Mortiis and Combichrist

plus System:FX and Aesthetic Perfection

@ KoKo Camden, London July 3rd 2011

Review by Rhiannon Marley

Photos by Michelle Murphy

www.mootography.com

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MORTIIS – Håvard Ellefsen Interview

By Rhiannon Marley

Photos by Altercarnated Photography

Who is Mortiis? What is Mortiis? Something to do with mortality that someone’s spelt wrong? Those of you not familiar with Norway’s lord of ambient artistry will probably be asking something along these lines. Those who are: it might be more appropriate, if more futile, to try to guess his next move instead. Notoriously hard to define, there’s only one certainty when it comes to frontman Håvard Ellefsen: you never actually can be certain of anything he’s going to do next.

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OSLO, Norway – With nearly four weeks of their European tour under their collective belt, Mortiis is primed and ready to take on the next three weeks of the trek.

Fans are reacting enthusiastically to Mortiis’ latest incarnation – one which differs greatly from the Mortiis of the past. “It’s nothing like what Mortiis used to be a couple of years ago,” says band namesake Mortiis. “We pulled back and totally reinvented our sound, both off and on stage. Even the old er stuff we play sounds new and fresh.”

The metamorphosis of Mortiis has been continual throughout Mortiis (the artist) and Mortiis (the band)’s careers. In its current form, Mortiis shows a more aggressive side that still works cohesively with the likes of electro-evil tour-mates Combichrist. “I really think the fans are picking up on the common energy between the two bands,” Mortiis adds.

Mortiis’ set focuses material from their latest release, “Perfectly Defect,” and their upcoming release, “The Great Deceiver,” two sonically diverse records that work in unison live. “We open and close the set with ‘TGD’ songs,” Mortiis explains. “The ‘PD’ songs are in the middle of the set and, I think, visually as well as sonically, it works very well. The ‘PD’ stuff has some really dynamic moments that I know work very well visually. The ‘TGD’ songs we play are just hard and in-your-face, so there’s a lot of energy to feed from there.”

The tour has also already had the requisite mishaps that make a tour memorable.

“I think I broke (guitarist) Levi’s rib on the first show,” Mortiis says. “He slipped and went down and I stomped him pretty good. Didn’t really mean to but sometimes the adrenaline gets the better of me and it just happened. I also knocked chip out of my tooth a few days ago, which kinda sucks, but what can you do? It’s just all part of the game, I guess.”

Mortiis’ tour with Combichrist will continue through March 12.

Mortiis/Combichrist dates are as follow:

16.02.2011 Helsinki (SF), On the Rocks

18.02.2011 St. Petersburg (RU), Kosmonaut

19.02.2011 Moscow (RU), Tochka Club

20.02.2011 Ekaterinburg (RU), Tele Club

22.02.2011 Riga (LV), Riga Melna

24.02.2011 Gdynia (Gdansk/PL), Ucho

25.02.2011 Berlin, Columbia Club

26.02.2011 Dresden, Reithalle

27.02.2011 Nitra (SK), Novapekaren

01.03.2011 Bukarest (RO), Silver Church Club

02.03.2011 Sofia (BG), R.b.f. Club

03.03.2011 Thessaloniki (GR), Mylos Club

03.04.2011 Belgrade (SRB), Dom omladine

05.03.2011 Zagreb (CRO), Boogaloo

06.03.2011 Vienna (A), Szene

07.03.2011 Budapest (HU), A 38

09.03.2011 München, Backstage

10.03.2011 Frankfurt, Batschkapp

11.03.2011 Braunschweig, Meier Music Hall

12.03.2011 Lahr (Schwarzwald), Universal Dog-dark Dance Treffen Read the rest of this entry »

OSLO, Norway – Mortiis will return to the touring circuit this winter with a two-month, full European tour supporting evil-electro outfit Combichrist.

“In some fundamental ways, Combichrist and Mortiis are very different, but in other fundamental ways, we are very much the Mortiis bandsame,” expl ained vocalist and namesake Mortiis. “At the end of the day, both bands have this ‘f-you’ attitude. It’s expressed somewhat differently musically, but energy and attitude-wise we’re carrying the same torch, so to speak. I think fans of both bands will pick up on that.”

Mortiis took a break from touring while preparing their latest releases, the soon-to-emerge next album, “the Great Deceiver” and “Perfectly Defect,” a totally free digital download. Unveiled October 10, “Perfectly Defect” is full-length, downloadaPD coverble album available at www.mortiis.com. “Perfectly Defect” is the quintessential prelude to the world of “The Great Deceiver” – while the latter is heavier and darker, the former is varied, experimental, and largely instrumental. The bottom line is that “Perfectly Defect” leads into “The Great Deceiver” acting as a crucial stage in the evolution of Mortiis’ music.

The group is anxious to get back on stage and is ready to unleash months of pent-up aggression during their live show. Fans can expect to hear tracks from “Perfectly Defect” and “The Great Deceiver,” as well as some older songs with a different twist.

“We’ve seriously pimped up a selection of older songs that we’ll be performing,” Mortiis said. “So, across the board, it will be a new, and for lack of a better expression, very ‘pimped up’ bunch of songs!”

A tour with Combichrist was imminent. Aside from having a long acquaintance with Combichrist’s founder and Norwegian-native Andy LaPlegua, drummer Joe Letz is an extended member of the Mortiis family. After connecting with Letz during Mortiis’ US tour with the Genitorturers – Letz’s former band – the drummer got involved with Mortiis on some of the recording of “The Great Deceiver.”

“It was just a question of time until we’d go out on tour together again,” Mortiis said. “Joe is still a part of this band, the way we all see it. We always have a great time when we’re together and I think this is something everyone’s been wanting to happen for a while now. So when the opportunity came about, we pretty much did what had to be done to make it happen.”

