Speak No More of This is the new intercontinental split from Saint John, New Brunswick-based Artifiseer, and Hamburg, Germany’s I Divorced Life. Despite the distance, the collaboration is a natural one and a testament to the magical connective nature of the internet. While Artifiseer and I Divorced Life have spanned an ocean to find common ground in music, the release is like nothing else around — perhaps in either country.
“After discovering each other’s music via the internet and conversing through Twitter earlier this year, we planned and recorded these new songs to explore the common ground between our musical styles,” explains Artifiseer, also known as singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and engineer Ian Livingstone, about his collaboration with songwriter, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Silas Andersen, also know as I Divorced Life.
The split, however, is a brief affair, with Speak No More of This featuring two songs, exclusive to this release: “Geasan” from Artifiseer, and “Unlike a Boulder” from I Divorced Life.
The results are, as they put it, “Geasan,” a kinetic and tense art-pop soundscape of commanding vocals wrapped in psychedelia and dark synths, and “Unlike a Boulder”, a surreal industrial pop tune guided by crunched up electronics and a ghostly croon.
“Geasan,” a Gaelic term for a spell to prohibit a taboo, eases in for just a moment, luring you in before things go dark. Plucky percussion ushers in Livingstone’s larger than life vocals, as he weaves imagery of someone suffering through the breaking of some ancient ruleset. Coupled with modern production, sparse instrumentation, and evolving themes, “Geasan” delivers a mythic listening experience.
“Unlike a Boulder” comes in with an industrial bang. Hints of the Mad Max universe permeate the synth tones, and one expects to see the Thunder Dome just beyond the next verse. Andersen’s vocal delivery blends wonderfully into the sometimes harsh, but always engaging production of this track. Disparate elements of synth and percussion are held together by a relentless bassline that propels the track until it fully descends into glorious chaos.
This EP follows Artifiseer’s most recent album, 2020’s Syncretist, and proceeds I Divorced Life’s recently announced EP, Spooky Little Doll Hands. Speak No More Of This is being released on Bandcamp via Moondrip Collective.