ALL MEN UNTO ME (RYLAN GLEAVE OF ASHENSPIRE) SHARES VIDEO FOR “LUX ÆTERNA”
REQUIEM IS OUT 27TH JUNE VIA THE LARVARIUM
All Men Unto Me is a project led by Rylan Gleave, composer and vocalist (most notably in Ashenspire and various Paraorchestra projects). Today, All Men Unto Me shares the video for track “Lux Æterna”, taken from their forthcoming album Requiem (out 27th June via The Larvarium).
Rylan comments on “Lux Æterna”; “’Lux Æterna’ condemns the kind of love that demands
everything from you. It speaks to feeling the weight of loving someone who can’t — or won’t — understand your sacrifices. I grew up learning that if I forgave others, God might forgive me. That way of thinking lead me to self-neglect in a way I thought was virtuous. There’s a deep suffering in that kind of love and forgiveness; bleeding for someone who doesn’t understand how much they’ve hurt you, forgiving someone solely because you know they’re carrying their own pain. It can make you very small. In the video, the protagonist walks faceless through a dreamscape cemetery into a crypt, towards a death that never comes. The forgiveness might be perpetual, but so is the suffering. There’s no virtue in forgiving everyone but yourself.”
WATCH THE VIDEO FOR “LUX ÆTERNA” BELOW”:
Requiem is an album which re-imagines an ancient mourning in a real, contemporary setting. Taking the broad emotional arcs of the Missa pro Defunctis, these structures pave way for new songs, ruminating on patriarchal power systems and the conditions of transmasculinity within these, through the haze of Queer reverence and forgiveness. In Rylan’s words, the Missa pro Defunctis “translates to ‘Mass for the dead’, and refers to the Catholic text taken from the Roman Missal. When set to music, it is called a ‘Requiem’… Writing a Requiem felt like processing my own complex feelings about the Church, patriarchal power within it (and more broadly), and the death of a part of me in a framework that allowed for mourning. The contours of sorrow, light, forgiveness, and reverence made space for these songs to speak to my own identity as a survivor, and use that structure in a way that let me direct an ancient narrative myself.”
Marrying traditional Anglican soundworlds of electro-pneumatic church organ and stacked choral vocals with heavier sounds, closer to experimental/noise rock and doom metal, Requiem sits at times near Swans, Kayo Dot, Lingua Ignota, Greet Death, and Scott Walker. About the album, Rylan says; “It’s tough talking about traumatic themes without feeling like you’re oversharing, but there are moments of intensity brought about by what’s not being said in the lyrics. I think Scott has done a great job of making the music say what the voice isn’t saying. There’s a huge range of emotional complexity that we’ve managed to capture across the tracks, and the resounding feeling is pretty broken.
“It was incredibly cathartic to make in a lot of ways, and whilst the experiences aren’t always universal, I think there’s a lot in there to connect to, in the isolation, and the anger, and the not knowing how to feel. I hope the love and reverence cuts through too.”
Requiem is not an album about one person or experience, but a journey through the emotional core of survivorship, Disability, and dignity.
Requiem album cover
ALL MEN UNTO ME LIVE (NEW MUSIC BIENNIAL):
7th June – Bradford UK City of Culture
4th July – Southbank Centre
A through line from debut album In Chemical Transit to Requiem is Rylan Gleave’s late-breaking voice, the imperfections that transition has left audible within it. Now 7 years on Testosterone, Gleave’s vocal delivery spans the avant-metal shrieks as heard in live performances for Ashenspire, through to agonisingly-faltering falsetto learned for Paraorchestra’s version of Scott Walker’s The Drift for Sky Arts.
Gleave’s venture further away from contemporary classical music is audible in this record, the rotating All Men Unto Me lineup closer to a band than an ensemble, with Scott McLean’s production drawing out moments of both incredible tenderness and hostility.
COLLABORATORS
Music – Rylan Gleave and additional songwriting by Scott McLean
Lyrics – Rylan Gleave
Vocals and organ – Rylan Gleave
Guitar, bass, additional organ, sound design – Scott McLean
Drums – Alasdair Dunn
Violoncello – Simone Seales
Additional organ – Amaya López-Carromero
Drum technician – Stefan Pötzsch
Produced by Scott McLean and Rylan Gleave
Recorded by Scott McLean at Neon Fable Studios and St Brides Church, Glasgow Mixed by Scott McLean
Mastered by Alex Wharton at Abbey Road Studios
REVISIT THE VIDEO FOR “SEQUENTIA” BELOW:
PREVIOUS PRESS FOR ALL MEN UNTO ME:
“rapturous… one of the brightest lights in Scotland’s new music scene”
– One To Watch 2021, The Scotsman
“haunting” – The Herald
“breath-taking” – Veil of Sound
“a brave, fascinating, and triumphant view of transition”
– The Wire (review of debut album, In Chemical Transit)