''Asunder, Sweet and Other Distress'' is the fifth studio album by Canadian

post-rock Post-rock is a form of experimental rock characterized by a focus on exploring textures and timbre over traditional rock song structures, chords, or riffs. Post-rock artists are often instrumental, typically combining rock instrumentation with ...

band

Godspeed You! Black Emperor Godspeed You! Black Emperor (sometimes abbreviated to GY!BE or Godspeed) is a Canadian post-rock band which originated in Montreal, Quebec in 1994. The group releases recordings through Constellation, an independent record label also located i ...

, released on 31 March 2015 by Constellation Records. The album was recorded with

Electrical Audio Electrical Audio is a recording studio, recording facility founded in Chicago, Illinois by musician and recording engineer Steve Albini in 1997. Hundreds of independent music projects have been recorded there. Unlike most producers, Albini refuses ...

engineer Greg Norman in

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

and

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

, and was the first to feature completely new material since the band's reformation in 2010. It is also, with the exception of the vinyl version of ''

F♯ A♯ ∞ ''F♯ A♯ ∞'' (pronounced "F-sharp, A-sharp, Infinity") is the debut studio album by Canadian post-rock band Godspeed You! Black Emperor. It was first released on August 14, 1997 through Constellation Records on a single LP and on June 8 ...

'' (ignoring the locked groove), the group's shortest album to date, timing in at just forty minutes. The album was announced on 24 February 2015; the group also shared an excerpt of "Peasantry or 'Light! Inside of Light!'" on

SoundCloud SoundCloud is an online audio distribution platform and music sharing website that enables its users to upload, promote, and share audio. Founded in 2007 by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss, SoundCloud is one of the largest music streaming se ...

. On 24 March 2015, Constellation streamed the album on their SoundCloud.

Critical reception

At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from music critics, the album has received an average score of 84, indicating "universal acclaim".

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...

rated the album 7.6 out of a possible 10 and Mark Richardson described the album as a "different kind of transaction" and that while listening to the album "You have to let your guard down" as that Godspeed "transforms feelings into compelling records. They're still on track." Writing for ''

Exclaim! ''Exclaim!'' is a Canadian music and entertainment publisher based in Toronto, which features in-depth coverage of new music across all genres with a special focus on Canadian and emerging artists. The monthly Exclaim! print magazine publishes 7 ...

'', Nilan Perera called the record "a beautiful, concise blast that conveys this band's musical essence".

Track listing

The album's four tracks are based on "Behemoth", played live numerous times since 2012 and previously recorded onstage for the concert series We Have Signal.

Personnel

;Godspeed You! Black Emperor *

Thierry Amar Thierry Amar is a Canadian musician, engineer and producer. He is a member of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band, Earthquake Architecture, The Craig Pedersen Quartet and Black Ox Orkestar. He i ...

–

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...

* David Bryant –

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gui ...

, Portasound, organ, drones *

Aidan Girt Aidan Girt is a Canadian drummer for the Montreal-based post-rock collectives Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and Exhaust. He is also a solo electronic artist under the names ''OSB'', ''1-Speed Bike'', and ''Bottleskup Flenkenkenmike'' and continues ...

–

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

*Timothy Herzog – drums and drones *

Efrim Menuck Efrim Manuel Menuck (; born November 4, 1970) is a Canadian musician involved with a number of Montreal-based bands, most notably Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra. Menuck is also a frequent record producer a ...

– electric guitar *

Mike Moya Mike Moya (born December 1, 1969) is a Canadian rock musician, who is one of the founding members of post-rock band Godspeed You! Black Emperor. He left the band in 1998 to concentrate on his other bands Molasses, Set Fire to Flames and HṚṢ ...

– electric guitar *

Mauro Pezzente Mauro Pezzente is a Canadian musician. He is best known as being co-founder of Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Pezzente, along with Efrim Menuck and Mike Moya, founded Godspeed You! Black Emperor in 1994. Along with Thierry Amar, Pezzente plays th ...

– bass guitar * Sophie Trudeau –

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

, drones *

Karl Lemieux Karl Lemieux is a Canadian film director best known for his collaborations with Montreal-based post rock band Godspeed You! Black Emperor and his 2016 film '' Shambles''. Biography Karl Lemieux joined Godspeed You! Black Emperor in 2010 – wh ...

– 16mm film projections ;Technical personnel *Greg Norman – recording, mixing *

Harris Newman Harris Newman is a mastering engineer working out of Grey Market Mastering in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. His studio shares a building with the Hotel2Tango recording studio, as well as Constellation Records. Newman has mastered hundreds of album ...

at Greymarket – mastering

Charts

References

External links

Press release
{{Authority control 2015 albums Constellation Records (Canada) albums Godspeed You! Black Emperor albums Instrumental rock albums