOBE defy easy categorization with their cinematic approach to harsh noise, avant-jazz, and psychedelic dark ambiance. That much has previously been well established. However, the choice here to focus on the psychedelic cinematic side was an excellent one.â – Nine Circles
 âGRIDFAILURE & MEGALOPHOBE are an unusual couple of projects. Both have a sense of drama and enjoy playing with a sense of dread, but a heavy experimental jazz influences renders their next pairing of ideas ever stranger, with Harbinger Winds being their most avant-garde album to date. The first thing to note on Harbinger Winds is that itâs not strictly music in any conventional sense. Rather, itâs an uncertain journey into realms of discontent, all interlinked and yet their own brand of intentionally unpleasant.â â Distorted Sound Magazine
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The post GRIDFAILURE & MEGALOPHOBE: Harbinger Winds, The Jazz-Tinged Third Collaboration Between Two New York Experimental Acts, Is Out Today And Streaming On All Channels On Nefarious Industries first appeared on Earsplit Compound.
