Last week, and out of the blue, experimental producer and composer Ben Frost dropped a new EP called Threshold Of Faith. The effort is the fruit of a two-week collaboration between the Reykjavík based musician and Shellac’s Steve Albini. A press release explains the process:

“Over two weeks — vast systems; unstable, overloaded, and on the verge of collapse — were fed into an array of amplifiers inside a cavernous studio. Shapes were formed, speakers were torn. Behind the glass Albini committed live performances to tape; slashing at them intermittently with a razorblade. More than 2 hours of music was recorded.”

Recorded last summer in Chicago and featuring seven tracks, Threshold Of Faith EP is the first release from these recordings. Grab the EP through Mute and listen to the dark and atmospheric title track below.

Coinciding with the EP release, Ben Frost has announced an Autumn tour across Europe, including live dates at London’s Electric Brixton on October 5th and at Utrecht’s Le Guess Who? Festival on November 11th.

Exquisite experimental producer and composer Ben Frost last released a solo album, By The Throat, back in 2009. That’s not say he’s been quiet, on the contrary, Frost has been collaborating and producing several other projects including Colin Stetson’s New History Warfare trilogy and SWANS’ The Seer. The Reykjavík based musician has recently announced his highly anticipated fifth studio album entitled A U R O R A. The effort, due out on May 26th via Mute / Bedroom Community, was largely written in Eastern DR Congo with the addition of drummers Thor Harris of Swans and Greg Fox of Guardian Alien (and formerly Liturgy) and Shahzad Ismaily.

“A U R O R A aims directly, through its monolithic construction, at blinding luminescent alchemy; not with benign heavenly beauty but through decimating magnetic force” explains the press release. “Starved of all the adornments of its predecessor; wholly absent of guitar, of piano, of string instruments and natural wooden intimacy, A U R O R A offers a defiant new world of fiercely synthetic shapes and galactic interference, pummelling skins and pure metals.”

Ahead of the album’s release, Frost has confirmed a number of live dates in support of the album, kicking off at the Village Underground in London on April 26th.
To get us excited, Frost has unveiled the album’s first single, the obscure, throbbing and intense ‘Venter’. Listen to it beneath.