2026 Editions: we're not dead, just preparing things!
Sometimes life makes it hard to continue doing editions, but although we’ve been without releases for the first months of the year, we are planning on releasing 4 records this year!
The first one was released a few days ago, on July 2nd, Flipping Candy’s “Places From Magical Moments”. I honestly was thrilled with this record before I heard it: a collection of songs inspired by special, even magical moments and places? And those are in Azores? Count me in!
I wasn’t disappointed. The songs are very diverse, with a wide range of emotional resonances, but the whole is the key of the record, as it works as a window to Luís Couto (Flipping Candy mentor) memories.
Built with several analog synths, bass, guitar, and acoustic instruments such as the zither or the tanpura and combined with field recordings of the places depicted on each track, “Places From Magical Moments” is edited on CD with a 12-page booklet.
You can hear it on our bandcamp: Places From Magical Moments | Flipping Candy | Winter Serpent
THE THOLOI CONCERTS
As expected, it was a cold and rainy evening when Tholoi started. The first two concerts, by Durvena Cabina and Wolfskin, promised to bring to Porto a ritual atmosphere, heavily filled with the airs and spirits of olden times.
Durvena Cabina presented himself as usual, seated on the floor, masked and covered with a coarse mantle. The set begins near silent, with a bell, a whisper, and a flute. Sounds are continuously woven into loops, processed, becoming more abstract. Then comes the electric guitar, commanding hosts of distortion and fuzz, releasing the images of seclusion crafted before into a kaleidoscopic of lights and shapes. The soundscapes and loops are then shifting between the acoustic, calm, elements, and the fiery guitar, but the overal feeling is that of watching some arcane, primeval ritual, that ended in frantic awe.
Next concert was Wolfskin. Has happened in the 2024 concerts, J. Aernus was joined by A. C. in the wind instruments, adufe and bells. The third element, that in the Death Cult Rising performance was Alberto XIII Serradilla, this time was M. J., a long time friend and collaborator of Wolfskin.
The concert began with two pieces from “Ring of Spheres”, released a few days ago on Cyclic Law, “Saturnine Enclosure” and “Ring of Spheres”. Dense drones from the gong, bells, whispers, voices, percussion, all merged to create a short version of the record’s ascent from claustrophobic enclosure of the Ego to the freedom of the cosmic pulsation. Next was “Terra de Serpentes”, a track recorded for the “Despojos do Sol-Posto” and has gained its place in the live performances for its ritual and evocative atmosphere.
The last part of the concert consisted in three “classic” tracks, “The Yew Column”, “Tornar o Sangue Sagrado” and the infamous “Blood, Purify Time”. Slow, martial percussion, a deranged bagpipe, lots of distortion and the commanding voice of Aernus lead the audience into a frenzy of rural-orchestral post-industrial soundscapes.
After dinner, and with some 30 minutes’ delay, seagulls seemed to invade the CCOP stage. HOMO concert had begun, with F. Silva seated, immersed in smoke, wearing a hat. Presenting “Music for the Processo of Dying”, released on Winter Serpent on September, HOMO travelled at ease between the pre-recordings (sometimes recognizable, fiel-recording like, others heavily treated and beyond recognition), the TIbetan bowls, voice, electronics and other small instruments.
On stage, HOMO develops the concept of non-verbal poetry further, with the mise-en-scène of a sort of galactic cabaret, while the repetitive, hypnotic sound layers entranced and transported the audience to a place out of time.
And the first edition of Tholoi closed with Karnnos, presenting a new approach to their nostalgic music. Mainly relying on the last record of the band, “In the Harrowing Distance”, they opted to do sort of free versions of some of the tracks, instead of trying to reproduce them as they are in the album. This turned the concert into an intimist experience, in which both the band and the audience were discovering the soundscapes that floated in the ether.
To close the concert, and as a way of bridging the old material of the band with the new-found enthusiasm with electronics and free structures, Karnnos offered an almost 20 minutes version of an old song, released only on a compilation, “O Bosque do Limiar”.
It is with an enormous pleasure that we annouce the first edition of THOLOI, an annual Winter Serpent’s sound event!
For this edition we will have two projects presenting their new records on WNS, that will be released during September, HOMO and KARNNOS, joined by WOLFSKIN and DURVENA CABINA!
The event will take place at the Auditorio CCOP, a wonderful venue in Porto (Portugal), on a most probable cold and rainy six of December, 2025. We will be serving ritual, experimental, dark and hypnotic music.
More information about schedules, tickets, etc. will be available in the coming months. But for now save the date!
Here are some links for the projects’ music:
https://durvenacabina.bandcamp.com/music
https://winterserpent.bandcamp.com/album/despojos-do-sol-posto
https://soundcloud.com/homosound/albums
New editions on September 2025!
Kicking off our first vinyl editions is HOMO’s “Music For The Process Of Dying”, a work of non-verbal poetry. Sound collage, experimentation with acoustic instruments and field recordings take us on a journey through a process of ransformation, where the senses become antennas of perception directly channaled to the subconscious.
Our second vinyl edition is Karnnos latest record, “In The Harrowing Distance”. It is also an album about death and transformation, but in this case the death of N. Gomes, who had became a Karnnos member recently but was a longtime friend, and the transformation of grief into music. More electronic-focused, and with yet new instrumentation (harmonium and zither) “In The Harrowing Distance” is everything that “Concealed, In The Silence” was not. Somber, experimental, slow and melancholic, it is a journey into the meaning of existence and of loss.
It’s been a while since the site has been updated, but we are preparing an update on the site, with more pages and a bandcamp for the label. Meanwhile, WNS third edition was released, in partnership with New Approach Records – the reedition of Karnnos’ “Remembrance”.
“Remembrance” is a nocturnal journey through the ruins of memory and the world, in search for something to hold up to. A dark record, it is a reflection on how we are losing touch with nature and with spirituality. And with ourselves as humans. Musically it is a journey through diverse soundscapes, ranging from a quasi-solo format to epic songs, a tapestry of wandering and awe.