Amenra’s Colin H. van Eeckhout will be releasing a new EP from his CHVE project on May 31. The effort, which is titled “Kalvarie,” will feature one 15-minute track called “Eternit.”
Further information was shared in a press release:
“The title ‘Kalvarie’ is a reference to the location where Christ was supposedly crucified, and also the name of the street where Colin went to school. The cover art shows a stone with a gallow on it – another reference to the Calvary hill, and also to the tattoo on Colin’s back, a symbol that has become synonymous with Amenra’s work. As Colin explains, he sees his solo work as connected to Amenra: ‘This is the story told by 1/5 of Amenra, so there will always be a connection.’”
The following was also added:
“For his new, upcoming EP, ‘Kalvarie’, Colin was partly inspired by the works of Jean-Marie Massou (1950-2020).
Massou was a French man who lived in isolation deep in a forest for 45 years. He spent his days digging underground passages with his own hands in preparation for what he believed was the end of the world, and he also recorded his own voice on cassette tapes. He was the subject of a documentary in 2009, ‘Le Plein Pays’, which brought his fascinating life to light.
‘I love the idea that this man was living in his own world, and that he had music as a language with that world,” Colin says. “He chose to sing and record this music just for the sake of doing it. He wasn’t planning on having albums or playing shows. I thought this was beautiful: that the music was there just for the sake of enriching his life.’
The EP contains one singular track: the near-15-minute ‘Eternit’. It opens with the sounds of stones, before giving way to a sprawling, repetitive sonic journey that feels charged with elemental power. The ominous tones of the hurdy gurdy intermingle with the sounds of the stones, and in the lyrics, Colin sings in French about the end times – just as Jean-Marie Massou did. It was also Massou’s work with stones that inspired Colin to use them instead of traditional percussion.
‘I think you connect to this kind of music in an instinctive way,” Colin says. “I compare it with a fire: when you see a fire, you look at it, you get lost in it. The same thing can happen with repetitive sound: it triggers something inside. It’s stripping back, trying to use music for how it was intended.’”
Metal Anarchy 