WL//WH Premiere: CARDINAL & NUN Observes the Dark and Daring in “Freak and Weak”[Next Wave Acid Punx DEUX // Eskimo Recordings]

Photo by @yevgeniya_/

WL//WH is pleased to welcome the French electronic artist Cardinal & Nun, to the blog with the premiere of the darkly surreal haunting romance “Freak and Weak”, a foretaste from the upcoming huge 49-track compilation “Curses presents Next Wave Acid Punx DEUX” via Eskimo Recordings.

Marseille-based art-techno-punk artist, under his Cardinal & Nun moniker, through his 2021 album on L.I.E.S completely flipped the script, fusing gothic vocals, raw guitars and analog sounds to huge acclaim. Exclusive to Curses’ “Next Wave Acid Punx DEUX” compilation, “Freak and Weak” is another startling track from the Frenchman, where haunting vocals, reverb-drenched guitar and skeletal rhythms align to sound like something that escaped from the same sessions that produced The Cure’s Faith LP.

I had a brief conversation with the elusive highly talented Frenchman.

Thanks so much for talking with us. Please, let’s us know about a bit yourself for those who are not acquainted with who is Cardinal & Nun.

It’s really hard for me to introduce myself so I never do it.

Your Egon Schiele-inspired alias suggests an interest in other forms of art…

I studied art and I’ve been drawing since I was a kid, Egon Schiele is one of my favorite painters, maybe it resumes my music very well.

Let’s talk about your DJ sets and live performances, how is your relationship with the crowd?

I’m close to the public, and I always ask that I be placed in the crowd and not on a high stage when I have to play. I need their energy it’s an interaction.

Your voice, both live and on recordings, usually is filtered and distorted through a mic, albeit in the latest couple of tracks it sounds more organic…

That’s true yeah I tried to get my voice better I guess I’m evolving and my music too, I think you will see that in my next Album.

Many thanks for being our welcome guest, What should we expect from Cardinal & Nun in the next months?

New Albums, New Collaborations and some Gigs in cities like Berlin plus a small Tour in the USA is setting and much more…

“Freak and Weak” conjures dark, dramatic, gothic moods, bleeding their way through a warped, grey murky river of obsessively pulsing, somber glistening guitar riffs, punctuated by tinny martial percussions, and trembling bass lines, whilst a distressed muffled lovelorn baritone drops shame-inducing observations into a sinister and poignant array of droning, high-pitched and brassy frequencies.

“Next Wave Acid Punx DEUX” is the second compilation for Eskimo Recordings compiled and curated by Berlin-based Musician and DJ Luca Venezia, aka Curses, to explore the darker side of club music. Spread across 3CDs and three 2LPs Next Wave Acid Punx DEUX features a mammoth 49 tracks that join the dots between early industrial pioneers Throbbing Gristle, EBM legends like Nitzer Ebb and the post-punk experiments of people like Malcolm McLaren and Big Audio Dynamite with some of the most exciting artists around today, such as Boy Harsher, Nuovo Testamento and Years of Denial.

“Chapter 2”, from which Cardinal & Nun‘s track is taken, moves the night on, and this is the sound of the clubs I love to both play and just hang out in these days, clubs where the people involved put a lot more time into digging through the crates than working on their Instagram Reels. These are places where you’re as likely to find a band on stage as you are a DJ, where 80’s German electro-pop by a band like Boytronic seamlessly flows into tracks like Silent Servant’s “Non Fiction”. Timeless music that can be romantic, dreamlike and ethereal one moment, then veer into dark, industrial sounds the next.

“Curses presents Next Wave Acid Punx DEUX” the second installment of the Eskimo Recordings‘ compilation series curated by Luca Venezia a.k.a. Curses, is slated for release, in 3x 2LP / 3CD / Digital formats, on October 20, 2023.

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