Diaries of Destruction (Experimental Drone Metal Project lead by Elif Yalvaç) – Press Pack for the album DoD II

Turkish composer and experimental guitarist Elif Yalvaç announces the 2nd album for her avantgarde drone metal collaboration “Diaries of Destruction” with ambient influences with London-based improviser and bassist Jordan Muscatello: “DoD II” out in Halloween on Bandcamp and CD

Preorders are available now. Listen to “Mari Lwyd” and “Mind Bleach” from DoD II on bandcamp https://diariesofdestruction.bandcamp.com/album/dod-ii

Private Streaming & Downloads for Press: https://on.soundcloud.com/MJy1w8gv1LU6w7UD8

RIYL: Sqürl, Nadja, Tim Hecker, Divide and Dissolve, Coil, Boris, Sunn o)))

DoD II album cover artwork by: Wesley Robins

DoD II TRAILER

Private streaming and download link for full album – : https://on.soundcloud.com/GHoiMhGLFJqZHnF29

PREORDER AND PUBLIC LINK : https://diariesofdestruction.bandcamp.com/album/dod-ii

Elif Yalvaç & Jordan Muscatello at Bally Studios, London, UK.
Photo Credit: Jason Arber.

About Diaries of Destruction:

Diaries of Destruction is a collaborative project by the UK-based Turkish artist Elif Yalvaç with dark ambient, drone, metal and avant-garde influences. DoD produces experimental music in an accessible frame with a focus on new collaborations and working in new ways.

DoD released its debut in March 2022 with Elif Yalvaç, Michael Bearpark, Bryan Beller, and Jason Arber. The current lineup of DoD is a duo of Elif Yalvaç (baritone guitar, synthesizers, and laptop) and Jordan Muscatello (bass), a London-based artist operating mainly within improvised and experimental music.

About the album DoD II:
In DoD II, which will be released in Halloween 2024, Elif Yalvaç further embraces what initially inspired her to take up guitar: metal, by blending her electronic music background, specifically ambient and noise, to explore wider ends of the dynamics and frequency range, including microtonality, with her drone and doom metal inspirations. She also taps into her field recording and audio programming practices in this collaboration.

The current duo first met in 2016 at a Keiji Haino performance in South London. Discovering their aligned musical interests, they started to collaborate after Elif moved to the UK in 2021, with repeated gigs and recording sessions. The album “DoD II” features sounds from these gigs and sessions, with arrangements and mixing finalised by Elif Yalvaç. The sound of the album overall is an atmospheric yet powerful combination of metal riffage and textural improvised passages manipulated live and in post-production.

Created by two artists from very different cultures and backgrounds, DoD II has clashes yet meeting points through a special understanding, and a manifestation of creative destruction or destructive creativity with a hint of sarcasm.

The track titles have references to a number of geographies including the Welsh folk tradition of Mari Lwyd with horse skulls featured in the album artwork through an ode to Halloween and Wassailing traditions, and giving name to the opening track.

Another reference is a blend of Scotland and Türkiye (Elif Yalvaç’s home country) with the track “İsli İsli” which is a duplicate word in Turkish referring to smokiness and peatiness, associated with the duo’s whisky related memories.

The final track with an Icelandic title is a greeting to Iceland where Elif Yalvaç visited repeatedly and which inspired her acclaimed solo work Mountains Become Stepping Stones (December 2020, NNA Tapes) that contributed to her global talent visa success that facilitated her move to the UK from Turkey, hence making this collaboration possible among others. The Icelandic phrase “Þetta Reddast” naming the closure track means “it’s all going to work out in the end”.

The album also symbolises intense chemistry and calming points as opposed to the high peaks with the tracks “Ilvaite”, “Of Butterflies”, and “Zone Melting”, while “JC VD” that opens with the duo’s laughter in a rehearsal is an ode to a fun memory when Elif and Jordan unexpectedly ended up seeing a “Jean Claude Van Damme” film during their tour in the Netherlands in February 2024.

DoD II Credits and Linear Notes:

Elif Yalvaç: Baritone guitar, laptop, synthesizer, pedals, field recordings
Jordan Muscatello: Bass, FX

Arranged, produced and mixed by: Elif Yalvaç
Mastering by: James Edward Armstrong

Special thanks to:
Michael Bearpark for “Morleytron”
Enis Gümüş for advice
Philamelian for advice and mixing translation
Magnus Bergsson for contributing to field recordings in Track No. 5
Alessandro Mastroianni for Harmonic Bloom in Track 5 and 8
M J Harvey for Pham and Mari Lwyd

Further acknowledgements: Joost Verhagen, Dirk Serries, Karma Studios, Bally Studios, Extrapool, Ealing Extranormal, Keiji Haino

Artwork: Wesley Robins

Gig Dates:
20 November 2024 -Heart of Noise Cambridge 7, the Junction, UK
16 January 2025 – Wavetable Edinburgh, UK

Contact & Artist Biographies and Links
Contact: elif@elifyalvac.com, diariesofdestruction@gmail.com
Press: ed@dense.de

Bandcamp: https://diariesofdestruction.bandcamp.com/, https://hazalelif.bandcamp.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/diariesofdestruction/, https://www.instagram.com/elifyalvac_music
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/diariesofdestruction, https://www.facebook.com/elifyalvacmusic
Twitter: https://x.com/DiaryOfDestruct https://twitter.com/hazalelifyalvac

Elif Yalvaç & Jordan Muscatello (Photo Credit: Jason Arber)

Elif Yalvaç (née Hazal Elif Yalvaç) creates music using an array of instruments mainly with guitars and software design tools. Her music has received international acclaim including reviews in The Guardian, and The Wire, alongside features and broadcasts including WDR and BBC. Her works embrace opposites: microsound glitches and slow builds; celestial beauty and abrasive energy.

Elif collaborates with others extensively, including her avantgarde metal project Diaries of Destruction and her album Green Drift with Expert Sleepers (September 2022). Her most recent works include collaborations with various artists from Nordic countries with Möller Records. Her latest album “Vection” was released in April 2024 by the Amsterdam-based experimental music label Moving Furniture Records under the Eliane Tapes series dedicated to Eliane Radigue.

Elif holds an MA degree in Sonic Arts from Istanbul Technical University and regularly delivers workshops and podcasts on electronic music including co-hosting “Talk to the Chip” on Resonance FM with Jono Podmore. Elif teaches electronic music at GSMD in London. She is the curator of the bi-monthly live electronics event series “Heart of Noise Cambridge” at Cambridge Junction. Endorsed by Arts Council England, Elif is based in the UK with a Global Talent Visa.

Jordan Muscatello is a London-based bass player. Heavily involved in the London improvised music scene he has been a regular attendee of Eddie Prévost’s (AMM) Friday improvisation workshop for over a decade and performs with a multitude of improvising musicians on electric and double bass in and outside of London. He is a member of the London Experimental Ensemble which has collaborated and released albums with author Iain Sinclair (Dark Before Dark, 577 Records) and folk singers including Richard Thompson among others (Child Ballads: The Final Six, Don Giovanni Records).
He incorporates a diverse range of musical influences including extreme metal, in a stint with London-based death/thrash metallers The Bleeding, playing on their critically acclaimed latest album “Monokrator”, free jazz with the Apocalypse Jazz Unit, the Rick Jensen Trio and Dog Paw Trio with Ed Shipsey and Petals Kalulé, ambient music with Andrew Booker’s Improvizone.
He is also active in hard dance and noise music when running the newly established Spinky Records or organising the Peaks series of live electronics and dance music events along with Ed Shipsey.

More images: https://elifyalvac.com/dod-ii-images/