Locrian

Land of Ruins gathers nearly five hours of Locrian’s formative recordings from 2005-2009, bringing together long out-of-print CD-Rs, cassettes, splits, and compilation tracks. Released by Arsenic Solaris as a five-CD box set limited to 200 copies, it includes the previously unreleased full-length version of Chladni. Founded in Chicago in 2005 by André Foisy and Terence Hannum, Locrian began with open-ended experiments in drone, noise, black metal, and electronics. Much of this music first circulated in handmade editions, some limited to just 25 or 30 copies. Land of Ruins traces those early experiments toward the sound that would define Drenched Lands and Territories.

The collection moves from Setting Yr Jetta on Fire and II through Freehand Plateaus, Visible/Invisible, and Plague Journal, closing with material from Exhuming the Carnival / Burying the Carnival and Endless Plains / Flat Horizon. Extended live recordings and tracks from compilations and other releases appear alongside the original releases. All audio was mastered for this collection by Arthur Arsenne. The physical edition includes five CDs in individual sleeves and a 16-page booklet with essays by Jonathan Rosenthal and André Foisy, archival photographs, early show flyers, and a complete discography of the band’s 2005-2009 releases. Terence Hannum designed the set using Brian Ulrich’s photographs of the abandoned Dixie Square Mall outside Chicago.

“A lot of the original files were hard to find. Some of these recordings only existed on a single CD-R, tape, or flash drive, so pulling them together felt more like preservation than compiling.” - André Foisy