The Brvtalist is pleased to premiere a new track from Terence Fixmer. The iconic French artist delivers the killer track "Turning Into Dust" on the Spanish label Soil Records. Valley of Tears Vol. 3 also features tracks from top-notch artists Arnaud Rebotini, David Carretta and Kovyazin D.
Out April 22nd on digital format + vinyl. Pre-order here now.
We also did a short Q&A with Soil Records label boss Ian Broch aka SOJ and graphic artist Greta Haga. Read more below.
-Melanie Havens
The Brvtalist: Can you give us an introduction about Soil Records? What is the label’s philosophy?
Ian: Soil Records is a label focused on vinyl and cassette editions; we equal art and music as a concept.
The Brvtalist: Tell us about Soil’s visual concept.
Greta Haga: Sharp and bold elements expressing animalistic nature and sonic experience and energy within. We are looking for dirty textures combined with mixed media, photography and printmaking. Figurative elements enhanced with dark graphics expressing earthiness and raw feelings.
The Brvtalist: What is the idea behind the new record? How was the curatorship done?
Ian: The idea was to get involved with some of my personal favourite artists from all the time plus one of my favourite artists actually that I played most. I couldn't imagine a better result as we have what I want from the very first time.
It started in December or maybe a little bit early as we manage all releases with about minimum 6 months in advance (about vinyl) and to be honest was fast and smooth as all of them were huge professionals that I truly admire.
The Brvtalist: What’s your advice for those willing to release on your label? And what advice would you give to emerging artists that are trying to break into the music business?
Ian: Should be always something that takes my attention, not focus on a style in concrete but more on the ideas and concepts. We released from Coldwave to Industrial though acid and electro with mainly Ebm sounds. My advice is to work on something that sounds different, that's the most difficult these days.
The Brvtalist: Name 3 releases you like the most from Soil and tell us why.
Ian: I couldn't name 3 only to be honest. We are improving on many things on every release we do, from design to edit, from sound quality or the way we do it. So each one is really personal as we do many things DIY from packaging, stamps or screen prints for the designs. So each one has something special.
The Brvtalist: What else can we expect from Soil in 2021? And what’s coming up next for you as an artist?
Ian: May comes high as we have Cavalry Stone back on Soil, also we have our 3rd anniversary VA at the end of May with a great compilation of artists with many surprises. About vinyl, Soil13 will be by Argentinian artist Distant, which includes remixes from, The Mover, Randstad, Max Durante and Melania.
As an artist I recently released on Fill Lex records VA on vinyl, and scheduled tracks and remixes on Meta Moto, Pildoras Tapes, DClock Records, Faith Disciplines…to name a few, that will be out soon. Also my next vinyl on Soil is a collaboration that I did with Years Of Denial and we have a good remixer inside too.
The Brvtalist: Do you agree that music and politics are intertwined? Give us your opinion about it.
Ian: Yes, always music since its music is part of the protest. Not only music, all kinds of art.