Final release of our 13th album, 'I Am Venom'.
It took a while: at the end, we had to choose amongst 53 tracks (thanks to that little animal called 'Covid'), but here it is.
enjoy it!
Finally, after some toying around with TI, our new album 'Our Legacy... Apocalypse' is released.
If you think we cannot go darker, think again.
If you are happy in life, listen to this album and become depressed, because all what is told on this album is true or will be true in future.
It is not a prediction we are doing here, it is the future that lies in front of us.
Don't blame us, we are just the messengers...
Are you depressed now? Don't be: this is just a bunch of cowkaka I'm spreading.
Just enjoy it!
(Our other project: Tarmac Initiative!)
Recently, an idea emerged out of our brains: 'hey, wouldn't it be nice to make a compilation CD?'. We thought this over and decided that each member of the band
would make a list of 12 of his favourite songs and write down why it is a favourite.
Well, here is list 1 (JB).
- All for the good now (Album 'All For Gloria')
Reason: although not well mixed, it has a unique sphere. Also, this song was originally improvised (in 1 take!) and put on a cassette. It was so impressive that I tried to maintain its atmosphere during production. I am quite proud of the result. Note: it happened more than once during our rehearsals: the improvised version of the song which is actually better than the CD version... - Dead Man Walking (Album 'All For Gloria')
Reason: again great atmosphere: the song reflects rather well what must go in someones head when he is strawling to his end point. - Grave Digger (Album 'Here To Stay')
Reason: a song in 6/8 measure, and it is quite an earworm. It was used on our 31/10/2015 performance and the video clip was right on! - Yankee (Album 'Here To Stay')
Reason: made on tuesday 11/09/2001: it represents the feelings we had that moment. The lyrics contain criticism, which is not that misplaced, imho. - Come for you (Album 'Little Tiny Crime')
Reason: during our performance at BIM 2014, a lady dressed in black danced on this song, as only that kind of lady can dance. An unforgettable moment.
Another reason: when this song was finally mixed, I took the car to listen at it. It felt so good that I started driving, I just couldn't stop. I must have been driving for hours... - Ocean of sadness (Album 'Little Tiny Crime')
Reason: truly intense atmosphere. If one of the band members should ever die, this song will be played, that we agreed. - Christ Is Combing (Album 'Velvet Destruction')
Reason: during that period of time, we were very into Combichrist. This song represents our attempt to imitate.
Another reason: it was made in one day, +- 8 hours continuously, on a holiday. Can you imagine a better way to spend your holidays? - Philippe (Album 'Revengeration')
Reason: this is a funny song, so different from the general dark mood we work in. It is catchy, simple, you can dance on it very easily and it has french lyrics! - Your Revenge (Album 'Revengeration')
Reason: this song was created a year ago before all the other songs of this CD, but I didn't know what to do with it. I finally decided not to put it on CD, until Gunter told me he had some lyrics in his head for this song. After the lyrics were recorded, I realised this song got 1000000 times better. - Strike Down (Album 'A Curious Strikedown')
A small story is behind this song: at some time, Gunter told he had created some tune on the piano in his living room. So I asked him to play it, so while he did, I was setting up some gear and listened to it with half an ear. After he finished it, I noticed something about that tune but I just couldn't figure it out. So I asked him to play it again, and suddenly I discovered it: it was in 6/4 measure! 6/4 measure is truly rare and when I found out how well the chord structure fitted within this 6/4 measure, I went wild: this was brilliant! We added lyrics and additional sounds on it and it went better and better, we could not do anything wrong with this song.
In my opinion, this is one of the best songs we ever made. - Eden House (Album 'Dark Shade Escapades')
This song is different from our other songs: it contains guitars (which we normally hate) and massive strings. We tried to imitate songs from the band 'Eden house', which performed on one of the WGT festivals and impressed Gunter.
