Inhaled/Exhaled/Revived - new Nasum release

ANNOUNCING "INHALED/EXHALED/REVIVED" - AVAILABLE ON STREAMING NOW, PHYSICAL RECORD IN OCTOBER!


There is a brand new Nasum release available on streaming now and for pre-order of the physical release. It's a delayed 25th anniversary edition of "Inhale/Exhale", but it's not just another reissue, it's a stand-alone release with remastered songs, remixed songs and unreleased songs.

This is a project that has been going on for years. Many years. Back in January of 2022 I got hold of two of the three master reels for "Inhale/Exhale" and knew there were unreleased songs on them. I envisioned an anniversary edition as the 25th jubilee was coming up in May 2023, but it took some time to figure out how to make use of the reels and what to do with them. By the end of the year, I shipped the reels to Sveriges Ljudmigreringscentrum who were able to bake the tapes and do a high resolution digital transfer. Thankfully, there were no issues with the tapes, and I suddenly had the entire “Inhale/Exhale” recording in separate tracks. Not the entire recording though, as the middle reel containing a large chunk of the album was missing, but I had a lot of songs and two outtakes that never was mixed back in 1998.

As I didn’t have a complete set of songs, I couldn’t do a remix of the entire album but I could do some selected tracks and in December of 2022 I posted on the Nasum Facebook page asking fans to list their favorite tracks from the album. I got some kind of list from that, excluded the songs from the missing master reel, and added a few I wanted to have their and ended up with a selection of 18 songs including the two unreleased outtakes “Truth Fed Through a Tube” and “Need Some…”.

At some point, I had started a conversation with Relapse about doing something with this stuff and we quickly realized that a release in time for the 25th anniversary was impossible. I had an idea of letting several different people remixing the songs just to see what would happen, but it was cut down to just having one guy doing the remix, and after thinking about a few interesting persons I ended up handing the files to my old friend Dan Swanö. After all, the Fostex E-16 tape recorder that was used during the recording was his old machine so it made sense in many ways that Dan would be the one who would do this.

In what felt like just a few hours after he got the files, Dan sent me a test remix and I was blown away of what he was able to pull out from the old recordings. “Inhale/Exhale” had a pretty distinct sound and I thought that it was impossible to do something that felt new and up to date without re-sampling or re-amping the instruments. But Dan had a few tricks up his sleeve, and I could without hesitation ask him to go forth and remix everything.

I also sent the files for the song “Inhale/Exhale” to Henrik and Johan from Seven Trees, a local electronic band with a history as long as Nasum’s. Henrik was the one who gave me the gasmask couple image back in the 90’s and I had for a very long time envisioned an electronic, industrial remix of the song and Seven Trees provided that. The two different remixes of “Inhale/Exhale” bookends the second LP in the physical release of “Inhaled/Exhaled/Revieved”.

Dan Swanö also provided a remastering of the entire album including the four cover songs from the original LP and another unreleased song called “Dark Thoughts” that was mixed by Mieszko back in 1998 but excluded from the album. I had it on my advanced tape and that’s the source used as the song was on that missing master reel.

One more thing about remixing the songs… I know that some will say “that’s not what Mieszko would have wanted”, but I would say that it’s exactly what he would have wanted. Had he been alive and still working, he would gladly have given “Inhale/Exhale” another shot. Dan’s remix is done with respect and care.

All the remastering and remixing were completed during 2023. During the same time I started talking to an artist that’s been my friend for many years about doing the artwork. I had a strong wish that this should be treated as a separate release from “Inhale/Exhale” (and decided on the title “Inhaled/Exhaled/Revived” somewhere along the way) and therefor it needed new artwork. My thought was “What if 25 years have passed for the couple getting married in gasmasks? Where are they now? What kind of life do they have today?”

The artist started working but when I asked for updates I got only excuses and no images and then some more excuses and then… nothing. I got no replies to my emails and by now several years have passed and I still haven’t heard anything. It’s really weird and this project lost a lot of time on that. Perhaps as much as six months.

So, in August of 2024 I posted a vague request on the Nasum Facebook page looking for an artist for “a possible collaboration”. I got a whole bunch of portfolios and samples, most of them were really good, and did a first selection which later was cut down to a short list of two people. These two people got all the info and were asked to provide a concept in a few weeks. Interestingly, both came up with similar ideas based on my “what if” scenario and I ended up picking Shindy Rehaal who drew and painted the front cover for the album. The layout was later done in-house by Relapse.



The physical release is available for pre-order now to be released October 24. It’s a 2xLP in a few different color variations and a single CD. Both released have liner notes by myself, fellow Relapse artist Matt Harvey and writer Dom Lawson. The digital streaming version is out now on your service of choice.

As I said, this project has been going on for many years and a lot of people have been involved in it. Thanks to all of you!

And also, the other three albums in the catalog will be reissued in nice colored vinyl October 24 as well. Check them out

PRE-ORDER LINKS:
Relapse.com
Bandcamp.com