LP, cassette, and digital, 1 January 2021
released on
crystalline morphologies and
Sming Sming.
Mystical doom. Hag blues. Intimate metal. Moon hymns. A dirge. O Death. For my mother, who was a Pisces (March 2, 1955 – April 30, 2018).
Informed by Korean shamanist ritual and the Korean tradition of P’ansori singing (which demands rehearsal next to waterfalls, in order to ravage the vocal cords), as well as by Keiji Haino, Diamanda Galás, and Jeff Buckley,
Black Moon is as much a mystical grief ritual as it is a droned-out metal concert that summons the holy spirit. This performance is specifically for the faint of heart. It is loud AF and swimming in tears.
“A single guitar chord strikes—a biting, staticky crunch that lingers, but cuts off after about ten seconds. Then it happens again, and again, and again. It’s music that implies respiration, and effort. Their voice is part Diamanda Galás, part Korean Pansori singing, part widow wailing at graveside, rising to a gigantic operatic swoop like a vulture arcing slowly in the sky.”
—
Bandcamp Daily
“Hedva moves at their own pace throughout the recording, but the songs aren’t gentle for this—the analogy with grief, and the discomfort of those who witness it, is clear.”
—
The Wire
“Johanna Hedva ghosted after building a droning crescendo in the finale of
Black Moon Lilith, leaving the audience in the collective discomfort of loud sound and powerful vibration. Their music was an alchemical transmutation of chronic pain, trauma, and death that had more than one audience member nodding along in recognition.”
—
Hyperallergic
“Johanna Hedva’s crooning, mournful solo guitar and vocals set ... brought forward our shared vulnerability to sickness, and eventually death.”
—
Artforum
Performances—
Oct 21 2022, with Aaron Turner and William Fowler Collins, Monarch, Berlin
Mar 30 2022,
Punctum, with Pak Yan Lau, Prague
Jan 22 2022,
The Lab, San Francisco
May 8 2021,
Rewire Festival
Dec 26 2020,
Creepy Teepy Festival
Jul 5 2020,
Klosterruine, Berlin
Jan 26 2020, London, with
M Lamar, for
No End and No Beginning, Wellcome Collection
Jan 11 2020, Los Angeles, with
Xina Xurner,
M Lamar,
Gabie Strong, and
Pauline Lay at
Human Resources
Dec 3 2019,
Haverford College, Philadelphia
Nov 27 2019, ACUD, with
Pan Daijing and
Jessika Khazrik, for
Amplify Berlin
Oct 13 2019,
Future Soundscapes Festival, Berlin
Aug 4 2019,
ICA London, part of
I, I, I, I, I, I, I, Kathy Acker
Jun 6 2019, Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen
May 25 2019, Future Clinic of Critical Care #4: Mother, Theaterhaus Gessnerallee, Zürich
Apr 11 & 14 2019,
I Wanna Be With You Everywhere,
No Series, Performance Space New York
Jan 12 2019, PAM, Los Angeles
Oct 14 2018, Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge, UK
Interviews—
Johanna Hedva Mines Illness & Grief Through Doomy Guitar, interviewed by Philip Freeman, Bandcamp Daily
Conversation with Jessika Khazrik, for Amplify Berlin
Reviews—
The Wire, Issue 445
Artforum
Hyperallergic
Cool Hunting
Forbes