What kind of emotions guides us when we feel the loss of hope and the whole life seems to be nothing but a mournful bridge over a river of tears? One got to live ones life, and bear all the pain and sorrows, sadness and depression. Fatal for the majority, these dark emotions may become the pleasure for the others and give them power to survive. The punishment will come and everybody will be punished one way or another. To await or to undergo this punishment is to be a Penitent.

We are proud to announce “Melancholia Redux” of the Norwegian Dark/Industrial/Ambient/Experimental pioneers Penitent in various formats.

Karsten Hamre, Penitent‘s heart & soul, has followed a peculiar personal path and for more than three decades has remained absolutely consistent, dressing his poetry in black and eerie melodies. Not only did the passing of time not deter him, on the contrary today he is possessed by a freshness that is like doing a complete restart. On the one hand he has re-recorded a large part of the 10 albums he has released to date, while at the same time making his own plans for the future.

Our collaboration with Penitent begins with the re-release of the now legendary debut “Melancholia“, released by Cold Meat Industry in 1996. Although the term re-release in this particular case is not accurate, as almost everything has been changed. The album was re-recorded, there is new artwork & new mastering.

Comments Karsten Hamre:

After nearly 30 years, the Penitent debut album “Melancholia” is set to be released in a new incarnation. The music and instrumentation has been rerecorded, and the lyrics has been rewritten and are now all in English. Thanks to the good people at The Circle Music this reincarnation, now dubbed “Melancholia Redux” is set to be released on both CD and LP.

I am thrilled about this cooperation, which should be a long lasting one, and it should include more reworks as well as new and updated versions of the Penitent back catalogue (some to have voice/vocals added to them).

Other future “Redux” versions may include “The Beauty of Pain“, “As Life Fades Away” and “Roses by Chaos Spawned“. Reworked version of “Deserted Dreams” and “A Shapeless Beauty” will for sure come, and then with added vocals/voice in order to be closer to how the songs in the past were performed live (in mainly Iasi & Bucharest, Romania and in Sofia, Bulgaria). This is also the way future live performances will be done as well.

Naturally there will also be new and never before released musiψ in the pipeline, so there’s a quite a bit to look forward to in the future.

At last I will like to thank the team at The Circle Music for making all this happen