Hendekagon - There Is No Freedom

Released: January 26

This new release from Hendekagon features deep and evolving ambient textures alongside powerful spoken word prose from the talented Kate Bosworth and Andreas Thedens. The two tracks essentially follow the same trajectory, but have vastly different tones based on the difference in language and tone. The first track features Bosworth speaking powerfully and defiantly in a clear tone while the second track featuring Thedens sounds more akin to something we may hear on an underground resistance radio. Sonically, the ambient textures slowly morph and shift over the ten minute runtime, beginning as clear but dark tones and long chords playing out and slowly succumb to the growing static noise in the background. It is a wonderful effect that accompanies the vocals well. 

As for the lyrical content, it is a poem that bears the name of the album itself written by Bert Elsmann-Papenfuss read aloud by the two speaker,s the first in English and the second in German. The poem is somewhat bleak but also somewhat hopeful, illustrating the many places people have tried to find freedom in various forms of government but failed to find it in any of them. The constant refrain is "There is no freedom... Freedom is to be wrested... Freedom will not come...' with examples of the many ways in which people have attempt to organize society in ways they thought would guarantee freedom. It is a rather powerful piece of work, one that places the burden of freedom solely on the people, both together and as individuals. It is quite goosebump inducing.