PUT THIS IN YOUR DEN if you are interested in expanding your horizons with a hauntingly beautiful masterpiece. Sure to melt your face, Ephemeral Sky is an Austrian Post-Metal solo-project by Zbigniew Nowitzki, taking its roots in Post-Rock and adding rousing and emotional Black Metal and Neofolk to create a unique atmosphere. He is an extremely talented musician and songwriter, and we were lucky enough to secure a few copies at Den of Wax. If you dig heavy and emotional music, and are not scare away by black metal, this is something you need in your collection. Harmonies abound, as Zbigniew takes you on a journey through epic soundscapes. We promise you will not be disappointed!

Available on gold wax, limited to 100 pieces

"I wrote this album back in 2012 during my semester abroad in Canada. I used a cheap DAW and "recorded" everything in midi using stock plugins and my laptop's keyboard as midi-input (if you are interested in hearing what that sounded like, I have the complete 2012 demo uploaded to my Soundcloud account).

Back then I was heavily influenced by Atmospheric Black Metal bands like Wolves In The Throne Room and Agalloch. I was also listening to a lot of Neofolk, like Of The Wand The Moon and Neun Welten. I knew I wanted to add some folk elements because I just love the atmosphere they create and I thought it would be an interesting choice to pair that with Black Metal and Explosions In The Sky-esque Post-Rock.

Originally I intended the album to be completely instrumental. However, I quickly grew to realize that it was a bit too repetitive and stale for that (at the time) and really lacked a center piece. The lyrics for most of the tracks were also written in 2012-2013. In general that was a very dark and dramatic period of my life. And even though I presently no longer identify with the lyrics I wrote back then, I decided against re-writing them, since they are sincere and that was how I felt. I see this album as a time capsule of sorts.

The reason it took so long to record the album was partially due to my inability to play the guitar and do vocals (I'm a trained pianist), partially due to unreliable session musicians and partially due to the recording studio I booked around 2015 just being a major fuck-up, losing files and not keeping appointments (if you're reading this, Mike, go <3 yourself).

However! All that turned out to be good, because the album as of now turned out better than I could've ever hoped for! Plus, I can truly say it is MY album, since I played all the instruments and wrote all the music for it myself (except the cello, which I wrote but was played by a dear friend of mine; and the drums, which were played partially by a session musician).

For those who also listened to the 2012 demo, you will notice that I made a lot of changes to the some songs. That just happens. Over the 8 years since I wrote the album I just grew a lot as a musician and also diversified my musical taste. So for example, you will find a lot of progressive-like Leprous-inspired groove riffs that made it in the final version.

All in all, I am incredibly proud of finally releasing this album and 15-year-old me could have never imagined how great it would turn out! Thanks for listening to it and stay tuned, because the next release is already in the making!"

- ZB