The long-awaited, second collaborative album from the esteemed Norwegian composer John Kaada and the prolific epitome of experimentation Mike Patton, also known as Kaada/Patton, Bacteria Cult which is set to be released April 1st on Ipecac Recordings, and today the duo released to stream the opening track “Red Rainbow” off the upcoming LP. This new song is a preview of things to come from the collaborative efforts of the dynamic pair, who have not worked together since their most recent album Live, which was the DVD featuring a black & white live performance of the music off their first album Romances from Roskilde Festival 2005.
Beginning as a side project for John Kaada and Mike Patton, Kaada/Patton falls under the genre of experimental and avant-garde music. Kaada is a singer-songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist, whose career spans a string of solo albums, motion picture soundtracks, high-profile collaborations with key players in the music community. Patton is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, film composer, producer, and actor, best known as the lead singer of the alternative metal band Faith No More. Patton was also the founder and lead singer of experimental band Mr. Bungle, and has played with Tomahawk, Fantômas, Lovage, The Dillinger Escape Plan, and Peeping Tom. Patton has earned critical praise for his diverse array of vocal techniques and is known for his eclectic influences and experimental projects. He co-founded Ipecac Recordings with Greg Werckman in 1999, and has run the label since. In 2004 Kaada and Patton joined together to create their first studio LP Romances, and after 12 years of laying dormant, working on their own projects, the two have come together once again to creates something unique.
“We wanted to try new things,” explains Kaada. “Fully utilizing new technologies, combined with a large orchestra, while putting more attention towards melody and structure.” The eight-song, orchestral collection exudes the music Ipecac has become well known for: eclectic, experimental and cinematic. Similar in feel to Fantômas’ Director’s Cut, as Kaada describes it, Bacteria Cult “dwells in the twilight zone where spooky and seductive meet.”.
“Working with John Kaada on this latest release was an honor and pure pleasure,” said Patton of resuming work with Kaada. “His compositions have always resonated deeply with me and his orchestral arrangements for this project are harmonically dense and delicious! Each individual piece is so well constructed and inventively assembled that my vocal passages practically sang themselves. I’m hoping very much that we can seduce some eardrums and welcome listeners into this lush sonic ‘other world.’”
This is all evident from the very first track of the album, “Red Rainbow” which begins the record with a slow burning, underlying sense of dormant power, made graceful with the considered movements of the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, and spiraling around a procession pace in to a whirl of exotic vocal intonation, setting the tone marvelously for the magic that follows across the rest of Bacteria Cult.
Bacteria Cult track list:
1. Red Rainbow
2. Black Albino
3. Peste Bubonica
4. Papillon
5. Dispossession
6. A Burnt Out Case
7. Imodium
8. Fountain Gasoline