New Glasir is the second album in the album trilogy – telling the story of the society that created the spaceship One. The events are taking place right after a series of catastrophes almost destroying our civilization. The people that are left have to start again, and build a new society: New Glasir.
The album was released digitally and on a limited edition vinyl with art work by Swedish graffiti legend Ziggy.
As with all Night Gestalt albums, the B-sides were pressed on unique vinyl records and buried in the ground.
Artwork by Ziggy. Photograph by Andreas Hellström.
The two B-sides from the album. Each song was pressed on a unique vinyl record and buried somewhere in the world. As always, the digital files were deleted. This music doesn’t exist anywhere else and can only be heard by the person finding the records. As far as I know one of these records have been found, and the other now rests under a newly constructed highway.
Meeting up with the person who found one of the B-sides from One.
“When I first came here I saw somebody else had been here the night before. When I was going to give up I looked one more time and then my foot got caught up in something. Then I pulled my foot up and the box just flipped over.”
The video for Dark Summer.
The creation of the limited edition artwork for the vinyl record by Ziggy.
“Of course I woke up in the middle of the night screaming. Of course the nightmares seeped into the days so sometimes when I watched the clear blue sky I suddenly saw explosions, and debris raining slowly down from above. And when I closed my eyes, trying not to scream, the waves started rolling in. Of course. But then I always opened them and gazed somewhere beyond the small lake. A light brown barren wasteland. Dead quiet. I really missed the birds chirping. I could still hear the sound of the blackbird in the early summer if I closed my eyes. But I didn’t need those dreams either. I had reality.”
“We didn’t trust the old gods any longer. They reigned over our last civilization, and look how that turned out. Everything gone. But that also meant that we were free. Free to build a new way of life. We took remnants from the old world, digital leftovers, technological trash, and built brand new monuments. New temples. And soon the gods moved in.”
“Sometimes when I was working in the fields my thoughts wandered all the way back to the summer nights in our little cottage by the sea. I didn’t remember much, or at least my mind didn’t allow me to remember, but I remembered one thing: the light just after having dinner. The golden rays searching their way through the leaves and finally hitting our faces so we could keep talking about nothing, drinking wine, and just be there. It was so bright back then. Where did all that light go?”
“It was one of those days. Hjalmar had woken up early to get some water from the stream before the sun burned everything away. Once he was back I had breakfast ready: carrots and bark bread. He smiled when he sat down. Not a huge grin, and not really at me, more inwards, just for himself. He didn’t speak. I didn’t say anything either. In that moment I knew he didn’t think about life before A&E. About his old family. His children. All gone. And I knew he didn’t think about the future. I knew, because I wasn’t either. I just smiled back.”
“We were the selected few that made it to the other side of A&E. We were organized and ready. But a few hundred more had made it too. Just by sheer luck. Or maybe it wasn’t luck? Maybe it was something else? Had the old governments planned for something like this to happen? Had they implanted parts of their populations with just enough information and SDDD in their bodies to survive? Either way, now all of us were here. And there were enough people to start all over again. A new society. A new social contract. Our own New Glasir.”
“The fairest maid in her home-land found. Though Hjorvath’s wives by men are held. Godly to see in Glasir’s wood”, I read softly and put the old book down softly next to the bed.
“Now it’s time to sleep”.
I kissed him gently on the forehead.
“Mummy, please tell the fairy tale of you and daddy when you were living in that house in the big city. About everything that happened before A&E. Tell me about my daddy. Please!”
“Not now, it’s too late”, I said and blew out the candle.
The boy first made some whining sounds, but soon became quiet and his breathing became slower until he slept.
I knew he would sleep well. He was safe.
The video for And The Bells Sang Together. Analogue video by Marcus Wrangö. Photo by Justin Pagano
The video for A New Social Contract.
A live session in my studio recording some of the songs from the album.