Description
PRE-ORDER ITEM — TO BE RELEASED MAY 22, 2026. Any regular in-stock items ordered at the same time (in the same shopping cart) will be held aside and sent with your pre-ordered goods as one shipment. Orders with multiple pre-orders will be sent as one order, when all of the items in the order are available. If you want the order to ship immediately, or want your pre-ordered items to be sent out as soon as they arrive here, rather than in a group, you must order them separately. PAYMENT WILL BE TAKEN WHEN YOU COMPLETE CHECKOUT.
Robin Storey, recording as Rapoon since 1992, has more than one hundred albums in his discography. His music pulls inspiration from Eastern traditions, merging rhythms, electronics, samples and instruments into captivating ambient soundtracks that defy easy categorization.
Asked about this project, Robin says I have long been interested in comic book art and when Matt contacted me about a collaboration I was immediately interested. He sent me some frames and I was blown away by the artwork. I found that adding a musical score to the drawings and the story outline came very naturally as I identified very much with the character and the situation. It was at once humorous and enchanting. I hope I have done the artwork justice.
Matt Howarth has made his name with his comic books and graphic novels over a career stretching back to the mid-1970’s. Many of his works have a science fiction theme, but electronic and alternative music has always inspired him, leading him to projects with countless musicians. Soleilmoon is pleased to be releasing this captivating cross-disciplinary cooperative project by two of our favorite artists.
Reflecting on his career as a cartoonist, and on his work with musicians, Matt Howarth writes I have spent much of my career infusing my comics with eclectic music. I did music reviews as comic strips (“Sonic Curiosity”). I got several real world musicians to guest star in many of my works (like Hawkwind, the Residents, Wire, Conrad Schnitzler, and others in my “Savage Henry” series). It made perfect sense that I would mutate such connections into actual collaborations with musicians (like Klaus Schulze, Hugh Hopper, Arthur Brown, and more). My musical tastes are far from commercial drivel, so it makes perfect sense that I would want to work with musicians whom I deeply respected (like Rapoon). And each of these collaborations come with a unique “how we got there” tale.
While working on my collab with the Legendary Pink Dots, the question came up “what label do we approach with this project?” Edward Ka-Spel suggested Soleilmoon Recordings (who had handled several Pink Dots releases). I was familiar with Soleilmoon from their years of wonderful releases. When I went to their website to check things out, I noticed they had released several Rapoon albums. I’d always enjoyed Rapoon’s haunting ethereal tuneage, so this coincidence inspired me to contact Rapoon about doing a similar collab. Robin Storey was interested (and receptive to the story being deep space sci-fi – my favorite scenario), so I did the “Fred” story. It’s possible that since isolation was part of Robin’s life at the time (in the midst of the Covid-19 lockdown), this enabled him to excellently capture the story’s detachment from reality.
Track list:
1. Winternest 7:42
2. Learning an Inorganic Language 3:35
3. Improbable Dance Party 4:27
4. The Hoomun Concord 7:27
5. Treading Water in a Psychic Void 6:45
6. Meditation on Blue Ice 5:07
7. The Exit Door Might Be Sealed 7:26
8. Proactive Desperation 4:08
9. Thunder Plunder 13:37
10. — Comic PDF —
Enhanced CD (Music and PDF file). Limited edition of 300 copies.
