Pantaleimon

Pantaleimon

Heart Of The Sun

Durtro / Jnana

"The whole thing started when Clodagh Simonds (Fovea Hex) asked if she could remix 'Under The Water.' Of course, I said yes. When she came back with such remarkable music, and casually mentioned, 'Oh, why don't you ask a couple of other pals to do remixes?', it gave me the idea for this album.   "It is not simply a remix album, but a collaborative project. I chose friends I admired as artists and who inhabit creative spaces that are connected in some way and on some level to me and to each other. I gave away my 'babies' to go out to play with the likes of Andrew W.K., Stephen O'Malley, Lilium, Carter Tutti, Colin Potter, Andrew Liles, The Bricoleur, Plinth, Fabrizio Modonese Palumbo (Larsen), and, of course, Fovea Hex. Even though I had an inkling that the mixes would fit together as one coherent whole, I had no idea just how much they would complement one another.   "There are also some previously unreleased tracks including a cover of Bonnie 'Prince' Billy's 'Even If Love,' which didn't quite make it on Mercy Oceans for aural reasons. However, this cover version has been gently manipulated and star-mangled by Susan Stenger (Band of Susans).   "Another of the unreleased tracks is our first collaboration with the group Strings of Consciousness. They wished to remix one of the songs from Mercy Oceans. I had no more songs left from the album so we created a new song just...

Pantaleimon

Mercy Oceans

Durtro / Jnana

Mercy Oceans is the long-anticipated second full-length from Andria Degens. The album follows the critically acclaimed Cloudburst EP released earlier this year, and features Baby Dee, Isobel Campbell, Keith Wood (Hush Arbors), and John Contreras.   Mercy Oceans is an album of exceptional beauty and depth. All ten tracks are stunningly captivating. The CD comes packaged in a beautiful digipak with a full-color booklet containing lyrics, along with artwork by Beth Carter and photography by Cam Archer.  “Andria Degens is based in Hastings, southern England, but the sparse clarity of her music as Pantaleimon seems to exist in its own unique, indefinable space.... Its vivid simplicity is, in its own quiet way, quite stunning.” —Tom Ridge, The Wire  “... Degens makes music which is so effortlessly gorgeous it almost defies belief. There is an icy simplicity to her compositions, a fragility or frailty maybe, and this gives them a soft, melancholy feel, which makes them almost impossible to forget. For some reason I am reminded of Jewelled Antler Collective man Steven R. Smith or possibly Ben Chasny (Six Organs of Admittance), but what Degens has done is bring a feminine touch to the masses of male-dominated free folk.” —Boomkat

Pantaleimon

Cloudburst

Durtro / Jnana

Pantaleimon (pronounced "Pan-ta-lay-mon") is the adopted moniker of vocalist and composer Andria Degens. Sometimes collaborating with friends, though often alone, she creates beautifully haunting and meditative music.  Cloudburst, her first recording as Pantaleimon since 2002's Change My World, features four tracks of hypnotic vocal passages that together form a long conceptual piece, which, Degens says, "... is symbolic of the journey every human being makes in a lifetime ... the transformation, transfiguration, the state of being, the space between heaven and Earth." Initially packaged with a limited, hand-printed edition of Degens's poetry and drawings, Cloudburst is now available as a proper CD release. None of the material on the EP will appear on the upcoming Pantaleimon full-length, due later this year. Degens has been creating her own music since 1992 and her debut, the vinyl-only Trees Hold Time, is still highly sought after. She has recorded and performed with artists such as Wire, Dirty Three, Current 93, Bonnie "Prince" Billy and Matt Sweeney, Antony And The Johnsons, Ben Chasny (Six Organs of Admittance), 16 Horsepower, Baby Dee, John Contreras and James William Hindle. More recently Degens has contributed music to Cam Archer's film Wild Tigers I Have Known, Susan Stenger's (Band of Susans) Soundtrack for an Exhibition, and to projects by Irr. App. (Ext.) and Nurse With Wound.  

Pantaleimon

Change My World

Pandurtro

***PANTALEIMON is the solo project of ANDRIA DEGENS, who has worked with CURRENT 93, STEVEN STAPLETON of NURSE WITH WOUND and CHRISTOPH HEEMANN. Her work with Current 93 includes making contributions to Soft Black Stars and The Starres Are Marching Sadly Home. Beautifully haunting, Change My World features the dreamlike and mesmerizing title track, an instrumental version (recorded by MICHAEL LAWRENCE and mixed by Steven Stapleton) and three live tracks. These tracks also serve as an introduction to the forthcoming album by Pantaleimon, which is due for release at the end of the year.