''New Introductory Lectures on the System of Transcendental Qabala'' is the first studio album of Kel Valhaal, an

electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

focused project of

Liturgy Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and participation in the sacred through activities reflecting praise, thanksgiving, remembra ...

vocalist and guitarist

Haela Hunt-Hendrix Haela Ravenna Hunt-Hendrix (formerly Hunter Hunt-Hendrix; born January 25, 1985), also known as HHH, is an American musician and composer best known for her work as a creator, lead singer, and guitarist of experimental black metal band Liturgy. ...

. It was released on Hunt-Hendrix's label YLYLCYN on July 15, 2016. Ideas for Kel Valhaal were created in 2010 as a rap project. However, Hunt-Hendrix's practice in making electronic music while touring with Liturgy led the project to be an electronic act, though her rapping is still present on the record in her trademark vocal style. Her intent of making music under the moniker Kel Valhaal is to create a complex spiritual mythology set to music; supposedly emulating what has been called " transcendental

catharsis Catharsis is from the Ancient Greek word , , meaning "purification" or "cleansing", commonly used to refer to the purification and purgation of thoughts and emotions by way of expressing them. The desired result is an emotional state of renewal an ...

". The titular character of the project is described as a "logical agency of faith and acephalic becoming", with the name derived from Liturgy's third studio album ''

The Ark Work ''The Ark Work'' is the third studio album by American rock band Liturgy. It was released on March 24, 2015 through Thrill Jockey record label. The first single off the album, "Quetzalcoatl" was released digitally on January 20, 2015. Backgroun ...

''.

Background and composition

The press release for ''New Introductory Lectures on the System of Transcendental Qabala'' described the Kel Valhaal project as quieter, "less finely wrought" and containing "more frequent and shorter releases, more variation, less consistency" and "more experimentation" than the works of

. According to Hunt-Hendrix, the music of Kel Valhaal, an electronic music project originally formed in 2010 as a rap act, is intended to use sounds that emulate transcendental

."New Introductory Lectures on the System of Transcendental Qabala"
Kel Valhaal Official

Bandcamp Bandcamp is an American online music distribution platform founded in 2008 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with an office and record store in Oakland, California. Acquired by Epic ...

Page. Retrieved July 28, 2016. It wasn't until the previous two years before the release of ''New Introductory Lectures'' that her skills in making electronic music improved, leading to Kel Valhaal to become an electronic act. The entire album was produced and mastered by Hunt-Hendrix with

Ableton Live Ableton Live is a digital audio workstation for macOS and Windows developed by the German company Ableton. In contrast to many other software sequencers, Live is designed to be an instrument for live performances as well as a tool for compos ...

and a

MIDI Musical Instrument Digital Interface (; MIDI) is an American-Japanese technical standard that describes a communication protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, ...

controller while touring with Liturgy.Song, Sandra (June 23, 2016)
"PREMIERE: Kel Valhaal Brings Forth The Punishing, Rapturous "Ontological Love""
''

Paper Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, Textile, rags, poaceae, grasses, Feces#Other uses, herbivore dung, or other vegetable sources in water. Once the water is dra ...

''. Paper Communications. Retrieved July 30, 2016. Hunt-Hendrix said that the Kel Valhaal character, a protagonist in Hunt-Hendrix's

script Script may refer to: Writing systems * Script, a distinctive writing system, based on a repertoire of specific elements or symbols, or that repertoire * Script (styles of handwriting) ** Script typeface, a typeface with characteristics of handw ...

titled "01010n" that as of July 2016 is still in writing, is a

hermaphroditic A hermaphrodite () is a sexually reproducing organism that produces both male and female gametes. Animal species in which individuals are either male or female are gonochoric, which is the opposite of hermaphroditic. The individuals of many ...

shaman Shamanism is a spiritual practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with the spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritual energies into ...

that is a "logical agency of faith and acephalic becoming" in Liturgy's third studio album ''

'' (2015).Joyce, Colin (June 10, 2016)
"With His Electronic Project Kel Valhaal, Hunter Hunt-Hendrix Is Making Music for the End of Days"
Thump. Vice Media. Retrieved July 29, 2016. She also said that the project bites on "formal and cultural deadlocks" between styles of

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

rap Rapping (also rhyming, flowing, spitting, emceeing, or MCing) is an artistic form of vocal delivery and emotive expression that incorporates " rhyme, rhythmic speech, and ommonlystreet vernacular". It is usually performed over a backin ...

and

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be #Relationship to other music traditions, distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical mu ...

