Pre-order Melencolia III now!

[UPDATED: Sold Out]

Are you ready?

News on Melencolia III

Great news! "Melencolia III", Merankorii's upcoming CD, is going to be released in the 15th of January, 2007!

The Wall (lyrics)

I look
to the empty bricked wall
searching for you
trying to find out
what did I lost in the process
what was that I had
I have no more
So important
that made me loose you

I look to an empty street
Full of people with lives while I have none
Just a burden that makes me so tired
Tired of waiting for the sand to stop falling
So I can finally do it...

The wall walks on my side
as I try to figure out why
Why do you had to leave me alone?

Eager...

A leaf falls in the other side of the road
and my finger plays with the cement between bricks
While a sullen tear tries to slide off my dried eyes
I have no more liquids in my body - only time

Did you ever thought that...

I love this wall
I love and... wall
I am the wall
Let me fall.

Merankorii on Contrast Podcast

Greetings!

Contrast Podcast is a Podcast (a type of internet radio show) that airs weekly with user contributed songs. For the second time, there is a number dedicated to Contrast Podcast listers' bands, and this time Merankorii is there with Interlude!

In the shows' own words:

This week we have another special episode where the tunesmith’s are introducing their own music. As you would expect there is no less contrast and you are bound to find something you will like.

There are preety cool new bands there to know about, so feel free to listen or download the show!

Merankorii gets signed!

Dear listeners, it's with the most pleasure that I can tell this: Merankorii got signed with the label Nekrogoat Heresy Productions for the release of Merankorii's next album, "Melencolia III".

The label

Nekrogoat Heresy Productions is a new Portuguese underground label aiming to release K7 tapes, CD-R's and Vinyl records of dark musical Projects from Portugal. It's first release is going to be in December, a k7 tape in a 300 hand-numbered copies limited edition from the new Portuguese Misanthropic Black Metal act "Nebula Soturna".

The deal

Merankorii and Nekrogoat Heresy Productions signed a deal to release "Melencolia III", a Dark Ambient CD-R from Merankorii, to be released until February 2007.

The album

"Melencolia III" is going to be the third release of Merankorii, after "O Monólogo do Mudo" and "Crash". It is going to be released by Nekrogoat Heresy Productions in a 100 hand-numbered copies limited edition CD-R and will be sold for 5 € each. This album is going to have almost one hour of dark melancholic sounds in 14 tracks, including the previously released "Interlude" (on "Crash" and "Metal Legions - Vol. II") and "Solitude" (on "Armageddon, Vol. 1").

"Metal Legions - Vol. II" is out!

Merankorii participates in yet another Portuguese compilation, this time "Metal Legions - Vol. II". This compilation saw a release of 300 copies to be distributed in various labels, zines and so on, and more ten CD's for each band, including Merankorii. The track list is here:

UNDERSAVE - Infected Mind
MERANKORII - Interlude
TENEBRARVM - Tears For Eternal Monuments
GWIDION - The Great Dome
RESET - Sorry
UNDERNEATH - Self Decapitation
LOSS SPECTRA OF PURE - True Illusions
MORBID DEATH - Last Breath
FORGOTTEN WINTER - Act II
HEMATOMA - IV Tomb
PAINTED BLACK - AaBbYyZz
RESPOSTA SIMPLES - Genocidio cultural
SHADOWSPHERE - Hellbound
POSIDOM - John Doe
PROFAN - Eliptic Sonic Behemoth
NECROCANNIBAL - Orgy of the undead
BLACK PLAGUE - Under the Black Flame

"Armageddon, Vol. 1" is out!

Yes! "Arnageddon, Vol. 1" is out, and in this compilation there's a new track from Merankorii: Solitude! Get it now!

The compilation is free to download, and soon I'll have some "CD hard copies" too, so keep in touch!

Artists against Digital Restrictions Management

Digital Rights Management (generally abbreviated to DRM) is any of several technologies used by publishers (or copyright owners) to control access to and usage of digital data (such as software, music, movies) and hardware, handling usage restrictions associated with a specific instance of a digital work. The term often is confused with copy protection and technical protection measures (TPM). These two terms refer to technologies that control or restrict the use and access of digital media content on electronic devices with such technologies installed, acting as components of a DRM design.