I am very pleased about the result: strong lyrics, good mixing, a wall of sound, 99.99% perfect... - Grind (Album 'Dark Shade Escapades')
Since 2011, after WGT where I discovered Alan Wilder and his 'Recoil' project, life was not the same anymore. I was (and still am!) a very big fan of his music. So you can imagine we tried to imitate his style. Pe.: 'Existence (Album 'Speaker')', '7 deadly Sins (Album 'XY01')', 'Goddess Of Light (Album 'A Curious Strikedown')', ...
However, if Alan Wilder would ask me to send 1 song to him to listen, I would take 'Grind': this is the best of them all, it is very sample based, and it is one of those songs which I kept on adding things without destroying it. This does not happen frequently.
I do not like my voice, but in this song, I can accept it: it is well done, and it fits the atmosphere. It also has very nice chord switches, which Alan Wilder also uses in his pieces and which I like very much.
The website has been rebuilt, using Bootstrap. To view the old one, click here.
This website just got an overhaul. The format is now HTML 5/CSS 3. Also: the contact page works again!
Today we released our 11th album 'Dark Shade Escapades'. This is by far the most brilliant CD ever made: forget about everything you ever heard, after you listened to this piece of art, your live will never be the same. You will listen to it regularly, it is unavoidable. And each time it will be an epiphany. It will revolutionize the music industry; other artists will:
- follow a new direction and try to reach its immaculate state.
- eventually agree that this is the apogee of musical creation and all music that has ever been made or will ever be made is a futile attempt to grasp the eclectic nature of this CD.
And if you don't believe me or you think this is a sh*tload of nonsense, don't bother to tell me: I know...
Gunter received an email from SoundCloud telling that our remix of the Gary Numan song 'Love Hurt Bleed' reached more than 300 listeners! Needless to say, we are very proud.
A new video is added in the 'Videos' section. This video was played in our 'A Curious Strikedown' performance 31/10/2015. Check it out!
More pictures are added in the 'Photos' section. A big thanks to Hans for making them! If you want to see more of his work, check out www.rallyandraces.com.
Yesterday we finally did 'A curious strikedown in Herk' performance we were working on the last year.
And it was, without any doubt, PERFECT. The audience was enthusiast and surprised, the sound was amazing, the whole video concept was splendid,
the ambiance was what we wished it would be. Everything worked out even better than we hoped for: a bigger audience than we anticipated, better audio (yes, even quadrophenia !) and video, very tasty beer and whine, people who set limits higher for themselves just to make the performance having a bigger impact, ...
We can only say this: a big thanks to all you guys who helped us to make this an evening to remember: Axel, Jimmy, Kenny, Artheme, Giel and his friends, Flip, Hans, Anneleen, Petra, Hilde, Anja, Joke, Vera !
Photos of our performance on 31/10/2015 are posted in the 'pictures' section. Check them out!
Well, here it is: the new video 'Lucrita' of our upcoming album 'A curious strikedown'! We're very proud of the result, and we hope you will like it. Check the link in the 'Videos' section. Enjoy!
Alternative: check this link.
And if you want to play them all: check this link.
Our performance data is now put on the Internet: check the next websites:
http://www.demarkthallen.be/
http://www.uitinvlaanderen.be/
We have added a new track 'being boiled' in the 'discography' section! This one will not appear on our new upcoming CD, but it is such a weird number, we could not get it over our hearts NOT to share it with you. Enjoy!
A new video is created, which will become the next teaser video. It is also the first one on which our faces are shown! So check out this website regularly...
At the moment of this writing, 18 CIA songs now have a video, which means the biggest work is done for our upcoming performance at 31/10/2015. The fine tuning, rehearsals and organizing will now commence. Recently, I have had a small talk with the man who will do the sound, and he too is excited: he immediately came up with new ideas concerning sound sculpture and mixing. Well, that is what we want: constructive contribution! We would like to thank all the people who suggested things we can add to our performance; this is the way to become bigger!
We have just put a teaser on youtube: a new video which may be used in the upcoming performance on 31/10/2015 in Herk-de-Stad. See the 'videos' section or 'discography' section for more. Enjoy it!
We have decided to release one of our new tracks 'All forgiven' of the upcoming album. See the 'discography' section for more. Enjoy it!
A new item is added to the website: 'videos'.
