Through the ’70s and ’80s, Cabaret Voltaire were an adventurous group sitting at a cross-section of avant-garde electronic explorations and warped pop sensibilities that made them hard to define — and very influential. In 1994, Stephen Mallinder left, leaving Richard H. Kirk as the sole member of the band and that year’s The Conversation seemingly their last album. Or, that is, until now.
Today, Kirk has announced Shadow Of Fear, the first Cabaret Voltaire album with him as a solo act, and the first under the Cabaret Voltaire name in 26 years. The birth of the album goes back to 2014, when Kirk played the 2014 Berlin Atonal festival and kicked off his solo Cabaret Voltaire era. “The mission statement from the off was no nostalgia,” he said in a statement. “Normal rules do not apply. Something for the 21st Century. No old material.” In turn, he began performing more and using that as his template to carve out a new sound: “I started developing tracks specifically for live performance. Stuff that was quite stripped back and crude. Every time I would visit a new place to perform, I would write something fresh.”
It was a long time coming, but then came to fruition in an eerily appropriate year. “The album was finished just as all the weirdness was starting to kick in,” Kirk
said. “Shadow Of Fear feels like a strangely appropriate title. The current situation didn’t have much of an influence on what I was doing — all the vocal content was already in place before the panic set in — but maybe due to my nature of being a bit paranoid there are hints in there about stuff going a bit weird and capturing the current state of affairs.”
Along with the announcement, Kirk has shared a new song called “Vasto.” It’s a seven minute churn of flickering electronics, buzzing synths, and anxious disembodied vocals. Check it out below.
TRACKLIST:
01 “Be Free”
02 “The Power (Of Their Knowledge)”
03 “Night Of The Jackal”
04 “Microscopic Flesh Fragment”
05 “Papa Nine Zero Delta United”
06 “Universal Energy”
07 “Vasto”
08 “What’s Goin’ On”
Shadow Of Fear is out 11/20 via Mute. Pre-order it here.
