Product Description
2. Love Spirals Downwards: Welcome Christmas
3. Thanatos: O Come All Ye Faithful
4. This Ascension: Carol of the Bells
5. Area: O Come Emmanuel
6. Thanatos: The First Noel
7. Lovesliescrushing: Jingle Bells (Snowblower)
8. Balderas & Osborne: What Child Is This?
9. black tape for a blue girl: Chanukkah, Oh Chanukkah
10. Lycia/The Unquiet Void: We Three Kings
11. Faith and the Muse: A Winter Wassail
12. Autopsia: Stille Nacht (g)RAVE remix
13. Attrition: Silent Night
Purchase in Europe for fast, inexpensive shipping: Information in English here. Click to order CD & LPs. |
Available in two color variations:
LP on 140-gram Orchid w/Purple & Grey Splatter vinyl, includes credit insert. Limited edition of 300.
LP on 140-gram Aqua w/White Splatter vinyl, includes credit insert. Limited edition of 300.
*Note: the LP is 12-tracks long. “What Child Is This?” is CD & digital-only.
• 1995 compilation’s first vinyl release
• Remastered by Martin Bowes of Attrition in The Cage, Coventry UK.
Blog Post & short interview with Sam about Excelsis in UK’s The Independent
Spend the season right with dark holiday classics of untraditional fare. Turn down the lights… it’s a dark noel!
Projekt’s 1995 Holiday compilation is the one that started it all! It’s a dark holiday classic! Spend the holidays in style this year. No more barking dogs or Perry Como for you, uh-uh! While away the frigid hours until the important day with strains of Black Tape For A Blue Girl’s crusade “Chanukkah, Oh Chanukkah,” Lycia’s darkly sensual “We Three Kings,” Love Spirals Downwards’ “Welcome Christmas” (from How the Grinch Stole Christmas), or Faith and the Muse’s pagan madrigal “A Winter Wassail.” All graced by our lovely Dark Angel prepared to brighten many a dark holiday night.
The Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, 1995: The Projekt label’s coven of gothic artists does emphasize the night in “Silent Night” and other seasonal songs on this intriguing set. Eerie, trance-like reworkings of “O Come All Ye Faithful” and “Carol of the Bells” seem to urge deep, Druid thought, not dread. Consider this a good time to go commune with the gargoyle statuary at your local cathedral.
The Boston Phoenix 1995: Various luminaries of goth, including Lycia, and This Ascension, cover traditional holiday fare. Love Spirals Downward applies a Cocteau Twins-like sound to “Welcome Christmas.” Faith & the Muse lend their Renaissance rendition of “A Winter Wassail.” BlackTape’s “Chanukkah O Chanukkah” brims with dark gothic overtones. For balance, there are a few more-traditional renditions. This is the perfect Xmas album to play for friends and family to make the holiday just a wee bit weird.
HUH #16: More the work of monks than moshers, the emphasis on spacey, ethereal vocals makes this seem like This Mortal Coil on an eggnog bender, and that’s not a bad thing. The prettiest of the lot, this is a beautiful collection of tracks for trimming the tree or burning your own yule log.
Release History
December 1995 – CD in jewel box with 8-page booklet. Sold over 15,000 copies.
September 2021 – Remastered CD in 6-panel digipak.
December 2021 – LP with 2 color variations, with credits insert.
*Note: the LP is 12 tracks long. “What Child Is This?” is CD & digital-only.
Reviews Editor –
From Opus
An honest, sincere, and moving tribute to one of the most beautiful seasons of the year.
Ideally, Christmas should be one of the most magical times of the year. Symbolically, it is meant to represent “peace on earth” and “good will toward men.” I celebrate the birth of my Saviour; others may celebrate family and friends. All in all, the time surrounding Christmas is meant to be a beautiful, moving time.
Why then, is so much “Christmas music” sheer, utter crap?
I mean, look at all of the music that gets played on the radio. Horrific renditions of beautiful Christmas carols, along with those gaudy, overly clichéd, mass-produced songs of the season. Every banal pop star and his/her mother decides to release a Christmas album. Along the way, the beauty and majesty of the season are traded for a cheap buck.
Having got that off of my chest, I can honestly say that Exclesis: A Dark Noël is the best Christmas album I’ve heard in a long time. Don’t let the title fool you; this isn’t dark and depressing, and it’s not meant for lonely Christmas nights. With the Projekt label, the music is always beautiful.
The album opens up with Arcanta’s “Carol of the Bells.” It’s a beautiful piece, with the primary instrument being the human voice. The songs makes me think of monks gathered around in the cathedral, lifting their voices up to God. Thanatos’ remake of “The First Noël” is stark and haunting, and my favorite track on the album. Padraic Ogl’s low vocals help give the song an earthy, human feel, while otherworldly sounds swirl about. Lycia’s offering of “We Three Kings” is majestic, with Mike vanPortfleet’s haunting whispers leading the way. Attrition’s “Silent Night” closes out the album quite nicely; beautiful female vocals mix with cold electronics and distant samples for an interesting effect.
Besides just having Christian carols, the album also features some secular ones, such as Love Spirals Downwards’ beautiful rendition of “Welcome Christmas”(I was hoping someone would do “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer) and a lovely Jewish piece. The only miss of the album is Lovesliescrushing’s “Jingle Bells,” which doesn’t really sound like anything.
I find it funny that a label associated with “gothic” and “dark” music would put out one of the finest Christmas albums I know of. Most people associate goths with doom and gloom, but this album is far from it. Excelsis is an honest, sincere, and moving tribute to one of the most beautiful seasons of the year; it contains far more depth and power than any mass-produced, pop Christmas album.
padmin –
From WUSC
BLACK TAPE FOR A BLUE GIRL – “CHANUKKAH, OH CHANUKKAH”
I’d be remiss if I didn’t represent those of us of the Jewish persuasion. While I do love all the secular parts of Christmas, and it’s fun to celebrate with all the tracks I’ve listed here, religiously, I’m more in line with that other holiday in December. Unfortunately, the pickings are kind of slim when it comes to gothy Chanukkah songs. Fortunately, we have Black Tape for a Blue Girl, fronted by Sam Rosenthal, the founder of Projekt Records, which is nearly single-handedly responsible for the entire Darkwave subgenre. -David Wood