e k v e r l a g

ek verlag is the cassette label curated by ester kärkkäinen .

sex . noise . death . industrial . heavy electronics . saturn returns . paraphilia . tears . anxiety . dread .

smr.tni . jhane p . christine k .

ego morte . moonbeam terror . ekstasis . mass marriage . obsidian needles . himukalt .

0.002 . jhane p . the stain of angels

when i conceived the idea of starting my own label, the first artist i wanted to work with was jhane p. she is a force of nature, and the more i get to know her, the more her revelations speak to me. in an alternate reality, we would be sisters, we would be jealous lovers, we would be bitter rivals at a strip club in some shithole in arizona. if you don't know who she is, shame on you. jhane is half of false maria working with tomasz c in a quest to inflict their uncomfortable electronics as a form of communed catharsis and deviant confessionals. her own work stares down from the edge of the cliff, and i really don't know if she's actually going to jump as she recounts her sordid tales of lust and misery. i have been in that place, and i remember that feeling. it fucking sucks. it hurts so bad, but then i realize that i am still alive and i take a step back, because i remembered i can feel again. she shakes me to my core with her emotional candor. she had me at the scream. she broke me with the tragic recording of a suicide prevention announcement broadcast to absolutely no one. pain, like sex, can be such a release.

0.001 . smr.tni . unrelieving

i was immediately drawn to the work of smr.tni when i encountered the work of this pretty new german heavy electronic project. this shouldn't be a surprise, as there is an intense co-mingling of nasty, grinding industrial noise and a bold expressionist display of the body without inhibition, without pretense. this body is scarred. empowered. damaged. threatening. passionate. re-shaped in their own image for their own desire and rage. the project name is taken from the serbian word for "mortal" and speaks to the transient nature of existence, made more personal through their exorcism of depression, suicidal ideation, body dysphoria, and persistent pain. smr.tni also performs in the political power electronics project sumnja with rhizome weaver, and together they run the silken heart label. i'm very proud to present this work as the first release on ek verlag, a publisher of noise, sex, hostility, dread, anxiety.