On their new epic LP, Polish romantic crust post metallers ORPHANAGE NAMED EARTH explore gritty themes of the decay of modern society, making paragons with the old traditions, ancient civilizations, cultures and tribes. Musically, “Saudade” is a firm step forward, showcasing the band that fearlessly aims at expanding their style. Today, we’re thrilled to give you its first full listen, along with the band’s first hand commentary about each and every song!
“Saudade” comes out on Phobia Records on black and clear vinyl in June 2019. CD will come in May 2019 with a bonus track on Sanctus Propaganda. Both labels will release tape version in July.
ORPHANAGE NAMED EARTH is a five-piece DIY post-metal band from Poland/Sweden. The band formed in 2015 as a four-piece and recorded a 5 song demo, self released in February 2016 and distributed among friends and allies. At that time the band coined their music “romantic crust”, originally as a joke, but it stayed with them as, according to many, it defines their style well. Their first full-length album “Re-evolve” was released in May 2018 as a double LP by a collaboration of DIY labels from Poland, Germany, USA, Ireland and Czech Republic and by Argonauta Records on CD. O.N.E. toured Poland, Europe and UK in 2017-2018 including playing at major festivals inPoland.
“Saudade” is the band’s yearning for what humanity has lost and forgotten along the way. The roots. It is a journey back to pre-civilisation era where trust was humanity’s only currency and butterflies never died…
Orphanage Named Earth are: Piotr Kimszal – guitar, Piotr Polak – guitar, Hubert Bialobrzeski – bass, Grzegorz Iwaniec – drums, Wojtek Kuczynski – vocals
Recorded and mixed in January-March 2019 at Dobra 12 Studio, Bialystok, Poland/ Spoken words on “They” recorded in Scotland by Angus Quinn (Sedition), Ainsley McQueen, Breagha Cuinn and Onnagh Cuinn (Bratakus) and Darragh Cuinn.
They
They are they peoples who lived before us. They are the peoples who lived together. They are the peoples who nurtured nature. And butterflies never died.
I wrote this when in Sanok at the Historical Museum sitting on the floor in front of Beksinski’s painting, depicting people surrounding bonfires. Passerby ignored me and I envisioned how life might have been like before the wheel started to turn. Beksiński saw that in his mind.
This songs introduces the concept of the album and it is an important piece for me. And since we were writing an album about the civilisations I thought we need those whose ancestors had been there long before us, surrounding those bonfires, in the fog, near the sea. So I asked my friends from Scotland to record the spoken word for us. You hear Angus from a punk band SEDITION, his daughters from a punk riot grill vegan straight edge band BRATAKUS (Breagha and Onnagh) and their younger brother (Darragh) and their mum (Ainsley).
Cradle To Grave
Today air is not free. Today people are armed with weapons and money. Today a big boss has his employees crawl for him. “Cradle to Grave” takes us back to the times when air was free, people were armed with good will and only serpents crawled beside them. What was it like to live in the world when the only currency you had was trust, equality set rules and hope was in the air? And butterflies never died.
In this song we used a sample of an Aboriginal elder to tell us that in the past sharing determined living.
Surpass
I think that you are free once there is no hierarchy. But we do live in the world when all things are done the hierarchical way. “Surpass” fast forwards the time from the pre-civilisation era described in “Cradle to Grave” to the present times. When we are all cogs in someone’s machines and, unfortunately, … butterflies die…
Again, the Aboriginal elderly we sampled here reminds us that money is the decision maker in the contemporary world.
I Look Beyond
If you happen to be an individual who cares about the world we live in, about the way people are treated and about the state of the environment we all share, you may come to the conclusion that the only thing this civilisation has on offer for you is … suicide. If so, I want to you to close your eyes and look into the future and believe that things will change, thanks to you and other like-minded people … look beyond.
That is why we sampled Odette from Baka tribe living in Congo who says she refuses to be treated as someone that can be bought and ordered what to do.
Civilised Savages
Remember the Native American a few months ago who sang his song and was challenged by the youth wearing Make America Great Again baseball cap? He says here that he fears for future generations. He understands that a young man was made believe what politicians had told him. He looks into the future and sees this man troubled. He is not provoked. He knows.
He knows that we killed his ancestors in order to civilise the land we call now America and we invented the adjective “civilised” to name ourselves and we called Indians “savages”. This song juxtaposes the two and plays on words. Only this civilisation came up with weapons used for peace or chemicals that are harmless.
Leave
Working on this songs was a pain for everybody. We wrote the riffs months prior to recording but when we sat down together to play them we didn’t really like what we were doing. Until we had sat again in the studio to record the album this songs came together. “Leave” is painful as it suggests that all of us should finally leave the doomed path we follow, abandon this ship and return to what we do best … live together. And butterflies will never die. Again.
We strengthened this message with Jacqueline from Guarani tribe from the midst of the Amazon forest who says a big “fuck you” to Bolsonaro.
ORPHANAGE NAMED EARTH tour dates:
May 2nd – Szczecin, Poland
May 3rd – Berlin, Germany
May 4th – Płock, PolandSeptember 26-30 – UK tour with BRATAKUS I BRAIN ANGUISH
One Question Interview by Scene Point Blank:
SPB: If you could change just one thing in the human mindset today, what would it be and why?
The desire to form hierarchy in the society. Once food became commodity and civilisation as we know it arrived, humans formed hierarchy and those in power started to control those less fortunate. This led to exploitation, slavery and racism. The worst things humans can do to each other. We should learn from the tribal peoples of the past and of today, who live their lives with no hierarchy thus not being familiar with concepts like classes, prisons, suicide, depression and poverty. We have one life on one planet and should respect each other.
