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SOUTHERN LORD IS PLEASED TO PRESENT BOTH HISTORICAL SUNN O)))WHITE ALBUMS IN THEIR FUNDAMENTAL AND PROPER FORMS, COINCIDING WITH THE LABEL’S 20TH ANNIVERSARY

July 8, 2018

Photo by Kerry O’Sullivan

SOUTHERN LORD IS PLEASED TO PRESENT BOTH HISTORICAL SUNN O)))WHITE ALBUMS IN THEIR FUNDAMENTAL AND PROPER FORMS, COINCIDING WITH THE LABEL’S 20TH ANNIVERSARY

SUNN O))) are reissuing the WHITE albums this summer, coinciding with Southern Lord‘s 20th anniversary. For these reissues SUNN O))) took the original full length unedited premasters/final mixes to Matt “The Alchemist” Colton at Alchemy Mastering in London for a complete high resolution 88K/24bit mastering and, crucially, cut the lacquers using Alchemy’s half-speed method on their Neumann SX 74 cutterhead. The outstanding results allow the original full length mixes to be pressed at high fidelity on the vinyl format. The new WHITE masters reveal a broader frequency response, the bottom end is deeper and more intense, low mids are lusher, high frequencies are smoother and the stereo image is vastly improved, seeming more three dimensional spatially and more dynamic. The sound is clearer, sharper, more direct.

SUNN O))) co-founders Stephen O’Malley & Greg Anderson originally conceived the WHITE albums to be “acoustic” but the sessions at Fontanelle’s Magnetic Park studios in Portland Oregon quickly took a far different route toward the psychedelic and the electronic/synthetic, with trance and drone experiments.

 

WHITE2 was originally released in 2004 by Southern Lord as a CD and limited double LP edition of 1000 copies (in a tip on gatefold sleeve in various vinyl colours). The WHITE2 album was notably the first collaboration with the Hungarian legend & singer Attila Csihar, which began a long and fruitful creative story of the O))) ethos. With the WHITE albums SUNN O))) took another bold step in the experimental and highly collaborative path the group has traveled since. Together with Attila, WHITE2 featured the extraordinary talents of special guests Joe PrestonRex Ritter & Dawn Smithson. Along with WHITE1, the album brought the concept of SUNN O))) further forth, arriving at a truly transcendent note with the pairing of the “DECAY” tracks featuring Attila. And, the sky cracked open.
Southern Lord are offering each these reissues on 180g White vinyl, housed in Stoughton Printing old style gatefold tip-on sleeves. Each includes an A1 poster with classic portraits of the band from the period by Kerry O’Sullivan & Glynnis McDaris. T-shirts and other exclusive packages are also available. Limited to 1,000 copies, these shall be made available exclusively via sunn.southernlord.com/products and sunn.bandcamp.com. Other vinyl colours will be available through all outlets later in July.
For twenty years, Sunn O))) have been challenging the way we think about music. From 1999’s The Grimmrobe Demos to 2015’s Kannon, core members Stephen O’Malley and Greg Anderson have forged connections between the worlds of Metal, Drone, Contemporary Composition, Jazz and Minimalism with startling results while remaining true to the eternal principles of volume, density and weight.

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