Andrew Liles (NURSE WITH WOUND, THE VORTEX VAULT, CURRENT 93) one of the world’s most respected experimental musicians has joined forces with Maniac (SKITLIV, BOMBEROS, ex-MAYHEM), one of the icons of Black Metal, to work together on SEHNSUCHT, the ambient/noise project set up by the vocalist following his departure from Mayhem. Originally a three-piece, comprising Maniac’s fiancée, GALLHAMMER’s VIVIAN SLAUGHTER, on bass and saxophone, and Skitliv guitarist Ingvar Magnusson, Liles will be handling FX and electronics, and working together with Maniac on the sound design.

The decision to work together came last week when Maniac, on a month-long working holiday in the UK, went to Liles’ West Yorkshire home to master the forthcoming Skitliv album Skandinavisk Misantropi, and to discuss the eventual mastering of the Sehnsucht album. “We were listening to the very rough Sehnsucht tracks and Andrew started making suggestions, and rapidly became very involved in the whole thing. By the end of a couple of hours, I was completely blown away by what he was doing, and by the end of my stay we had laid down additional vocals and a lot more electronics, and we were both convinced that we wanted to expand this project together, and eventually take it live,” explained v. “I have long-admired Andrew's work and even though on the face of it, we appear to come from disparate musical disciplines, we both share the same eclectic musical tastes, and pretty much the same absurd sense of humour, so it’s not only a privilege, but also a pleasure to work with him and take Sehnsucht much further than I’d originally envisaged. Once Vivian sends more bass tracks later this week, the whole project will become much more cohesive, and all four of us are very excited about the direction v is taking”.

Unlike Sehnsucht, Maniac's Skitliv, whose line up includes SHINING’s Niklas Kvarforth on guitars and backing vocals, Sehnsucht's Ingvar on guitars, and HAUST’s Dag Otto on drums, is a band that plays Blackened-Doom. Recently signed with Season Of Mist, Skitliv's first full-length album “Skandinavisk Misantropi” is due for release this year, and includes guest vocals from David Tibet (CURRENT 93), Gaahl (GOD SEED, WARDRUNA) and Atilla (SUNN 0))), Myhem).

Sehnsucht is signed to the UK’s COLD SPRING label for the release of the first album, later in the year. More information about Sehnsucht, including some unfinished preview tracks can be found on the band’s MySpace page.

Below you can see the official video of Skitliv's Virescit Volnere Virtus:

Skitliv - Virescit Volnere Virtus