The website has been updated! In the future, we are planning more updates on this site, so keep visitng regularly!
Companions In Art have decided to perform in 'De Markthallen' in Herk-de-Stad, at 31/10/2015.
This will be a special performance, in which our goal is: present the audience an evening to remember.
We will push our own boundaries:
- we are making dedicated video projections for each song we perform: this is a new medium which we have not explored yet, which will make the challenge even more appealing to us.
- the sound will be of the highest quality possible, which will be presented in a 'double stereo' setup, which will put the audience in an even more overwhelming experience.
- guest vocalists will perform.
- additional light effects will be added to strengthen the atmosphere.
We hope that we can reach as much people as possible, so that this event will truly become a night to remember.
This will be our only performance on this scale, so be sure to be there!
Gary Numan, one of our heroes, released his latest album 'Splinter' end of November 2013.
In order to promote this CD, he released a contest 'Fan remixes of Love Hurt Bleed', which we joined.
We didn't win but several people have listened to our remix version and there even were some downloads!
It was great fun to us, because we noticed this contest only 6 days before closing, so we had to jump in fast.
This resulted in a some how different approach: at Tuesday evening, we started by taking the lead vocal and improvising on it: no time to think this over or debate on it, just go on with improvisation and hope things would become ok. Surprisingly it did: the further on we went that evening, the better the improvisations became.
At the end of the evening, a big amount of tracks were recorded which needed to be cleaned and cleansed further.
I (Johan) was not really certain if this could be done at such short notice (only 5 days left), but strangely it did: I started at Thursday evening, I continued at Friday evening, and it was done!
Saturday, I called Gunter to ask for his opinion; he contributed some modifications, I did them and by Sunday, it was done and the song was uploaded.
Needless to say: we are very proud of the result! You can listen to it here on our site.
Release of our 9th album: 'XY01'.
This album is by far the most complicated one we have ever done, but also the most challenging one, for us and for the listener.
This album shows the new road that Companions in Art has taken: less dance and more listening.
September 2013: a new album is lurking at the horizon. This work is again different from the previous one: complex ambient spheres, enriched with details, more lyrical, ... I like to say this album is less dance and more listening, with the next thought in mind: 'if you want fun and forget, listen to the radio, if you want think, tension and thrill, listen to CIA'. We can write down pages of text, but better is to listen to the songs yourself.
CIA Life at 'Live a life' in Stevoort
CIA Life at 'Gothville Fest' at Germinal in Herk-de-Stad.
Line up:
- CIA (Belgium)
- Vic Anselmo (Latvia)
- Militia (Belgium)
After the 7th album, we were in a kind of interjunction: are we still going the right way ? We all felt some kind of lost, due to some aging thing we were starting to think that dance music is for the young people and should be made by young people. So what should we do ? Well, Leipzich 2011 gave the answer! The result can be heard on our 8th album 'Speaker'. This album tends more 'accoustical', without neglecting our electronic background. The music on this CD is full of atmosphere and darkness: listen to the samples and hear for yourself!
We visited WGT (http://www.wave-gotik-treffen.de/) which became one of the most important events of the live of one of the members of Companions in Art.
The best way of attending a concert of an unknown artist is to have no expectations at all: this is the best way to be surprised. This is what we did at WGT at sunday evening. Our feet and backs were hurting, our stomachs were doing overdrive due to all the drinks and fast food we were consuming. We sat down on the floor in the main hall were 'The killing joke' was performing. It was not our cup of tea but they were doing very well, they had a distinct sound which we liked a lot.
After their performance, the surprise act was announced: it was Alan Wilder, a former member of Depeche Mode and his project 'Recoil'. When he started, I remember talking to myself while rubbing my painful feet: 'Alan Wilder, you better be good!'
...And he was good, he was much better than good: his music and video struck us with awe, as an epiphany. We didn't think about our feet, there was only this absolutely brilliant, ominous and breathtaking music... This is what one of our band members was looking for! No show, no ego tripping, only music of an unbelievable richness and filled with details...
That evening, life changed.
