the band has now returned with new studio material in the form of a new CD album, entitled COSMOGONIA , which was recorded and mixed at the HAZELWOOD STUDIOS in Frankfurt between September and December 1997.

To give you a concrete and hopefully definite date, COSMOGONIA is scheduled for release either in March or April 1998 and includes extraordinary material of approx. 60 minutes.

The title

The album's title, COSMOGONIA , comes from Greek, and stands for the origins, creation and evolution of the universe. In this case, we have adopted the above definition to speak about cosmogony in terms of human thought. This means that COSMOGONIA is a trip through the hidden potential of mankind's wisdom and the different forms of spirituality and beauty. Spirituality means the search for knowledge. And knowledge means regeneration, the latter being also a term for cosmogony in a metaphorical sense.
According to the lyrics, COSMOGONIA is the search for Light, for the Sea and for the undiscovered Beauty.
We will be adding more information on the lyrics here, as soon as the album is out.

The cover

The art work is taken from two paintings by the German artist Mr. Wolfgang Klaehn, born 1929 in Hamburg.
The cover painting (above) is entitled "Our World" (water-colour, 73 x 102 cm, 1959/1962).
The details in the booklet are taken from "Earth Life - Light Giving" (water-colour, 73 x 102 cm, 1963/1965/1966)

The credits for making a first contact with the works of the artist go to GRASS HARP's Fritz Aly, who introduced them to us in the form of an old catalogue from an exhibition of Mr. Klaehn's works in 1979.
So, what we had to do was try and get in touch with Mr. Klaehn himself. After having called a few national galleries without much luck, we collected a phone-list with all "Klaehns" in Germany. You can imagine someone calling you and asking you "Excuse me, are you the painter Wolfgang Klaehn?". In fact, we got some strange yet funny reactions from both our first and second try, but the third phone call was a direct hit! When we explained to him the direction of our music and the psychedelic impact his work has had on us as well as the philosophical connection of both paintings with the idea of COSMOGONIA , Mr. Klaehn gave us his kind permission to use them for the CD cover. He suggested that we get in touch with his representative Dr. Thomas Gaedeke, the Director of the Graphic Arts Collection of the National Museum in Schleswig. Being also very friendly and helpful on the phone, Mr. Gaedeke offered us a few high resolution Kodak slides (ektachrome), which we received a few days later. Those were then scanned and worked out with the help of the computer into the final lay-out you can see on the COSMOGONIA CD cover.

We will be adding more information on Mr. Klaehns's works as well as on his mystical symbolism soon.

The music

Alongside the band's main guitar-oriented character, INTO THE ABYSS present quite a few new faces of their creative worlds.
A lot of guest musicians have also contributed their own creativity to the album.

For the World Music flavour on COSMOGONIA , we have won the contribution of Stelios Petrakis on Cretan Lyre. Stelios is a member of Ross Daly's Mediterranean Orchestra, one of the most wellknown World Music ensembles around the Globe.

Another collaboration on the album features Julyus Golombeck on the Oud. Julyus is a member of the German Psychedelic-World-Jazz legend EMBRYO and an excellent Oud and guitar player.

Kuday Shahinalp has contributed his divine Nay playing. Kuday has studied music in Turkey and has been working both in Turkey and Germany as a professional performer as well as a teacher for Nay and Oriental music theory.

Marion Maul, a close friend of the band's, has played a great flute solo on First Rebellion and the gliding piano harmonies on Helionaut.

For the first time in their history, INTO THE ABYSS have used a lot -and rather strange- sampling material and drum loops as well as analogue soundscapes.

Not to forget the use of the Monster itself, the legendary Mellotron M400, which has added to the music a nostalgic, King Crimson - like string sound.

Older News
 

Again, we have to present a new band member, namely Susanne Reinhardt on the violin, who also collaborates with GOETHES ERBEN. Susanne has studied classical music at the Conservatory of Darmstadt and is definitely the best violin player the band has ever had and furthermore a cooperative band member!
 

INTO THE ABYSS will be opening a few German shows for the BEVIS FROND in March 1998.

A full-time tour for INTO THE ABYSS is being put together for May 1998, feat. also the German psychedelic heroes GRASS HARP. Further gigs are currently discussed with EMBRYO.
 

THE FEATHERED SNAKE is now officially available in Poland via BLACK FLAMES PRODUCTIONS on cassette format. The cassette edition includes the original full-colour CD artwork and the lyrics. The first edition of the tape sold 300 copies and 300 more copies are now available.
 

From the above demo, Malvasia has already appeared on a CD compilation by the Spanish magazine "The Black Box", which was released in Autumn 1997. Nevertheless, the song sounds much better on the new album. Furthermore, almost half a second at the beginning of the song on the Spanish CD is missing, which is an unpleasant accident, but nobody's perfect!

The song The Eternal Heat appears on "Decadion", the MUSIC & ELSEWHERE compilation tape, as INTO THE ABYSS are one of the M&E label's top 30 best-seller bands in their first 10 years (Happy Birthday Mick Magic!)
Another project from M&E which includes INTO THE ABYSS is a CD compilation, featuring furthermore the best of current psychedelic and related acts, to be released some time in summer 1998.