Brighton avant-pop artist, Nick Hudson, has just released his brand new CD album, Kanda Teenage Honey. Featuring artwork by Hudson and several notable artists and photographers, it was largely recorded in a former Soviet movie studio in Tbilisi, Georgia, and includes guest appearances from members of Mogwai, Kayo Dot, Sunn O))) and Bat For Lashes. Keep reading below to find out more.
Order Kanda Teenage Honey here: https://nickhudsonindustries.bandcamp.com/album/kanda-teenage-honey
On Kanda Teenage Honey, Hudson collaborates with some incredible Georgian musicians and his friend Seva, a Russian dissident who fled the FSB, having worked for Navalny. Hudson explains, “He contributes a poem narrating his thoughts on exile, through which I’ve layered field recordings of the recent Tbilisi and Paris protests, where many of us got tear-gassed. Russia attempted to invade Georgia most recently in 2008 and we’ve seen a vast influx of Russians fleeing the conflict and resettling in Tbilisi (which endures and suffers a pro-Russian government ideologically in conflict with most of its citizens). This geopolitical tension has inevitably made its way into the lyrical and musical texture of the record via the songs “Hollow Man” and “Sky Burial While Alive.” It also contains oligarch-hexing magic realism and a tribute to that vastly-neglected demographic – the old-school homosexual. Musically it encompasses art rock, black metal, ambient music, agitprop folk, charred goth rock, symphonic vastness and piano ballads -all infused with the energies and landscape of Georgia.”
“As an album, Kanda Teenage Honey explores ideas of preserving the sacred from the corrosively kleptocratic institutions of church and state: spiritual and material kleptocracy. The title itself refers to a very real preservation of innocence derived from a story I heard of a local villager whose teenage son was shot and killed: the father had his son’s body preserved in honey. As such, there are secular hymns for peace and lucid stillness, tales of saints de-martyring themselves and falling in love free of judgement from anachronistic scrutiny – a thinly veiled parable of queer love. Two very close friends died within six months of each other during my first year in Georgia – there are requiems in the songs “Archipelago” and “Bardo,” plus an acappella tribute to the Siberian husky that helped me grieve them during a retreat to the sublime mountainous region of “Khevsureti” by the Chechen border, where despite being an ostensibly Orthodox country, pagan traditions are still passionately observed. I dreamed eighty-percent of “Bardo” in the energised serenity of this beautiful region while mourning my friend Jesse. Patrick, honoured in “Archipelago,” was one of my earliest mentors and a dynamically brilliant pianist. They are much missed,” explains Hudson.
“Ortolan” references the summer of 2021, when I fled to the same Isle Of Wight monastery at which Scott Walker had sought refuge in the sixties, as my mental and physical health hit a nadir and I was forced to leave the city I’d called home for twenty years. “This Heat” refers to a return journey from a plague necropolis at the Chechen border, where giddily drunken park rangers piloting a 4X4 hurtled us passengers down a treacherous mountain pass and I briefly thought it might be the last song I’d ever write. Since then, I’ve come to learn that Georgians are some of the virtuosic drivers in the world, even drunk, and I need not have feared.”
Mixed by and featuring Toby Driver of Kayo Dot, this album involves numerous talented guests, including Mogwai’s Stuart Braithwaite, Stuart Dahlquist (Asva, Burning Witch, Sunn O))), Lizzy Carey (Bat For Lashes), Robert Wyatt collaborator Alfreda Benge, Christopher Nell (legendary German performer and collaborator of US theatre visionary Robert Wilson), and soprano prodigy Poppy Efemey.
Recorded with Ilya Lukashev at Leno Studio and Sano Studio in Tbilisi, this album was mastered to analogue tape by Paul Pascoe (Barry Adamson, Beat Hotel, Sleaford Mods) at Church Road Studios in Hove.
Kanda Teenage Honey tracklisting:
01 Khevsureti
02 For My Silence
03 Sky Burial While Alive
04 Hollow Man
05 This Heat
06 Hachiko
07 Archipelago
08 Bardo
09 Hunters
10 Unspent Youth
11 Seva
12 In Praise Of Venerable Jorge
13 Catherine In The Curate’s Garden
14 Ortolan
15 Bad Ghost Vs Good Boy
16 Danube Blues
See also:
“For My Silence” https://youtu.be/lmBDAwBk10s
“Khevsureti” https://youtu.be/nz9rzb94dtk
“Khevsureti Remix” (by Gary Alumna) https://youtu.be/fKwg4AWo2sU
Book: The Land Exists So The Seas Don’t Argue https://bit.ly/41TqIiz
“Beautifully written, recorded, produced and arranged… all complimented by vocal that lives up to the same standard. No cheating, no fronting, just honest crafted musicality” – Billy Gould (Faith No More)
“Kanda Teenage Honey is shockingly emotional, thoughtfully orchestrated and wonderfully curious lyrically. It is a record for true music lovers” – Jamie Stewart (Xiu Xiu)
“Nick Hudson is a unique talent. His song writing and performances are breathtaking. He is long overdue being heard by a wider audience. This solo album is a peak in an already stellar career” ~ Stuart Braithwaite (Mogwai)
More from Nick Hudson:
In 2021, Hudson released his Font Of Human Fractures album and the K69996ROMA EP. His band The Academy of Sun released their opus album The Quiet Earth the year before. He’s collaborated with such legends as Wayne Hussey (The Mission), Matthew Seligman (David Bowie, Tori Amos, Morrissey), Massive Attack‘s Shara Nelson, plus David Tibet (Current 93) and queercore icon GB Jones. His vast output also encompasses painting, film and a novel.
Kanda Teenage Honey is out now, available everywhere digitally, including Spotify, Apple Music and Bandcamp, along with his new book The Land Exists So The Seas Don’t Argue, showcasing a decade of lyrical output in five albums plus ephemera with a foreword by renowned Scottish author Chris Kelso.
Follow Nick Hudson/The Academy Of Sun:
https://www.facebook.com/TheAcademyOfSun
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https://youtube.com/@NickHudsonMusic
https://music.apple.com/ca/artist/nick-hudson/280008410
https://open.spotify.com/album/4WKJCeF2uXCudjxME03nye