Being so, the best way to call DRM is "Digital Restrictions Management", a violation to freedom, and their products (like, in the Music Industry, CD's and DVD's) are Defective by Design.

So, tomorrow is going to be the Anti-DRM day, and actions are being made all over the world to protest against it.

It is important that us, artists, fight against DRM, but this is a fight for freedom, art, and YOU - our listeners. 'cause there's no right that you have to pay for a defective disc that won't play in your car's stereo system, nor that you can by a digital file for your PC or your portable audio player, but you can't send the song from one place to another. It's like having a CD that can only be heard in one stereo system, or a painting that you have but cannot be shown to anyone.

So, lets get us artists fight against this corporational art-killing future, but let's make this a fight for freedom, for art, for music-lovers. So if you're one of those, not only an artist - fight: there's a lot you can do!
If you take a look to the picture shown, this is one of the pictures I've taken during my own fight against DRM: because this fight doesn't need only a "day", it needs to be constant. In this case, this is one of the defective pieces of media out there: that's right - Anja Garbarek stopped releasing CD's, and, not caring for her fans at all, started releasing defective digital media that can't play on my linux box or your car's CD player. So those CD's are now labeled with a sticker warning prospective buyers that the product has it's usage restricted. See?

You can also fight: for Art, for Freedom!

Metal Legions - Volume II

Hi there... This post is just to proudly announce that Merankorii's track "Interlude", previously released in the album "Crash", is going to be released in the Metal Legions - Volume II compilation CD-R. More info about it soon (including how to get a copy for yourself), but, for now, here's the tracklist:

METAL LEGIONS - VOLUME II

UNDERSAVE - Infected Mind
MERANKORII - Interlude
TENEBRARVM - Tears For Eternal Monuments
GWIDION - The Great Dome
RESET - Sorry
UNDERNEATH - Self Decapitation
LOSS SPECTRA OF PURE - True Illusions
MORBID DEATH - Last Breath
FORGOTTEN WINTER - Act II
HEMATOMA - IV Tomb
PAINTED BLACK - AaBbYyZz
RESPOSTA SIMPLES - Genocidio cultural
SHADOWSPHERE - Hellbound
POSIDOM - John Doe
PROFAN - Eliptic Sonic Behemoth
NECROCANNIBAL - Orgy of the undead
BLACK PLAGUE - Under the Black Flame
MORTE - Cinzas

Merankorii interview on Opuskulo

Opuskulo interviewed me on Merankorii.

Here's what was said (in Portuguese):

---

Na sua constante descoberta de novos e interessantes talentos, o Opuskulo cruzou-se com Merankorii, projecto da responsabilidade de Mind Booster Noori, multi instrumentista, compositor e mente criativa que faz deste um projecto singular no panorama alternativo nacional. Duas edições dos seus primeiros dois trabalhos esgotadas falam por si e aguçam a curiosidade para conhecer o que Merankorii tem para oferecer. Aqui fica a entrevista com o seu mentor.

O que é o projecto Merankorii ?

Merankorii é um projecto extremamente experimental, que se vai dentro em breve aproximar mais às sonoridades de Dark Ambient, que uso como forma de exteriorizar aquilo que sou, aquilo que sinto.

Qual o significado desse estranho nome para um projecto musical?

“Merankorii” é uma palavra Japonesa que significa “Melancolia”. Transmite na perfeição o estado de espírito que me assola em cada trabalho...

Editaste já dois trabalhos com edições bastante limitadas que esgotaram rapidamente. Não encaras a opção de fazer segundas edições desses trabalhos, dado o interesse gerado em torno dos mesmos?

Não conto fazê-lo, visto que tenho gravado um terceiro trabalho (que se vai chamar “Melencolia III”) que “resume” de certa forma o sentimento e o ambiente que quero transmitir em Merankorii. Não que esse seja o “derradeiro trabalho” nem tira valor aos registos anteriores, mas é, sem dúvida, o trabalho que define Merankorii. No entanto, e para os interessados, todo o segundo trabalho encontra-se disponível para download (gratuito e legal) na web.

