SenkWaves compilation cassette

New album is out now

When we purchased new equipment we always rearranged our songs, created new versions for concerts (obviously). And as we liked these new versions, many times we recorded them in the studio as well. It was the same since the beginning. We started with a cheap Boss drum machine and a Yamaha keyboard, we used them on our first demo in 2000 (along with guitars and bass). Later we got a multitimbral Roland synth module and sequenced it with an Atari 1040 ST, it allowed more complex structures, more keyboard tracks (before that the keyboard was played live, it had a split option, so two tracks could be used at the same time). The result can be heard on our first album Struggle for Wisdom (2003). After that we turned to softwares and laptops, certainly it had even more options, we used this setup for a long time. The recreated versions appeared on Again EP (2014) and Comprende album (2016). And recently we’ve purchased analog synths, drum machines, hardware sequencer, a totally different world, so it’s required a rearrangement again. A part of this new world could already be heard on the 7″ In the Silver Light, and now it’s time for a bigger step. The new album Victory Of Regret contains 8 songs, re-created with the new equipment. It covers 20 years from the history of the band, including the very first song I wrote for Cawatana in 1999 and also the last one from 2019 (even this last one is rearranged, originally it contained one synth only, it was used for all synth parts, now it’s re-created in a “live compatible” way, including all my 5 analog synths, the different parts are played with different synths).

May (2021) – official lyric video premiere

May has just passed so it’s the perfect time to present our official lyric video for the song May from the forthcoming album Victory Of Regret, to be released later this month.  

Cassette – first time

I’ve always had an admiration for cassettes. Cawatana was born in an age when cassettes were forgotten, we had no possibility to have a cassette release (our previous band had released many cassettes). I already wanted to release a cassette some years ago, a split release with a Hungarian band, but at the end, due to different reasons (from my side and also from the other side) it was discarded. But now, with the two 7″ vinyls, came the idea again to release a cassette as well. But these three songs, about 10 minutes were not really sufficient for a complete cassette. So I was thinking about what else I could provide. 6 years ago, for the 15th anniversary of the band I released a digital only EP, called Again, that contained some reworked, re-recorded older songs, in 15 minutes. I’ve never liked digital only releases, I’ve always preferred physical formats, so it seemed to be a good idea to pair these songs with the new ones (that were created for the 20th anniversary of the band, and also reworked, re-recorded older songs, in a different way). But this way there was 5 minutes space left on side A. There are some songs we recorded for different compilations but they were never released. I was hesitating which one to choose, but finally I’ve decided upon New Dawn Fades, an acoustic cover we recorded in 2004 with many guest musicians (I think that’s the song where we have the most contributors), perhaps this song fits the best to the other ones. This song was officially never released before, it was published just for one day on Myspace and last.fm in 2007, so it’s available for the first time in physical format, 16 years after it was recorded. And actually the songs from the 7″s are in different forms than on the vinyl release, different mastering (in case of In Deep Timelessness it’s also different mixing), so at the end we can say that all songs will be released for the first time in physical format in this form.

A brand new song on a new 7″

It was announced almost exactly one year ago (to the 20th anniversary of the band) but due to different reasons it’s released only now. This 7″ contains a brand new song, written specifically for this release. This song is in the direction we’ve started with the two mini albums Advocation For Privileges and Decline Of Privileges: dark folk mixed with new wave/post punk, acoustic guitars with drum machine and synthesizers (but now analog synth instead of software).

This is the first new song in 5 years and very probably will be the last (brand new) one. It doesn’t mean that there won’t be new releases, I have a huge backlog, many unfinished songs from the last 15 years, probably I will finish some of them, reworking in today’s “situation”. So you can expect more releases in the (near) future.

This song is dedicated to the power of fusion. After listening to the songs I think some of you will know why.

Note: two different versions are existing for this song. The original 7″ version is available on the label’s bandcamp page. There is an additional version (different mixing and mastering) for digital purposes, it’s available on the band’s bandcamp page, and also on YouTube, Spotify, SoundCloud etc.

Out now – In the Silver Light 7″

The earlier announced new 7″ is finally out as the first release of the new label Senkrecht Records. It contains two alternative versions of songs released before. Something in the Final Hour (original version appeared on Comprende CD, Gradual Hate/Twilight Records, 2016) got a dark synth pop rework (with the subtitle Living in the 80s version – but with the motto: no neon). On the other side of the 7″ the Pulse 4 Station version of the song Silver Light can be found. The originally post punk driven dark folk song (appeared on the Decline of Privileges EP, Lichterklang Records, 2015) got a minimal wave vibe in this new version with the addition of analog synths and drum machine.

These songs are dedicated to New Wave Szerűség for the inspiration.

It’s available in our shop, on our Bandcamp page, and also on the Bandcamp page of the label.

A new 7″ in production (out soon)

It was exactly 3 years ago, when I announced some changes in Cawatana and published a demo version of a song to demonstrate these changes. The main message of the announcement was, that I sold my guitars and bought analog synths, drum machines, sequencer instead, and we would play 80s synth pop music instead of neofolk. The date of the announcement was not accidental, it was 1st of April, and my purpose was, that everybody would think it was joke. But the real joke was, that it was not a joke. Actually I didn’t sell all my guitars (I sold my acoustic guitar, my 12-string acoustic guitar and my bass guitar, but one acoustic guitar left) and I didn’t buy many analog synths that time (I’ve started to buy all my stuff after that) but the direction was clear in my mind.

A new release soon

Today is the 20th anniversary of our first concert and I think it’s a good occasion to announce our next release. I count the birth of Cawatana from the first concert. Actually it was planned as a one time occasion. In 1999 we got an invitation to a local festival for our band that was our “main band” that time, but we didn’t want to play with this band on this festival, but we didn’t want to decline the invitation either, so we decided to create a new programme for this festival, under a new name (which is coming from the name of that band anyway). We put together the set in 3 weeks, we wrote our very first songs for this concert (most of those songs we play till today). We liked it, so we decided to continue it, and in a short time it became our main band for a long time.
And now, after 20 years Cawatana is still here, not as active as at the beginning, but it’s normal, we are 20 years older. Not because to celebrate this anniversary (but it can be combined with it nicely) we will release a split 7″ with Larrnakh (our “sister band”, so to say, led by the person with whom we started Cawatana together 20 years ago).

Cawatana – 20 years

Cawatana will be 20 years old this year (the first concert was in October 1999). But actually we don’t plan anything for this occasion. But certainly we are open to everything, just contact us if you want us…

New toys