Daniel O’Sullivan will release his second album under the Mothlite moniker on May 14th through Kscope. ‘Dark Age’ is the follow-up to 2008’s ‘The Flax Of Reverie’ (Southern Records).
Having spent a lot of time recently working as a collaborator with Æthenor, Miracle and Grumbling Fur as well as his much acclaimed work as part of Ulver, O’Sullivan felt it was time to return to Mothlite so as to work on something unequivocally personal:
“All the other things are collaborations and there’s a communal interest, but with Mothlite the content is quite personal and to do with me. It’s quite easy to neglect, particularly when you’re in a bit of a shit storm as I was the past couple of years.”
"This is prevalent in the lyrical content, which denotes a catharsis throughout a period of hysteria and emotional
turmoil". He describes ‘Dark Age’ as “Dark megalomania, contradictions and paradoxes, and general bleakness”, yet rarely does such subject matter get delivered with the soaring pop aplomb as on the album’s twelve tracks, flitting from sparkle and rumble of ‘The Blood’ to the epic washes of ‘The Underneath’ and beyond.
The album has allowed O’Sullivan to break free from the confines of genre, taking influence from the likes of Tears For Fears and Kate Bush from his parents’ record collection through the industrial and gothic textures of DAF, The Cure, Coil and Dead Can Dance to the hardcore punk of his own personal roots. Indeed, O’Sullivan’s use of contradiction within the style of the record is a very deliberate choice: “If it was too bleak, with melancholy overriding the whole thing, then I’d counteract it with a huge chorus or huge hook” O'Sullivan's chief collaborator in Mothlite is Norwegian producer Knut Jonas Sellevold (Elektrofant, King Knut). Arranger, composer and beat-maker of the highest order.
Now the album is done, O’Sullivan is ready to move onto new things. “To be honest, I’m really glad that it’s over,” he says. “I felt like I couldn’t move until I got that out there.” As well as plans for a new Mothlite record, this forward surge includes exploring “ideas and schemes” as to how ‘Dark Age’ will transfer to the road. “Now that the drama has played out and everyone can see what it is, I can almost do a theatrical version of the scenes within. I don’t want to look as though I’m crying down the microphone night after night if we go on tour. I’d rather have a show.”
Daniel O'Sullivan's Wikipedia page:
Daniel O'Sullivan (born 1 December 1980) is a multi-instrumentalist/composer from Manchester, England best known for playing in experimental art-rock bands Guapo, Miasma & the Carousel of Headless Horses, Ulver, Æthenor, Miracle and Mothlite.
O'Sullivan has become recognized for exploring a wide range of styles, including neo-classical composition, progressive/psychedelic rock, free-form improvisation, cosmic jazz, minimalist drone, ethereal synth-pop and outer-limits folk music to name a few. He has collaborated with a number of artists including Stephen O'Malley (also a member of Æthenor), Alexander Tucker, Kristoffer Rygg (Ulver), Jarboe and David Tibet.
As well as the aforementioned bands he has been a live member of Sunn O))). He has also recently joined cult Norwegian band Ulver, as announced by the band on the official Ulver website, "Lastly we would like to welcome Daniel O'Sullivan into the pack. We all know that God exists as three persons, but now is the dawn of the triangular pyramid." O'Sullivan has been performing live with Ulver since the band's first performance in fifteen years at the Norwegian Festival of Literature 2009 in Lillehammer.
O'Sullivan recently co-wrote the title track for the acclaimed debut album by The Big Pink entitled "A Brief History of Love" which was released in September 2009. He also co-wrote the title track of the new album by The Big Pink entitled "Future This" released in January 2012.
In 2011, O'Sullivan released an E.P with his new band Miracle, a synth-pop duo also featuring Steve Moore from Zombi. The band are currently working on a full length album. Another new project, this time with regular collaborator Alexander Tucker, has emerged by the name of Grumbling Fur. The debut album Furrier also features Jussi Lehtisalo from Finnish bands Circle and Pharaoh Overlord and David Smith from Guapo.
O'Sullivan has been working extensively with London based fine artist Serena Korda. The pair have collaborated on several pieces together, most notably Laid To Rest. A project commissioned by The Wellcome Collection which involved the production of bricks made with donations of household dust. The bricks were then celebrated in a ritualistic folk dance set to music scored by O'Sullivan for brass, woodwind, voices and percussion. The dance and music was also made into a film which featured alongside the stack of bricks in the Wellcome Collection's 'Dirt' exhibition. The project culminated with the bricks being ceremonially processed through the streets of London on horse-drawn hearse and finally buried in Brunswick Square Gardens, where a plaque remains today. O'Sullivan and Korda made a limited 12" record of the music which was given out as a publication to those who attended the burial. The record also features guest appearances by his bandmates Kristoffer Rygg and Stephen O'Malley.
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