• Edward Ka-Spel – keyboards, voice
• The Silverman- devices
• Raymond Steeg- sonic assistance, loops
• Jesse Peper- artwork

Notes

Recorded at Luxe, The Dolls House and Portland, Oregon (Dig Recording).

MT054: Vinyl only release and all copies on 180 gram audiophile vinyl in a heavy boardstock gimmick art cover.
300 copies in gimmick sleeve with eyes cut out
500 copies in sleves without eyes cut out

MT054c: Wooden box set edition of 15 numbered copies. Regular gimmix sleeve w/record is housed in etched wooden box, with numbered insert and art insert and label owner business card

Recorded at a dark time when troubled dreams revealed eyes in the treetops and the wind moaned so loudly it drowned out the ghosts. This album began life in early 2004 and was completed in a little studio
in Portland, Oregon later the same year.  Beta-Lactam Ring Records issued the results on a wonderful slab of vinyl with a cover by Jesse Peper that still gives me chicken skin. Bonus cut here is from the 10″ on BLRR’s Lactamase series – the masterful Tony Conrad is on the other side of that record which is a serious honour. –EK

2024 remastered and expanded Bandcamp release:
Released for February 2024 Bandcamp Friday in digital format.

Almost terrifying to think that this strange trip dates back almost 20 years, when it emerged as a rather beautiful vinyl released on the wonderful Beta-Lactam Ring Records label.That edition is tough to find now but this is the music plus a couple of bonus pieces (also from 2005). “O Darkness, O Darkness” is a quote from one of my my psychedelic albums of all time (“Cottonwood Hill” by Brainticket). -EK

Released for April 2024 Bandcamp Friday as a limited edition CD-R of 69.

• Edward Ka-Spel – all instruments & voice
• Ekul B.- Artwork
• Chris- Design, Layout
• Mastered By, Engineer [Sound Wizardry] – Raymond Steeg

Notes

3xLP: Limited edition of the first 200 copies came with the third record (sides e and f).

Packaged in miniature gatefold wallet cardboard sleeve with a 1-sided insert. Recorded in Grimburgia during Spring 2005

Khazhmezhtiya Pluramys
Sing while you may

Bandcamp notes:
Recorded in Grimburgia during Spring 2005.

2005. It seems hard to believe that this highly emotional album is almost a decade old upon this day of its digital resurrection.  Ostensibly an album of songs, picking up the thread from “Red Letters” which was another decade before. This upload for Bandcamp showcases the ultimate version – a massive 3 x LP set from Beta-Lactam Ring Records. It’s tough to score these days, but all the parts are in place right here on this page. Sound enhancement is subtle as Ray’s original master sounded so good- it merely takes advantage of the high quality digital tools which are now available. -EKS

• Edward Ka-Spel – keyboards, voices
• Tasmyn – little voice

Notes

Piehead edition limited to 233 copies (333 was originally planned)
BLRR CD edition limited to 300 copies, some tracks edited.

Recorded in Limburgia March to May 2005.

From Bandcamp: Originally released by Canada’s Piehead label in 2005.Just 233 copies were made before the label closed.Happily Beta-Lactam Ring Records stepped in to save this curiosity from becoming obsolete with a quality reissue on cd and vinyl. Both formats now out-of-print , but this enhanced and tightened presentation includes the long bonus piece on the vinyl version’s fourth side. E. K-S.

2024 remaster:
Released for April 2024’s Bandcamp Friday, it was sonically enhanced, given a new cover and a limited edition of 69 CD-Rs.

‘Fragments’ is just short of 20 years old by now so it felt like a good moment to revisit this old chestnut and give it some serious sonic enhancement as well as a new cover. -EK

Reviews

While not creating strictly-formulated concept albums, the Legendary Pink Dots frontman does tend to take an idea or a mood and run with it throughout a release. This is very much apparent on Fragments of Illumina, which has a sense of wholeness and completeness despite the radically different approaches in its songs. Legendary Pink Dots albums, at their worst, can sound like horrible messes: a cacaphony of ideas, genres and quirks that refuse to harmonize. When Ka-Spel records a solo release, however, it’s understood that it will be–at the very least–coherent from the beginning to the end. The highlights are two tracks called “The End Of Everything,” the first of which tells a classic Ka-Spel fairytale (life, afterlife, drolly humorous disappointment) and will have Peggy Lee cocking whatever remains of her eyebrows. The second part sounds like a spaceship trying to take off from the BBC roof during the 1970’s…but in a good way, for those who like that sort of thing. “Yet Another Fragment” is a gorgeous, delicate, extended moment of flangey ambience, a welcome follow-up to the (surprise!) stuttering head-banging of “Sticks and Stones.” The first track on the CD, “My Space,” is–sadly–the one sour note for me; a song whose lyrics are jarringly out-of-sync with the rhythm…I skip it, but it’s unfortunate that it opens an otherwise exceptional CD. Regardless, it’s a testament to Ka-Spel’s skill that all these musical styles–effect-heavy ambiance, poetry, analog boopiness, obnoxious guitar sampling–can fit together on one album without sounding discordant, and that all of them are done so well. – Muffy St. Bernard – Brainwashed