J.P. Shilo Mélodie de la Maladie

J.P Shilo's new album Jubjoté will be released on the 25th June 2021 via Heavy Machinery Records. Cyclic Defrost are premiering the video for the first track to be lifted from the record Mélodie de la Maladie, describing it as "a strange dark atmospheric trip". 

From the very outset, the hallucinatory mood of J.P. Shilo's oneiric piece Jubjoté lures us into a solipsistic dreamworld. Spiralling ever down the Mesmeric auditory illusion of the Shepard Tone (a musical barber pole of sorts), lulled by the thrum we find ourselves drawn deep into a lucid, hypnotic state in between realms.

Our somnambulist protagonist awakes to find themselves inside the shell of an abandoned building surrounded by a faceless death squad whose mission only is to evict all of the occupants by force.

Frantically traversing the Escher-like staircases, scanning all the floors in search of an Escape, it is only when our exhausted prisoner finally collapses in fear and frustration, abandoning all hope of ever finding freedom from this fortress, that he unwittingly finds salvation, the Exit! – and soars through the sortie in Satori.

But how?

In 2018, the City of Melbourne commissioned Shilo to compose a new work for the Melbourne Town Hall Grand Organ. With almost 10,000 pipes, it is the largest of its kind in the Southern hemisphere, and Shilo deftly employs it to its full capacity. In his most epic work to date, Shilo explores both the intricate and delicate, to the full majestic grandeur of "all stops out" as we can hear in the Overture – Mélodie de la Maladie.

Born out of an actual dream Shilo had some years earlier, the story of Jubjoté reads alarmingly like a prophetic Omen of sorts; chillingly pertinent to our current Global crisis.

The accompanying film shot on location by L.J.Spruyt Photography along with footage from the World Premiere on November 8th, 2018, is interwoven with underwater imagery by marine cinematographer, Julia Summerling. This album is a live recording of the concert.

J.P. Shilo is no stranger to conjuring potent musical atmospheres, first appearing in the late '90s with his instrumental group Hungry Ghosts, he quickly captured the attention of the Late Rowland S. Howard and Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth. His unique and skilful approach has led to him being a highly sought-after multi-instrumentalist, producer & award winning screen composer. Working closely alongside Kasimir Burgess, on his film "Lily"- the production went on to win a Crystal Bear at the 2011 Berlin International Film Festival.

Around this time, as well as creating the soundtrack, Shilo also lent his voice & narration skills to Richard Lowenstein's biopic "Autoluminescent" at the request of Rowland S. Howard – reading excerpts from Howard's unpublished novel "Etceteracide".

He has spent the last decade helping to create the sounds for such luminaries as Mick Harvey, Rowland S. Howard, The Blackeyed Susans, Adalita and also his very own Hungry Ghosts.