- 1alienation / immersion
- 2chorus [transmission]
- 3contradictions
- 4styx
- 5chorus [coding the landscape]
- 6receiver [vrå]
- 7flickering with the flash beings
- 8the not-yet-deleted
- 9chorus [hacker-bards]
- 10seance
- 11recording never stopped
- 12chorus [invocation of the spellchestra]
- 13the summoning
- 14giggl [heist theme]
FTL010
•
Open edition
the shadow channel is the third album by Spellcaster and the seminal summoning of the spellchestra. Continuing the fragmented narrative laid out on its predecessors Inventory (2019) and memo (2022), the shadow channel concludes a trilogy of releases unfolding the story of our main character anybard, embodied by Danish composer, musician and performer h hartvig nielsen.
the shadow channel is an operatic rite of passage through a stream of undead transmissions. The release moves as a hazy radio montage of feedback clusters, estranged melodies, cut up sonic fabrics and dramatic walkie talkie dialogue, occasionally interrupted by bard-like song structures. A chorus repeats throughout the shadow channel, like an anchor in the otherwise transitory universe of sound, emphasising hartvig's highly refined melodic and harmonic language in between the surrounding audio abstractions.
Where Inventory (2019) presented the sounds and tools making up Spellcasters universe, memo (2022) further unfolded anybard's story, their loss of memory, their recordings for Deleted and encountering Companion through distinct compositions. memo ends with a message being transmitted into the ether, and the shadow channel is this very ether. Within this alienated environment, the possibility of ensemble appears. Mimicking a heist-movie, entities (or "hacker-bards") are summoned to form the spellchestra and conspire to produce "the fertilizer for roots of the subversive tree", a mirroring between reality and fiction.
released October 31, 2025
CREDITS
all music composed, performed, recorded, mixed and produced by h hartvig nielsen 2022-2025
performed by spellcaster and the spellchestra
electric bass on seance by Seán Being
mixed by h hartvig nielsen
with mix consultation by No Master's Voice / M. Ferreira
master by Kommunal Dubplate Service / Hari Kishore
Artwork by Oliver Laumann & spellcaster
The spellchestra is:
Arte Carlander as stringstrum
Simin Stine Ramezanali as starmeem / meanstar
Mija Milovic as em
Stine Victoria Huyn as from the echo
Tettix Hexer as aeroborn
Oliver Laumann as measure
h hartvig nielsen as anybard
the shadow channel is an operatic rite of passage through a stream of undead transmissions. The release moves as a hazy radio montage of feedback clusters, estranged melodies, cut up sonic fabrics and dramatic walkie talkie dialogue, occasionally interrupted by bard-like song structures. A chorus repeats throughout the shadow channel, like an anchor in the otherwise transitory universe of sound, emphasising hartvig's highly refined melodic and harmonic language in between the surrounding audio abstractions.
Where Inventory (2019) presented the sounds and tools making up Spellcasters universe, memo (2022) further unfolded anybard's story, their loss of memory, their recordings for Deleted and encountering Companion through distinct compositions. memo ends with a message being transmitted into the ether, and the shadow channel is this very ether. Within this alienated environment, the possibility of ensemble appears. Mimicking a heist-movie, entities (or "hacker-bards") are summoned to form the spellchestra and conspire to produce "the fertilizer for roots of the subversive tree", a mirroring between reality and fiction.
released October 31, 2025
CREDITS
all music composed, performed, recorded, mixed and produced by h hartvig nielsen 2022-2025
performed by spellcaster and the spellchestra
electric bass on seance by Seán Being
mixed by h hartvig nielsen
with mix consultation by No Master's Voice / M. Ferreira
master by Kommunal Dubplate Service / Hari Kishore
Artwork by Oliver Laumann & spellcaster
The spellchestra is:
Arte Carlander as stringstrum
Simin Stine Ramezanali as starmeem / meanstar
Mija Milovic as em
Stine Victoria Huyn as from the echo
Tettix Hexer as aeroborn
Oliver Laumann as measure
h hartvig nielsen as anybard
