Carla dal Forno launches her own label, Kallista Records, with her first original single in over a year, ‘So Much Better.’

The widespread success of her debut album ‘You Know What It’s Like’ (2016) and ‘The Garden EP’ (2017) has seen dal Forno spearhead the latter years of the Blackest Ever Black vanguard. Now the London-based Australian artist turns her attention to releasing original work on her own label, Kallista Records.

This two-track 7-inch record begins a bold year for dal Forno, who takes her lone kosmische misanthropy onto fertile new ground. The a-side single, ‘So Much Better,’ sees dal Forno step out from the shadows of emotional ambiguity into the vulnerable territory of anecdotal song-writing. Lyrics that echo the irrational passions of love scorned, in truth reveal a self-assured artist confessing to resentment which propels her. Here is dal Forno chiding herself in the mirror while excoriating an old infatuate with a vocal timbre that sits among the giants: the lilting power of Alison Statton, the mystic shamanism of Una Baines and the post-punk cabaret of Vivien Goldman.

The sparse production on both sides springs from the soft-pedalled cassette of covers, ‘Top of the Pops,’ which dal Forno self-released last year. Though the raw, dubbed out vision takes a back seat on ‘So Much Better,’ overshadowed by dal Forno’s fork-tongued lyrics, it is heightened on ‘Fever Walk’ with acoustic drum racks ricocheting off fizzing drones, pastoral synth textures and meandering melody in the way of Broadcast, Flying Lizards and Portishead. But the illusion of wide-open spaces belies an oppressive, hysteria-inducing humidity swelling from the studio vision of her past instrumentals like ‘Dragon’s Breath’ and ‘Italian Cinema.’ And with a nod to her old band, F ingers, dal Forno’s voice-as-instrument hacks like a machete through her endless jungle of anxiety. This two track 7-inch, the object of a new existence, reflects dal Forno’s life in London working at Low Company recordstore and her monthly radio show on NTS. All in with the history and tradition of British post-punk and independent music, she strides boldly into the abyss.

So much better is yet to come.

Pefkin is the alter ego of Gayle Brogan, Ayrshire-based creator of slowly-unfolding, ritualistic hymnals that draw heavily on the landscape and natural world.

Pefkin emerged after the retro-futuristic psych / electronic duo Electroscope went into diapause in 2000. Her first solo show was supporting Pram. Influenced by Nico, Hood, Movietone and Syd Barrett, she created a fragmentary, more stripped-down version of Electroscope’s bedroom psychedelia but retreated from live performance in 2001. Pefkin has released 14 albums on labels such as Morc, Wild Silence, Reverb Worship, Digitalis, Pseudoarcana and Siren Wire as well as several sold-out lathe cuts on Sonido Polifonico. Pefkin returned to live performance in 2013 and has played across the UK and Europe, including Fano Free Folk Festival and Woolf II in 2019. Her sound comprises a mesmerising and enigmatic layering of vocals, violin, analogue synth, zither, psaltery, harp, guitar, found objects and field recordings. She records at home in North Ayrshire with contributions from regular collaborators John Cavanagh (Phosphene) and Alan Davidson (Kitchen Cynics).

Pefkin’s music has received comparisons to Coil, Popul Vuh and Nico. Her next album ‘Celestial Navigations’ will be released in 2020. Spooked-out twilight listening that is both unsettling and compelling, drawing you into a private world. (Ed Pinsent / Sound Projector) Something akin to what it must have been like hearing Nico's 'Marble Index' when it was released; alien yet curiously familiar, beautiful yet stark, hypnotic yet troubling. (Grey Malkin / Active Listener)

Gayle is also a member of Barrett’s Dottled Beauty, Electroscope, Burd Ellen, Meadowsilver and a sometime United Bible Student and live member of the Kitchen Cynics.