KAYO DOT are about to embark on their “Choirs of the Eve” 20th Anniversary Tour across Europe. In what can only be called a sensational twist, the band features the complete line-up of legendary predecessor band MAUDLIN OF THE WELL! The US avant-garde doom project will kick off proceedings at the Signature Brew Blackhorse Road in London this Friday, February 24. KAYO DOT will proceed to perform in seven European countries until the final curtain falls in Italy at The Academy in Mantova on March 5.
Although KAYO DOT will be featuring their classic album “Choirs of the Eve” , their latest release “Moss Grew on the Swords and Plowshares Alike” provides a good introduction to the current state of the band and illustrates their exciting evolution. And who knows what happens, if there is extra playing-time…
You can order the album here.
KAYO DOT “Choirs of the Eve” 20th Anniversary Tour
24 FEB 2023 London (UK) Signature Brew Blackhorse Road
25 FEB 2023 Haarlem (NL) Complexity Festival
26 FEB 2023 Berlin (DE) Urban Spree
28 FEB 2023 Warszawa (PL) Hydrozagadka
01 MAR 2023 Krakรณw (PL) KlubRE
02 MAR 2023 Praha (CZ) Underdogs
03 MAR 2023 Beograd (RS) Elektropionic
04 MAR 2023 Graz (AT) Wakuum
05 MAR 2023 Mantova (IT) The Academy
“Death, whether in stealth or striking upon its bell, stalks us from the womb onward. The life of the ascetic and the life of the voluptuary are one life, and will dissolve with the drunkard and the saint”, writes Jason Byron, whose words are a primary force of the creation of the musical universe charted by KAYO DOT mastermind Toby Driver.
The stark frailty of the human condition is the overall theme running through the veins of KAYO DOT’s 10th regular studio album “Moss Grew on the Swords and Plowshares Alike”. In the sprawling, churning musical multiverse of mainly multi-instrumentalist Toby Driver’s creation that has never accepted nor cared for any artificial borders of genre and incorporated for example rock, metal, classical music, goth, indie, pop, and jazzy structures, this avant-garde album appears to tilt towards a more harsh as well as heavy approach than on some of the previous recordings โ and considering its dark and melancholic undertones may be given the epithet doom.
The human experience of a finite life probably gave birth to the linear monotheist concept of a universe that is created and expiring. The pagan mind often has a deeper looking cyclic vision as exemplified in Nordic myth, in which the world inevitably perishing in the fires of Ragnarok will be born renewed on the next day. Something of the latter’s appears to have infected “Moss Grew on the Swords and Plowshares Alike”. This album has been recorded with the original line-up of Toby Driver’s previous band MAUDLIN OF THE WELL. He also recorded the new tracks in the same location as the very first MAUDLIN OF THE WELL tape. In a way, KAYO DOT are celebrating the 20th anniversary of the release of the landmark double album “Bath/Leaving Your Body Map” and the 25 years since MAUDLIN OF THE WELL’s inception with “Moss Grew on the Swords and Plowshares Alike”.
After the split of much loved MAUDLIN OF THE WELL, charismatic frontman Toby Driver formed the avant-garde music project KAYO DOT as a new outlet for his burgeoning creativity in 2003. The multi-instrumentalist and singer remains the only absolute constant in this band, although there are frequent lyrical contributions from his former band-mate Jason Byron throughout the extensive discography. In the following 18 years, KAYO DOT released an impressive number of full-lengths, EPs, splits, and live recordings that are all marked by considerable stylistic differences and a wide array of instrumentation that included guitars, bass, drums, vibraphone, violin, synthesizers, flutes, clarinets and saxophone.
Especially in progressive circles, KAYO DOT has become a household name and is supported by prestigious, forward thinking festivals such as Roadburn.
With “Moss Grew on the Swords and Plowshares Alike”, KAYO DOT deliver another beautiful and essential facet of their complex musical multiverse, although the album can easily stand on its own as a most impressive piece of dark avant-garde metal.
Line-up: Toby Driver โ guitars, bass, synths, drums, programming, all vocals, Greg Massi โ guitar solos (on tracks 3, 5, and 7), Jason Byron โ all lyrics
