EDWARD KA-SPEL
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Release date and track list
February 1, 2021
NL MP3 self-released on the LPD’s Bandcamp
September 1, 2022
NL CDR self-released on the LPD’s Bandcamp
- RUST COMPASSIONATE
- CEREMONIAL COFFEE
- NEON PERCULATORS
- DEMON TRACES / ARMCHAIR REVOLUTION / ANGEL TRAIL (SLIGHT RETURN)
February 2026
PL LP LUMB038LP Lumberton Trading Company
- RUST COMPASSIONATE
- CEREMONIAL COFFEE
- NEON PERCULATORS
- DEMON TRACES / ARMCHAIR REVOLUTION / ANGEL TRAIL (SLIGHT RETURN)
Credits
- Edward Ka-Spel- music, words, cover art
Notes
Take the Scenic Route…..
2022 CDR release:
A temporary import from edwarda-spel.bandcamp.com as this title is going physical as a handmade CD-R edition. Recorded late in 2020, “The Sympathy Portal” was unveiled during the worst of the pandemic in the UK.The music reflects this scenario but concludes with a message of unquenchable hope.
Beautiful handmade, personalised CD-R edition in a limited edition of 99.
2026 LP release:
limited edition of 300
Recorded during lockdown and previously only available as a CDr self-released in an edition of 99 in 2022, ‘The Sympathy Portal’ collects four tracks (one of which is divided into three parts) that make full use of Edward Ka-Spel’s command of melodies, cosmic churn, subtle field recordings, percolated vocals, hypno-rhythms, tempered noise, broken clocks, atmospheric keyboards, uncoiling springs and carefully hewn dynamics. Coupled to often despairing or melancholic lyrics, the album ultimately forms a fantastic addition to a body of work from this hardworking artist usually found at home fronting The Legendary Pink Dots and apparently barely able to rest when not engaged in commitments to them.
Here is what he says himself about ‘The Sympathy Portal’: “’The Sympathy Portal’ was created as 2020 drifted into 2021 with the world in the grip of a pandemic. He studied charts on TV, horrified by statistics, temporarily free from a lockdown but well aware that we’d be back in our cubicles soon enough. It was hard to be positive in such an environment and this album reflects much of the fear and tension of the time. But the last song, ‘Angel Trail ( Slight Return)’, was intended to offer some genuine hope, having been revived for the release after first appearing in a different form on The Legendary Pink Dots’ ‘9 Lives to Wonder’ back in 1994.”
The album pays testament to a troubled and troubling time that now, a mere few years on, strangely appears like the grand entrance to a series of heavily dark periods we are still desperate to crawl from. It could be argued that the angel trail Edward so eloquently refers to is something that needs to be found more than ever and that, thankfully, his music helps to illuminate this despites its mostly distressed overtones.
Away from the confines of a now hard-to-find and long sold out CDr, Lumberton Trading Company brings this album back as a vinyl release that’s limited to 300 and is scheduled to appear in February 2026.
