March 1, 2017 For Immediate Release

SMALLTOWN SUPERSOUND TO REISSUE DEATHPROD’S TREETOP DRIVE (1994), IMAGINARY SONGS FROM TRISTAN DA CUNHA (1996), AND MORALS AND DOGMA (2004), OUT MAY 5TH

PLAYING BIG EARS FESTIVAL ON MARCH 26TH AND NEW YORK ON MARCH 28TH

“‘Morals and Dogma’ is heavy without harshness, threatening without theatrics, and it shudders inside a silence so large, it could only follow the end of the world.” — Pitchfork on Morals and Dogma, “The 50 Best Ambient Albums of All Time”

“[Sten’s] series of influenal ambient albums – from 1991’s self-released (and charmingly tled) cassee ‘Deep Throat Puke Orgasms’ to 2004’s massively acclaimed ‘final’ opus ‘Morals and Dogma’ rightly secured him a place among the great and good of experimental music.” — FACT

Based in Oslo, Norway, composer Helge Sten has been craing this music since the early 90s, a deeply atmospheric, grainy minimalism that slows me down and explores the very parcles of sound itself. The Deathprod concept arose in 1991 when Sten realized his complex array of homemade electronics, samplers, sound processing and analogue effects – cumulavely known as the “Audio Virus” – could add a musical dimension above and beyond the merely technical. Almost obsolete samplers and playback devices distort and transform sounds into unrecognizable mutaons of their former selves. The virus breeds layers of complex and overlapping sonic debris, creang a kind of cellular composion. Sten is a founder member of Norwegian improvising group Supersilent and has produced records by Motorpsycho, Susanna, Jenny Hval, Arve Henriksen and others. In 1998, alongside Biosphere, he electronically transformed the music of Norway’s leading contemporary composer, Arne Nordheim. More recently he composed music for Harry Partch’s legendary invented instruments for the Cologne based Ensemble Musikfabrik.

Now the core trilogy of Deathprod albums will be released for the first me on vinyl and download on May 5th via Smalltown Supersound. Cut to vinyl by Rashad Becker at Dubplates and Mastering in Berlin, they form Deathprod’s complete official canon.

American audiences will be able to enjoy the richly textured, hallucinatory Deathprod experience this spring when Sten performs live in Knoxville at Big Ears Fesval on Sunday, March 26th and New York City at Issue Project Room on Tuesday, March 28th.

Treetop Drive Originally released as a limited edion handmade cassee box, the three pieces Treetop Drive crystallized Deathprod’s specific method of composion, found sounds and textural layering. “Treetop Drive” 1-3 were recorded live in concert in 1993, direct to two track DAT tape at the Trondheim Academy of Fine Arts. They combine the precision of digital sampling, the unpredictability of homemade electronics, and the esoteric tape- echo sound of Hans Magnus Ryan (Motorpsycho)’s violin, defining a new space in which to perform and compose. Exisng in a void between the arts, contemporary music and alternave culture, Treetop Drive was completed with the realizaon “Towboat”, recorded at Audio Virus LAB in 1994 and released by the label Metal Art Disco later the same year. This audio restoraon from an early 1994 master means the album has never sounded beer.

Imaginary Songs from Tristan da Cunha Tristan da Cunha in the South Atlanc is the world’s most remote island. If you want to visit for more than one day, you have to wait a year unl the next boat arrives to pick you up. Imagining life in such a lonely and cut-off environment opens up a space for Deathprod’s yearning set of electronic SOS calls that are desned never to quite reach out through the airwaves. Violin by Ole Henrik Moe, who introduced Sten to the wrings of a Norwegian expedion to the island in the 1930s, was recorded in the forest outside Oslo, manipulated and transferred to phonographic wax cylinders to give an extra dimension of decay. The final track on the album, “The Contracepve Briefcase II”, was recorded live in concert by the Norwegian Broadcast Corporaon (NRK), and features five vocalists, musical glasses, a musical saw, theremin and layered electronics. Originally released on CD in 500 copies in 1996, the album has been remastered in 24 bit / 96kHz high resoluon audio from the original mix tapes.

Morals and Dogma Morals And Dogma is a ritual. Ten years in the making, it contains four pieces, recorded between 1994 and 1997. This is Deathprod at full intensity, featuring an even more expansive and billowing sound as Sten transforms and blends the textures of violins, saw and harmonium. Pieces like “Dead Peoples Things” and “Tron” were revised numerous mes, even though the very first versions of both were chosen for the final sequencing of the album. Both Ole Henrik Moe and Hans Magnus Ryan contribute with their unique approach to the violin, while Moe extends the metallic and textural qualies of “Cloudchamber”, ulizing a musical saw. The harmonium on “Orgone Donor’” was recorded direct to cassee by Hans Magnus Ryan, and later mul-tracked with dual violins at Audio Virus LAB. “Cloudchamber” is layered with electronic treatments of the decay and noise from a Maestro Echoplex tape-echo machine, and also lends it tle from one of the beaufully craed microtonal instruments of Harry Partch. First released on Rune Grammofon in 2004, this has been pressed from the 2004 original high resoluon master.

Deathprod Tour Dates (first ever US shows): Sun. March 26 — Knoxville, TN @ Big Ears Fesval [x] Tue. March 28 — New York, NY @ Issue Project Room [x] Treetop Drive (1994) Tracklist: 01. Treetop Drive 1 02. Treetop Drive 2 03. Treetop Drive 3 04. Towboat

Imaginary Songs from Tristan da Cunha (1996) Tracklist: 01. Burntwood 02. Stony Beach 03. Hotento Gulch 04. Boatharbour Bay 05. The Contracepve Briefcase II (Part I) 06. The Contracepve Briefcase II (Part II)

Morals and Dogma (2004) Tracklist: 01. Tron 02. Dead People’s Things 03. Orgone Donor 04. Cloudchamber

Download hi-res images & album art — hp://pitchperfectpr.com/deathprod/

Pre-order Deathprod reissues — hp://smarturl.it/deathprod-bcamp

Deathprod online: twier.com/Deathprod smalltownsupersound.com pitchperfectpr.com/deathprod

For more informaon, contact: Sam McAllister | Pitch Perfect PR — [email protected], 773-271-6844