Ken Wohlrob (Northern Heretic, End Of Hope, ex-Eternal Black) presents new solo single »Variac«

New York’s musician Ken Wohlrob (Northern Heretic, End Of Hope, ex-Eternal Black) presents his new solo single »Variac«, exploring more experimental and ambient soundscapes than we’ve been used from his other bands. »Variac« is the second solo track after »Simulacrum« which came out in May 2024.

Listen to »Variac« now on all major streaming platforms!

Courtesy of Obsidian Sky Records:

“No question Wohlrob is exploring the form, and the result of his work is an evocative and immersive standalone piece.” — The Obelisk

niku-zuki-no-men (肉付きの面, mask with flesh attached)

Our brains are a strange lockbox. What we choose to keep in there is inexplicable. I was watching Kaneto Shindō’s Onibaba. The soundtrack by Hikaru Hayashi utilizes a sharp sound to heighten the tension, possibly a bow being drawn rapidly across a violin or viola for a quick instant, especially when a character appears wearing the demon-like Hannya mask. The velocity of that single note was strangely compelling. It stuck, much like the flesh to the mask in the film. I don’t know why. But at odd moments it would rise up from my subconscious. I would hear that high-velocity note. And I would see the mask from the film…

»Variac« started with that sound. Or rather, creating my own version of it. Can we be haunted by a musical sound?

But like all the soundscapes I’m creating, it grew into something else…

Memories are not like movies. They don’t have story beats. Or a three-act structure. They’re more fluid. One bleeding into the next with no rhyme nor reason. Layer upon layer triggered by the devil knows what. Ever found yourself saying, “It’s weird, but I just thinking about…”?

I can’t tell you what you should feel when listening to »Variac«. It’s probably going to be different because I haven’t lived your life. And I don’t know what you’ve got tucked away in the subconscious behind the mask.

Performed and produced by Ken Wohlrob
Recorded at Quatre Cagne, Mohegan Lake, NY June-July 2024.

Ken Wohlrob is a noisemaker based in Mohegan Lake, NY. He is known for his work as guitarist for New York City hardcore-punk band End Of Hope, guitarist/vocalist for doom heavyweights Northern Heretic and Eternal Black, and the founder of the Covid-era collaborative musical project Swarm Of Flies that featured members of the Rollins Band, Fire Party, and more. In his solo work, he focuses more on un-ambient soundscapes – compositions built on layers of guitars, synthesizers, piano, strings, organs, samples, loops, and rhythms – that can be meditative but also enforce their presence.

Bojan Bidovc // music enthusiast, promoter, misanthrop and sometimes a journalist as well