TEKHENU Retold (TEKHENU remix album) :
The Allegorist releases a 10-track LP of remixes of her celebrated fifth studio release

Towering like the ancient Egyptian monoliths that gave the project its name, TEKHENU Retold is a deep, resonating collection of The Allegorist’s sonic mythology, remixed. The Hungarian-born, Berlin-based artist’s fifth studio album sees diverse reimaginings from some of the scene’s most innovative producers, including Subheim, Die Wilde Jagd, Midori Hirano, Desiderii Marginis, Ah! Kosmos, and more. Building on the passion of The Allegorist for storytelling, this remix album expands her narrative into a shared, open history.

The Allegorist is a prolific polyglot with her own unmistakable alchemic voice; here as always, she’s a DIY powerhouse, as TEKHENU reworked will feature self-produced covers and animations for every track, as Anna is her own producer, performer, engineer, and creative director. But she’s proven just as open to the individual visions of her collaborators. Even the album image itself she has turned over to each remixer. Likening it to a coloring book, she says, “everybody can paint their character's journey the color they like.” That’s a fitting metaphor for the remixes themselves.

As the artist tells it:

“TEKHENU is an allegory for meaning, and purpose, something that we are all bound to and that connects us all. We have our own truth. TEKHENU is something entirely different for all of us and at the same time, also just the same.

In the old days, stories were passed by word of mouth - told and retold again. I think there is a lot of beauty in diverse narratives. I thought it would be great to retell the chapters of the tale TEKHENU from 10 different perspectives by 10 different artists.” The Allegorist

Track listing:

Whispers of the Wind - Die Wild Jagd Rework
Born in the River - Jacob Haage & Sarah Assbring Rework
Trees of Peace - Subheim Rework
Inner Dialogue - Drum & Lace Rework
Howling with the Wolf - Ah! Kosmos Rework
Through the Forest - Ben Chatwin Rework
The Invisible - Hannes Kretzer Rework
Dreams at Dawn - Midori Hirano Rework
Tekhenu - Desiderii Marginis Rework
Barefoot - Scanner Rework

Track after track, this is a production tour-de-force. Sebastian Lee Philipp’s band Die Wilde Jagd delivers a haunting, ritualistic opening and chilling harmonies in “Whispers of the Wind,” an instant single hit. Sweden’s Sarah Asspring (aka El Perro del Mar) with collaborator/partner Jacob Haage shaped “Born in the River” into a distorted hypnotic incantation.

Subheim’s take on “Trees of Peace” takes a step back into chilled-out trip-hop, mixed in equal parts with dense cinematic layers of strings and pads, interspersed with crackle-filled pauses, as if catching its breath. “Inner Dialogue” brings the sumptuous colors of Anna’s voice to a sun-up pulsing kick rhythm from Drum & Lace, the trip-hop project from renowned Italian composer Sofia Hultquist. Istanbul-Berlin artist Ah! Kosmos (Başak Günak) is a perfect foil to The Allegorist’s expansive, theatrical imagination, expanding “Howling with the Wolf” to an epic, mainstage musical journey and canyon-scale bass. Scotland-based English musician Ben Chatwin, sought-after as a composer globally with outings on Village Green, Denovali and others, finds moments of transcendence in a reserved, achingly reflective sojourn “Through The Forest.”

In clouds of fuzzy, ligneous strata of timbre, “The Invisible” blossoms as an invocation, thanks to German composer Hannes Kretzer. Berlin up-and-comer Midori Hirano, with outings recently on raster and appearances from L.E.V. to CTM to Boiler Room, returns to her childhood instrument of the piano in her rework of “Dreams at Dawn” to create a heart-wrenching rework, evoking a full dramaturgy in this gorgeous track. On the title track “Tekhenu“ The Allegorist’s voice gets stretched into endless shifting hues by iconic 90s Swedish dark ambient project Desiderii Marginis. A lesser compilation could easily end there, but finally, we are treated to the beguiling, stuttering vocals and undulating crossing rhythms of “Barefoot” by Scanner. That turns to impactful, edgy electronic beats - making us ready to travel through TEKHENU all over again.

*press text by Peter Kirn