COMBICHRIST + MORTIIS

Monsters on tour 2011

20.01.2011 Sao Mamede, Guimarães, Portugal

21.01.2011 Caracol, Madrid, Spain

22.01.2011 Salamandra 1, Barcelona, Spain

23.01.2011 Totem, Pamplona, Spain

25.01.2011 Ninkasi Kao, Lyon, France

26.01.2011 X-Tra Limmathaus, Zürich, Switzerland

27.01.2011 Tunnels, Milan, Italy

28.01.2011 Alpheus, Rome, Italy

29.01.2011 Velvet, Rimini, Italy

01.02.2011 Le Ferrailleur, Nantes, France

02.02.2011 Le Divan du Monde, Paris, France

03.02.2011 Trix, Antwerp, Belgium

04.02.2011 Tivoli, Utrecht, Netherlands

05.02.2011 Essigfabrik-PLUSWELT-Festival, Köln (Cologne), Germany

06.02.2011 Tivoli, Bremen, Germany

08.02.2011 Posten, Odense, Denmark

09.02.2011 Forbrændingen, Albertslund (Kopenhagen), Denmark

11.02.2011 Sticky Fingers, Göteborg, Sweden

12.02.2011 Chateau Neuf, Oslo, Norway

13.02.2011 Kägelbanan, Stockholm, Sweden

15.02.2011 Yo-Talo, Tampere, Finland

16.02.2011 On the Rocks, Helsinki, Finland

18.02.2011 Kosmonaut, St. Petersburg, Russia

19.02.2011 Tochka, Moscow, Russia

20.02.2011 Tele Club, Ekaterinburg, Russia

22.02.2011 Riga Melna Piektdina, Riga, Latvia

24.02.2011 Ucho, Gdynia (Gdansk), Poland

25.02.2011 Berlin Columbia Club, Berlin, Germany

26.02.2011 Bunker/Strasse E, Dresden, Germany

01.03.2011 Silver Church Club, Bukarest, Romania

02.03.2011 RBF, Sofia, Bulgaria

03.03.2011 Mylos Club, Salonica (Thessaloniki), Greece

04.03.2011 SKC, Belgrade, Serbia

05.03.2011 Boogaloo, Zagreb, Croatia

06.03.2011 Szene Wien, Wien/Vienna, Austria

07.03.2011 A 38, Budapest, Hungary

09.03.2011 Backstage, München, Germany

10.03.2011 Batschkapp, Frankfurt, Germany

11.03.2011 Meier Music Hall-Festival of Darkness,

Braunschweig, Germany

12.03.2011 Universal dog-Dark Dance Treffen, Lahr, Germany

www.mortiis.com

www.myspace.com/mortiis1

www.youtube.com/officialmortiis

www.twitter.com/mortiis

www.reverbnation.com/mortiis

www.myxer.com/mortiis

http://tinyurl.com/Mortiisfacebook

http://mortiisnews.blogspot.com/

Mortiis webstore: http://stores.shop.ebay.com/Mortiisbay

OSLO, Norway – Mortiis returns to satiate fans’ desire for new music this October 10 with “Perfectly Defect,” a completely free, full-length, downloadable album.

“Putting ‘Perfectly Defect’ out as a free download was a decision we made after some consideration,” said the band’s namesake Mortiis. “The new model of the music business is important to keep in mind; there´s a new mentality out there in terms of how people acquire their music now. For better or worse, music seems to have become a medium a lot of people aren´t prepared to pay for in the old fashioned way. So, we paid to record it out of our own pockets ‘cos we thought it would be a really cool gift to our fans that have been waiting around for ages for something new to come out.”

Mortiis has spent much of the past couple years writing and recording “The Great Deceiver,” the long-awaited follow-up to 2004’s full-length “The Grudge” and the 2007 remix album, “Some Kind of Heroin.” “Perfectly Defect” is the quintessential prelude to the world of “The Great Deceiver” – while the latter is heavier and darker, the former is varied, experimental, and largely instrumental. The bottom line is that “Perfectly Defect” leads into “The Great Deceiver” acting as a crucial stage in the evolution of Mortiis’ music.

“When we were writing and working on ‘The Great Deceiver’, we were coming up with all sorts of inspired stuff, a really varied collection of music,” Mortiis offered. “Some of it was far too varied and experimental to be included in such an angry, dark album as ‘The Great Deceiver’ so we created a brand new album that is the introductory element to the more intricate world of ‘The Great Deceiver.’”

“I think we really captured a cool vibe here,” Mortiis enthused. “It’s not easy marrying anger with melody, but I believe we did it. The songs on ‘Perfectly Defect’ were created across a period of time, and I believe it shows in terms of what inspired these songs. They’re rather soundtrack-y in a dark and sometimes bombastic way.”

With the concept of digital distribution came a new empowerment for Mortiis – one where the artist controls his own artistic destiny.

“After our record deal finally expired, I had developed a profound aversion to the very idea of letting other people control my art, my lifework,” he said. “So, again, the idea of the new technology really did grow on me. We dealt with some really evil stuff in the industry. Nothing shocking in terms of industry practice, but at a human level, it was a living nightmare. It reached a point where we fired everyone around us except for the handful of people we knew we could trust. It was a big move, but had to be done in order to survive. It was like rewinding the clock back to the start and beginning with a clean slate. We started working on a ton of new music right then. With the advent of modern technology, we realized we could do a lot of stuff without the often self-serving, meddling record labels. No record label would ever have let us put out an album for free, with the option to donate if the fans wanted to.”

The album will be available at www.mortiis.com beginning on October 10. There is no cost for the download, but donations to cover the cost of recording may be made through the website.