Surpreendeu-te esse interesse ?

De certa forma, sim, mas não no sentido mais trivial. Infelizmente o meio mais alternativo Português, no que diz respeito à música, ainda se encontra muito fechado. As reacções ao “Monólogo do Mudo”, e posteriormente ao “Crash”, foram na generalidade muito boas, no entanto muito restritas no que diz respeito às pessoas que se deram ao trabalho de tentar conhecer o projecto. Mas onde o interesse não se revelou propriamente em aposta foi sobretudo no que diz respeito a editoras. Apesar de ser um tipo de som que, os registos anteriores mostraram-no, tem um mercado potencial, até agora não encontrei uma editora disposta a apostar neste projecto.

No meio underground mais afecto ao metal em todas as suas vertentes o nome Merankorii continua a ser quase totalmente desconhecido. Não é nesse mundo que te queres inserir? De onde vêm os apreciadores da tua música?

Não me quero “forçar” em nenhum mundo já existente. Merankorii é uma sonoridade em tantos aspectos híbrida, que não me é difícil vê-la a ser apreciada pelos fãs de Metal underground (que costumam também apreciar algumas ondas de black ambient ou darkwave), pelos fãs de darkwave/neo-clássico/neo-folk ou mesmo pelos fãs de sonoridades mais electrónicas e ambientais. O problema é que encontro ainda comunidades muito fechadas que dão valor ao que já tem nome e pouca importância a novos projectos quando eles têm um carácter mais experimental. Nada que me assuste. Vou continuar a lutar por Merankorii e pela sua divulgação em todos os meios potencialmente interessantes.

Defines Merankorii como «Doom Poetry for a Melancholical Soul». Esta definição induz, por um lado um forte sentido artístico naquilo que fazes que vai para além da musica e, por outro lado, um marcado individualismo. Concordas ?

Sem dúvida – Merankorii é um retrato do que me vai na alma, uma tentativa de transmitir sentimentos de uma forma pura, não encontrada em simples palavras. Isso é algo que faz com que Merankorii nunca seja apreciado por muitos – apenas por aqueles que, fugindo ao facilitismo, tentem entender Merankorii como uma obra conceptual. Para mim Merankorii não é “música”, é “arte” em muitos outros aspectos.

A tua visão sobre a vida e o mundo parece-me extremamente negra e fatalista. Não há mesmo esperança para um mundo melhor?

Existe essa esperança, e eu tenho-a. Mas acredito que para conseguires melhorar o meio que te envolve precisas primeiro de o entender, de o ver como ele verdadeiramente é, em vez de acreditares nas “visões resumidas” transmitidas pela comunicação social, em vez de seguires o “caminho fácil”, o “deixar andar”. Sou muito inspirado nas grandes obras distópicas a esse respeito – e se reparares elas nunca terminam com o “e depois...”. Elas ensinam-te a ver o mundo como ele já é, sobre a forma de um hipotético futuro. Mostram-te também o que há a fazer para lutar pela possibilidade de um mundo melhor... Esperança não chega, se não for acompanhada por acções para chegar lá.

Para que os nossos leitores se situem, é possível descrever o que poderão encontrar em Merankorii em termos musicais ? Poderás citar algumas influências?

Essa é uma pergunta muito difícil. Começando pelas influências, sou muito influenciado por muitas diversas formas de arte, como a pintura (ultimamente Bremen), a poesia (Fernando Pessoa, José Régio, ...) e, claro, a música, onde tenho influências de variados estilos musicais. Alguns artistas que têm passado ultimamente nos meus auscultadores incluem Scarling, Antimatter, Desire, Ashram, Current 93, Dismal (os Italianos), Sun O)))... Como vês, estilos diversos, que afectam Merankorii cada um à sua maneira. Quanto à sonoridade de Merankorii, vale mais julgarem por vós próprios, mas tem alguns momentos mais poético-musicados que se podem aproximar com bandas como Dwelling e outros mais ambientais, muito ao estilo dos trabalhos de David Mellor em “Days of the Moon”. Com os próximos trabalhos a sonorodidade de Merankorii estabiliza muito mais, na onda de Dark Ambient, junto a artistas como Vidna Obmana.