We felt we were heading the good way and after some time, the 7th CD 'Massive Notions Of A Serial Killer' saw daylight. This is by far the darkest album we made: subjects go from serial killers to military gung ho to space adventures. Also this album contains our first dutch song, 'Waker', of which later on a video clip is made. Go take a look at the 'videos' section: look for 'Waker': there you will see our singer at his best!
CIA Life at 'Bar Mondial', Antwerpen
CIA Life at 'Double Deuce' Berbroek
Release of our 6th album: 'Revengeration': this one took almost 3 years to make: some serious stress went on which influenced the content of the CD, but at the end, we were very satisfied. This CD contains a lot of interesting tracks, it is the most versalite CD we did by then.
CIA Life at 'GOthica Fest' Diest
Just when you think they are dead, they smash you in the face!
Our new 5th album is now out! Namely, Velvet Destruction. You can preview it here on our site.
The 5th album is different compared to the first 4: it contains more EBM tracks than we ever did. This makes this album much more appropriate for life performances: track '200 miles' has been played on several occasions with very good response. And the inner sleeve of the CD booklet contains some shocking image if you look a little further...
We had a lot of fun on BIM, sadly we had to leave so early.
Many many thanx for all the positive remarks and support. Also thanx to those who bought our CD('s) at BIM and online. Are we getting a fan club ;-?
Thanx goes also to the people of BIM for giving us this change.
Last preparing for our performance at BIM.
Wondering how we sound? Be sure you're at the location early enough, at this point we don't know the correct time we're on stage...
The mastering of the 4th album is done. Just a bit more work on the track ordering and graphics.
For the fans, the Album will be available on BIM's merchandising stand.
Happy Birthday party for Gunter on GothVille Clubnight, what a night. Set of DaVitch was great electro, AnaXaGoRaS still knows his old electro, wave tracks,
and the new Goth - Industrial - etc. were present as well.
It lasted till 06h in the morning, I didn't saw any sober guy walking home that morning, so I think it was pretty successful.
Hey thank you all for your positive comments these days. And also special thanks to all the fans who have ordered our albums. We hope you'll enjoy your time listening to our dark sounds.
Please feel free to send us your comments, and yes we know our english is not the best, but hey, you probably understand our shit, we will ask a fan in the UK to correct the text on our site soon...
And yes, we have indeed also fans in the UK, pretty weird feeling, but weird is nice :-)
Hopefully, our site will opens today.
For the fans, the release of our 4th CD is upcoming; the work title is "Little Tiny Crime", if that's ok with you.
Great news! We will have our first big gig on the Belgian independent music festival. So be there!! Antwerp, Hof ter Loo on the 18th December.
More info can be found at: http://www.darkentries.be/.
Are we getting famous? For their special edition, nr 50, of Dark Entries we're again selected with an other song 'All Eyes' from our 3th Album. It will be available halfway September.
In the year 2003 we released our third album "Here to Stay" and that's what we're planning to do.
Suicide Mission, a song of our second album was selected by Dark Entries to put on their compilation CD which is freely distributed with their magazine.
We've received a lot of compliments on our mailbox about this selection. We thank you all for your support!
We have won the 'Studio Brussels' demopoll contest and we earned every fucking bit of it. Special thanks to all our voters.
If you're interested, you can read all the 66 comments on www.demopoll.be.
CIA wrote history, they had their first gig in front of an audience. Party hall was café 't Lokaal, Berbroek Herk-de-Stad. In front of approximately 130 people they played their hearts out. You can ask everyone of the audience, they all liked it. Click here for the pic's.
Still searching for new sounds the rush for the second album began and the inspiration kept on coming... In 2002 the second album (All for Gloria) was finished and we began to create our very own dark sound. We started the conception of a third album with enthousiasm.
In the blessed year 2001 the first album (Down Underneath) was completed and it tasted for more.
Companions In Art started in 2000 after a gothic summer festival where Gunter Vanreppelen (Vocals & Keyboards), Jo Ballet (Keyboards & Effects) and Geert Surkijn (Rythms & Electro Drums) decided to start an own band and creating an own dark sound.