PROCESS: Recorded live in December 2008 in the rehearsal room on a 4‑track: stereo drums, mono bass, mono guitar. Vocals overdubbed.
Mixed in digital and analogue.
TRIVIA: Miel is a minimalistic and extremely hypnotizing piece developed over one guitar riff lasting for fifty minutes. It’s eccentricity within the realm of black metal is undisputable. The first mixing was done in early 2009 — the same time we mixed Du bist mir alles, and had almost no differences in sound since both recordings were made the same way during one night session in December 2008. But in early 2012, preparing the record for the actual release, I felt the importance of presenting this extraordinary piece in such a sound frame which would fully meet its high requirements. Thus I came to the idea of a new mix. By that time it had been years since I first thought of doing a 100% analogue recording session with Deakon. And though Miel session was not the case, at the stage of mixing an old reel-to-reel tape was used to put it in a frame of old 80s and 90s demo tapes’ sound so many extreme metal fans are sincerely nostalgic about these days. More than that, I started the new mix while being under a heavy impression from The Beatles’ debut album Please Please Me. Due to the stereo mixing restrictions of the early 60s era, no central position panning was possible for them — so either full left or full right with a little reverb to blend the channels as possible. The drums on this rock-n-roll classic are panned to full left which is something impossible compared to what we consider as drum-panning these days. I used this technique and set the drums to the full right, guitars to the full left. The bass stayed closer to the center. If you check the first two Deakon mixes you’ll hear that the guitar and bass are panned to the opposites with stereo drums in the center. On Miel this extreme panning possession made a step further.
STATUS: Released on CD by Assavlt Rex [022bvllet] in July 2013. Purchase it from the label — http://assavlt.bandcamp.com/album/miel