Colocas a hipótese de Merankorii vir a tornar-se numa banda dita “comum”, com mais elementos e com actuações?

Não excluo a hipótese e até gostava que surgissem oportunidades para fazer colaborações com outros artistas e actuações ao vivo. Mas integrar novos elementos em Merankorii, mesmo sendo algo que não está fora de hipótese, é algo que não acredito que vá acontecer. Já certezas, só a de que Merankorii nunca terá nada de “comum”.

O que podemos esperar de Merankorii num futuro próximo ?

Merankorii vai estar presente na compilação “Armageddon” com uma música nunca antes editada, o que espero que chame mais pessoas à atenção da existência deste projecto e que vai dar uma introdução à sonoridade do próximo álbum aos actuais fãs. Também existe um trabalho gravado, estando actualmente à procura de uma editora interessada em lançar esse CD. Caso isso não se venha a concretizar, a promessa do CD nas bancas ainda em 2006 mantém-se, mesmo que numa edição de autor.

Últimas palavras…

Antes de mais gostava de agradecer-te pelo apoio, interesse e divulgação de Merankorii. Talvez aos poucos a cena portuguesa fique mais aberta à inovação e experimentação... Convido todos os leitores desta entrevista a despenderem algum tempo e passar por http://merankorii.blogspot.com para conhecer a banda, ouvir/descarregar o seu som e acompanhar a sua evolução. Não temam a diferença – é dela que vem a evolução.

---

First of all, a really big thanks to Opuskulo for interviewing me.
As soon as I have the time to do it, I'll translate this to English and post it here.

News on Merankorii, good and bad

Hi there! After a well-deserved three-weeks vacation, I'm back to work both on my job and on Merankorii.

The real bad news are that when I came back from vacations my laptop's hard drive was gone. Yep, that's true, I have no computer at home now, and that means various things, including that now the process of trying to find a label for Melencolia III will suffer greatly, and, worse, I lost four almost-completed songs I had done for Merankorii. :-(

On the good side, Merankorii is going to participate with a new track in the Armageddon compilation, that is going to be out yet in 2006, and freely available for download!

Merankorii on SellABand

UPDATE: Not anymore. See why.

New photos of Merankorii's Flickr set

As I've told you before, in order to record "Melencolia III", the upcoming Merankorii's album, I've travelled to Lamego twice, besides the regular recordings here in Lisbon. Maybe I'll give you some pictures of my recording setup here in Lisbon soon, but for now you can see some pictures taken during Lamego's recordings here.

As you might know, the new album is already recorded and I'm just looking for a record label wanting to release it. If you know of a label that might be interested, please contact me.

Crash almost sold out!

For those of you that are regular readers, you know that Crash is a 50 copies limited edition, and was on sale in several places. We pointed ThrasPub as the right place to buy it, because you could do it for just 1.50€, shippment included. Today, Crash is the 8th best-selling CD-R from ThrashPub, but it was also today that Crash sold-out there.

So, if you're still looking for a way to buy Crash, I think there are some copies left at Baú Encantado.

[UPDATE: all gone now.]

Translation of METAL INCANDESCENTE's review

As I told you before, METAL INCANDESCENTE made a review on Crash. Since that review is in Portuguese, I made a rough translation of it to English.

Only the ecletic ways of METAL INCANDESCENTE justify on this post an analisys to Crash, the second demo from the project Merankorii, founded by Mind Booster Noori, from Mordor (ex-Diabulus). Because, while the manuscript press note says it is a Doom Metal pieace, this solo project is far far away from heavy music. What we can hear here is the somewhat depressive melancholic experimentalism, to listen, preferebly, in a stormy night.


