Timo van Luijk’s La Scie Dorée returns with a startling left-turn from their usual fare, delivering the first ever reissue, in very limited vinyl and CD editions, of Mark Glynne and Bart Zwier’s lone full-length, Home Comfort, originally self-released in 1980 on Divorced Records. A startling hybrid of early 80s experimentalism, bedroom DIY gloom, and post-punk, it’s nothing short of a creatively stunning revelation that foreshadows numerous movements of independent music that would emerge in its wake, while contributing to an important rethinking of post-punk’s important links to experimental sound.

Founded in 2000 by Timo van Luijk, focused on issuing the work of the rich scene of artists around him, over the last two decades La Scie Dorée has assembled an entirely unique context of experimental sound, releasing brilliant full lengths by Elodie, Lumine, La Poupée Vivante, and numerous others, including his own. Every step of the way, the label has constantly reminded us that the world of experimental sound is thriving and well. Historically, La Scie Dorée has focused on contemporary offerings, with van Luijk allowing his other imprint, Metaphon, to handle reissues and archival releases like Toshi Ichiyanagi, Michael Ranta, and Takehisa Kosugi’s “Improvisation Sep. 1975”, Jacques Bekaert’s S/T, Nicole Lachartre’s “Mundus”, and Jan Bruyndonckx’s “Rails And Other Tracks”, to name only a few. But, van Luijk has never been one to be easily nailed down, further proven by La Scie Dorée’s latest, the first-ever reissue of Mark Glynne and Bart Zwier’s lone full length under their own names, Home Comfort, originally self-released in 1980 on their own Divorced Records imprint. There’s little wonder why it’s been a long-standing love affair of van Luijk’s, dating back to his teens.

There’s very little available information about Mark Glynne and Bart Zwier. Both were members of the Netherlands, post-punk “Ultra” scene that also gave us projects like The Ex, The Young Lions, Morzelpronk, and Minny Pops, among others. After a short flurry of activities during the early 80s, working as a duo under the names Home Comfort and The Divorce, as well as under their given names, they seem to have all but fallen from view. Despite their discography being limited to a single 7”, a track on Lebel Period’s Ultra compilation, and the “Home Comfort” LP - now reissued by La Scie Dorée for the first time - they managed to leave an indelible mark on the hearts of many.

“Home Comfort” comprises six tracks by Mark Glynne and Bart Zwier, all of which defy the punk tendency toward brevity, ranging between six and eleven minutes in length, and entirely rework the idiom’s moods, ethics, and approach toward creativity into a startling hybrid of experimentalism, bedroom DIY gloom, and synth laden downer songwriting that is fittingly described by longtime devotee, You Ishihara (White Heaven, The Stars), who bought the album upon its release, as: “Resignation and fear in a desolate mental landscape. This album, which exists like a shelter for those who have quietly escaped through the backdoor of the world, vividly reflects the inner depths of the devastated Amsterdam of the early 80’s. A beautiful and sad, unmistakable masterpiece.”

A series of droning, warbling, electronic expanses, worked into songs that fully digest nods to everything from Syd Barrett to Slapp Happy, Joy Division, Eno, and Bowie, played down to the pace of a funeral dirge, Mark Glynne and Bart Zwier’s “Home Comfort”, encountered more than four decades down the road, is nothing short of a revelation.