carthage

http://www.alivenotdead.com/carthage

Damian Bennett is carthage (Australian residing in England)

A product of the estimable Damian Bennett (Gauge, 16-17, deathless/storm of blood), carthage rolls through the low-end ambience, stolen/found sounds, and murmured texts of a civilization well past having crossed the rubicon with a precision and deliberateness that belies uncomfortable truths.

Damian Bennett formed carthage (preferably written as all lower or all upper case) in October 1997 in Handsworth, Birmingham. Original recordings were made on a Tascam four-track. The carthage website was established which sought to be non-specific and non-literal as possible and came to the attention of Apple HQ in California who featured it in 1997. A tape (and later minidisc) compilation was sold via the website at this time. Beats were gradually introduced and Lo Flying Asreal was an example of this (for the Misanthropic Agenda label compilation) as well as Watch Daddy, which was recorded for Irritant Records, London. Moving to Bristol, carthage began incorporating live visuals. This visual element became integral to carthage projects, and was further enhanced through collaboration with Chris Turner AKA Pho (DVD imagery, graphic art, sound). carthage and Pho opted to name their collaboration Twin Valley Falls (AKA TVF). Self-Imposed Exile Session (2000) was a self-financed release by TVF, which originated from a prompt by a promoter in Japan and was done in two mixing sessions. The album also included tracks and segments by Pho, Ocosi (featuring Mothboy) and Alan Lamb. Irritant Records offered to release this project on a larger scale, so all tracks from the original release were re-recorded from scratch, and recompiled or scrapped. The new version of the album was called 23:64pm, and was released in dual capacity by Irritant and TVF. It included contributions by Pho (who also designed cover), Eugene Robinson (Oxbow) and Rose For Bhodan. carthage (now based in Bedfordshire) has worked on much follow-up material since 23:64pm, as well as working with the NORDUK collective (which consists of Mothboy, Dancon 1, Stormcrow, Blaubac, Electrofant and Qrt).