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Usual Blaze

by LAVRA

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  • Streaming + Download

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

      140 CZK  or more

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Lavra - Usual Blaze 12" (Pushteek04)
    250 copies made. Black vinyl (140g). Includes download code.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Usual Blaze via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 2 days
    edition of 250 

      350 CZK or more 

     

  • T-Shirt/Apparel + Digital Album

    Lavra - Long sleeve shirt.
    Printed on Build Your Brand. 100% cotton.
    Design: Bára Zelníčková

    Includes unlimited streaming of Usual Blaze via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 2 days

      550 CZK or more 

     

1.
Unthrone 02:57 video
If you step into the waves You step into waves Twice in the same river If I’m standing in the waves I am in the waves They go, go on and on Over me the same Me stuck at the same The waters are so different The different are the same The same I lay into a surface I let me go with a flow I be the flow on surface Don’t defend from the flow No high no low I be the same and changing Be aware of changing Be aware of being The one the same I be drinking the same waters I be the one the same
2.
As If 03:41
And I had a blanket on my And I could not sleep And I was screamin’ so loud From a dream to another dream And the vision was so real Inhaled so deep Feels like the first breath it feels I only need to breath It beats On my chest It beats Like a blacksmith It beats Like the bells with names Hard and then My voice so loud You look like you’ve died Never heard it Never wake up It’s half past five
3.
Hell is emotional Death Blue depth Surface Cobweb Covers a head Ripped veil Over a head A hazy view Tree sees tree Itself Eye sees eye Hazy when cry Wet lashes Awake Wet body Away Dead body Awaken Oneself Not me It’s not me It’s not my hand At four sixteen Strange colours The world turns green Must be fulfilling the void In presence embroiled It’s not sacred It’s usual
4.
Diminish 04:51
Called for help I called myself for help I called myself I lost everything and then Have anything I do not want I let go I’m not hungry I’m just thirsty Slowly drink From my hands Then caress me From my hands Blossom Blossoming And it’s here And old is gone Insecurity Has made me love Has made me fall In so called love Has made me love All your demons All my demons Naked on the floor On the cold concrete Need no pillow To hold yourself To hold you To get security Hold you And old is gone Then see new And old is gone
5.
I Only 04:26
I only am surprised sometimes By the darkest dark Sometimes In you in me Sometimes In you In us Sometimes I only am surprised when the darkness never comes I only am surprised when the evil is not evil enough Enough
6.
The clouds They go over Over the light Light you don’t see But it never disappears The curtain open Eyes open Sky is blue Behind the clouds See through Clouds go over You go over

about

On the surface, Prague’s dark ambient duo Lavra may seem like the black sheep of the PUSHTEEK catalog. Their pairing of digital soundscapes and haunting songcraft seems more in line with the output of Editions Mego or 4AD than with a progressive hardcore label. Yet if you take the DIY principle of using whatever tools are at your disposal to make music, add the desperation and urgency of that fuels so much underground music, and factor in the predilections towards caustic and unsettling timbres and textures, then the Lavra / PUSHTEEK relationship makes perfect sense.

On their sophomore album Usual Blaze, multi-instrumentalist Tomáš Vondra creates disquieting digital soundscapes from various synths, MPCs, and guitars to serve as the bedrock for vocalist Barbora Zelníčková’s sorrowful melodies. Described by members of their music community as “a soundtrack for Aleister Crowley’s curriculum vitae,” Lavra’s music embraces the vast tonal opportunities of modern electronic music while maintaining a melodic thread to dark, meditative, and ritualistic song forms. The album opens with the stuttering, deconstructed drum patterns and pensive synth melodies of “Unthrone,” with Zelníčková’s hypnotic vocals solidifying the song into a futuristic industrial ballad. “As If” operates under similar principles—marrying the cold visions of heady electronic music to the beating heart of Zelníčková’s voice. Across the remaining span of Usual Blaze’s side A, Vondra employs attributes of his other musical projects—the electronic alternative pop of Orient and the expansive sonic tapestry of post-rock outfit Tomáš Palucha—into an amalgam of ASMR-worthy textures and brooding modern composition. But on side B, Lavra’s connection to the more primitive and volatile realms of the PUSHTEEK catalog become more apparent. The twenty-minute opus “The Hanged Woman” is a composite of brutish industrial battery, throat-shredding vocals, sound collage, and power electronics fused with Lavra’s standard musical operating procedures.

Usual Blaze is a journey into the sonic possibilities afforded by coming untethered from rock’s analog boundaries, yet it eschews the sterile and synthetic trappings of so much modern electronic music. Lavra’s fusion of the vulnerable human spirit with metronomic pulses and unadulterated oscillations heightens both elements, adding a new dimension of intimacy to Zelníčková’s musical narratives and an even more foreboding and dystopian aura to Vondra’s constructions. Throw it on and immerse yourself in Lavra’s claustrophobic world.

credits

released March 1, 2019

Catalogue number Pushteek 04
Lavra - Usual Blaze / 250 copies of 12" black vinyl (33 RPM)
Release date: March 1st 2019

Dedicated to Mr. Moonie. 2017–∞

Music: Barbora Zelníčková, Tomáš Vondra
Lyrics: Barbora Zelníčková, Tomáš Vondra
Voices: Milan Trachta, Tomáš Mládek, Judita Císařová, Michaela Černá, Louise Xadb, Tamara Staňková
Mix & Master: Martin Tvrdý
Vinyl Master: Gargle & Expel
Layout: Carton Clan

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LAVRA Prague, Czechia

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