On Crash - with a limited run of 50 copies - we found a curious effect during the ten tracks: all the odd ones have musical stretches, with ambiental sounds and acoustic instruments (with piano heading) to transmit the told melancholy; all the odd ones have spoken word recitals in Portuguese, in a heavy and calm tone, also with evolving music. So, this piece is more a kind of audio poetry with musical interludes than really a record. But "thipical" is an adjective you can't count on with Merankorii.


In essence, all the themes sound very organic, as if they were recorded at the first take. This ambient music, almost ritualistic, reaches it's peak of closeness in it's forth track: «À Arte» is as a matter of fact a tremendous ode, sentimental and poetic, and one of the biggest prominences of this piece.


Listening to it repeatedly make the magic from the first audition to dissolve itself. Annoying are the 22 tracks of almost one minute each of complete silence that precede the bonus track, more a whim than anything else. It's really slip the frontier between the genious and the madman, and it is still uncertain the artistic location of this project. We give it the doubt bennefict to this original purpose in the Portuguese musical scene. 7/10

Lurker

"Crash" review on "Metal Incandescente"

"Crash", Merankorii's second CD, has been reviewed on Metal Incandescente (in Portuguese) where it got a rate of 7/10. Thanks for the review!

Update

After pondering it for a while, yesterday I came to the decision of updating the concept behind Merankorii's forthcoming album "Melencolia III". So, there's still some more work to do on it than the one I previously thought, but I really think that the result will be more enjoyable to you. Since next week I'll be on vacations, I expect to use that time to work a lot of Melencolia III and it's 14 tracks - my final goal is to have all the recordings done until the end of my vacations. After that, I'll record several copies of it and send it to some record companies, trying to get one wanting to release Melencolia III. But don't be afraid: the CD will be released in 2006, even if I have to do a self-release.

Several people are showing some sympathy and telling me how sad it is the fact that Merankorii having a hard time to get a deal with some record company. Well, that's true, but there's something you can do to change that fact and help Merankorii. As a matter of fact is pretty easy: you can just buy some Merankorii CD's (which cost only 1.50€ each, shipment included) and give them to your friends.

Merankorii on "Contrast Podcast"

For those who don't know, a Podcast is basicly an internet (usually in mp3) radio show. There's one called Contrast Podcast, that every week has a show about one theme. This week's show was about "the best 2006 songs so far", and Merankorii's "Straight to Art" was on it!

Status

Here's a quick status on Merankorii. Merankorii is finishing the process of recording it's upcoming full-length album "Melencolia III". The album itself will have thirteen tracks, being the last one a mix between the previously released track "À Arte" and Mindless Self Indulgence's "Straight to Video", called "Straight to Art". From those, only one has yet to be re-recorded and mastered, and then all musical work is done. About the artwork for the record, all is already conceptually planed, and it just needs to be executed. I'm quite excited to the whole package/concept this album is going to have! But not all is good - as I've said previously Merankorii is without a record label. So, I've decided that this CD has to see the light of day in 2006, no matter what, so I'll keep trying to find a new label to release this record until October, and if I can't find nothing till then, I'll risk to release it myself - which is going to be quite expensive and will make the final package suffer in quality.

Bad News

It seems that Adrenalina Records is facing bankrupcy, so the deal between Merankorii and them is off. That said, we're looking for another record company to release our next CD. If you work on or know a record company that might be interested in release Merankorii's next CD, a full length, please contact us.

Player added to Merankorii's site

Greetings,

As you can see on your right bar, I've just added a music player embeeded on this site where you can listen to some Crash's tracks. I know it's ugly and yet not user-friendly, but I'll try to get it better in time.

Merankorii signs with Adrenalina Records

Merankorii just made a deal with Adrenalina Records in order to have an upcoming release of Merankorii signed with Adrenalina's label. The third Merankorii CD is already being recorded, so you may expect some news on this project soon.

For those willing to know more about Adrenalina Records, they released Colombia, W.A.K.O. and Ho-Chi-Minh.

Thrash Pub distributes Merankorii

Great news!

Thrash Pub is distributing Merankorii's 2nd CD: "Crash"!

[UPDATE: Sold Out]