After two promising 12” EPs, Veranda (2015) and Buffalo Thunder (2016), the Copenhagen-based rock quintet, The Love Coffin, are finally ready to unleash their debut album. The nine-song long-player is entitled Cloudlands and will be released September 28 in a Danish/French joint venture between the independent stalwarts Bad Afro Records and Paris-based Third Coming Records.

The Love Coffin’s songs are all about contrasts – be it in the music, which shifts effortlessly from finely spun melodic melancholy to searingly dissonant bursts of noise – their lyrical themes, which can best be described as pendulous journeys between ominous, tar-black depths of despair and bright shafts of cheek-blushing optimism – or in the schism between frontman Jonatan K. Magnussen’s wildly intimate, volcanic vocals and the cinematic expansiveness of the sonic imagery his bandmates conjure around him.

Sure, you might be able to glean bits and pieces of the patchwork of influences that has led to The Love Coffin’s sound – particularly the unforgiving, magmatic squall of the New York noise rock scene of the ‘80s, the sepia-dusted, grimy wide-screen perspective from the post-punk that came out of Australia in the same era and last, but not least, a knack for burying lush pop hooks under a rough-hewn bedrock of ugly guitars, Trojan horse-style, not unlike the pioneers of British shoegaze did it.

This band, though, is first and foremost a beast of its own making. Beneath the bruises you will find tenderness, raw-hearted honesty and a dizzying talent. These five guys are here, they’re now, and they’re going straight for the jugular. Embrace the darkness or fend it off; you probably won’t escape unscathed, but you will live to tell the tale of The Love Coffin.

Following the release of his new solo album Bird Dog Dante, twice Ensor-nominated composer and Mercury Prize winning producer John Parish has announced a string of European tour dates for the autumn, with more to be added.

Despite his long list of musical accomplishments, for years Parish has been happy outside the spotlight. On Bird Dog Dante, he delivers a collection of songs, including a duet with his longtime musical partner PJ Harvey, that should change all that.

Bird Dog Dante was completed in a busy year for Parish. On top of being the musical director of the extended PJ Harvey band on their Hope Six Demolition Project world tour, he produced acclaimed records for This is the Kit, Nadine Khouri, and Aldous Harding. Parish's new album manages to draw together these diverse threads of his career as a producer, songwriter and collaborator into one coherent and concise work - with pieces written for film alongside perfectly-crafted pop songs.

Listen to Bird Dog Dante here

John Parish 2018 tour dates

17 Nov - Paris, FR - La Maroquinerie

18 Nov - Nijmegen, NL - Doornrosje

21 Nov - Den Haag, NL - Paard van Troje

22 Nov - Opwijk, BE - Nosta

23 Nov - Besancon, FR - L'Antonnoir

24 Nov - Zürich, CH - Moods

26 Nov - Barcelona, ES - Sala Apolo

28 Nov - Arlon, BE - L'Entrepot

30 Nov - Copenhagen, DK - Bremen

1 Dec - Oslo, NO - Bla