."New Introductory Lectures on the System of Transcendental Qabala"
Kel Valhaal Official

Page. Retrieved July 28, 2016. The faith-based concept of the character is further emphasized by this collision between genres. As Hunt-Hendrix explained in an interview about the project's faith notion: ''New Introductory Lectures on the System of Transcendental Qabala'' fuses together elements of musical styles that range from

Southern rap Southern hip-hop, also known as Southern rap, South Coast hip-hop, or dirty south, is a blanket term for a regional genre of American hip-hop music that emerged in the Southern United States, especially in Georgia, Texas, Louisiana, Tennessee, ...

, industrial

noise Noise is sound, chiefly unwanted, unintentional, or harmful sound considered unpleasant, loud, or disruptive to mental or hearing faculties. From a physics standpoint, there is no distinction between noise and desired sound, as both are vibrat ...

acid house Acid house (also simply known as just " acid") is a subgenre of house music developed around the mid-1980s by DJs from Chicago. The style is defined primarily by the squelching sounds and basslines of the Roland TB-303 electronic bass synt ...

new age New Age is a range of Spirituality, spiritual or Religion, religious practices and beliefs that rapidly grew in Western world, Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclecticism, eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise d ...

and

glitch music Glitch is a genre of experimental electronic music that emerged in the 1990s, which is distinguished by the deliberate use of glitches in audio media and other sonic artifacts. The sounds featured in glitch tracks usually come from audio recordi ...

.Joffe, Justin (July 19, 2016)
"As Kel Valhaal, Liturgy's Frontman Crafts a Mythos as Heady as His Music"
''

New York Observer New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 ** "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, 1995 * "New" (Daya song), 2017 * "New" (No Doubt song), 1 ...

''. Observer Media. Retrieved July 30, 2016.Lozano, Kevin (July 15, 2016)
"Kel Valhaal: New Introductory Lectures on the System of Transcendental Qabala"
''

Pitchfork Media ''Pitchfork'' (formerly ''Pitchfork Media'') is an American online music magazine founded in 1996 by Ryan Schreiber in Minneapolis. It originally covered Alternative rock, alternative and independent music, and expanded to cover genres includin ...

''.

Conde Nast Conde is the Ibero-Romance form of "count" (Latin ''comitatus''). It may refer to: * Counts in Iberia *List of countships in Portugal Places United States * Conde, South Dakota, a city France * Condé-sur-l'Escaut (or simply 'Condé'), a com ...

. Retrieved July 30, 2016. Hunt-Hendrix categorized ''New Introductory Lectures on the System of Transcendental Qabala'' as a "system of philosophy that's unfolding as a website in connection with the album", the website being a six-chapter book. The chapters are

blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...

posts or

RSS RSS ( RDF Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication) is a web feed that allows users and applications to access updates to websites in a standardized, computer-readable format. Subscribing to RSS feeds can allow a user to keep track of many ...

feeds covering a topic from different viewpoints. The

cover art Cover art is a type of artwork presented as an illustration or photograph on the outside of a published product, such as a book (often on a dust jacket), magazine, newspaper ( tabloid), comic book, video game ( box art), music album ( album ar ...

for the record is a diagram of the fictional "Four Alimonies". 01010n is the top

alimony Alimony, also called aliment (Scotland), maintenance (England, Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Wales, Canada, New Zealand), spousal support (U.S., Canada) and spouse maintenance (Australia), is a legal obligation on a person to provide ...

of this illustration, where Hunt-Hendrix said that "music is good for accessing this level". It contains several ports that send rays into the land of ANANON, where aspects of nature such as human bodies, forms of art and work are created by an "immaterial, invisible idea" and spawned to YLYLCYN, which creates gates and assemblages. Finally, the

valve A valve is a device or natural object that regulates, directs or controls the flow of a fluid (gases, liquids, fluidized solids, or Slurry, slurries) by opening, closing, or partially obstructing various passageways. Valves are technically Pip ...

s in S/HE/IM, which shares the same placement and has some relations with 01010n, fix the problem where there is "something wrong, something missing, something that was not allowed to show itself".

Tracks

Critic Joe Hemmerling wrote that some tracks on ''New Introductory Lectures'' "transpose metal’s labyrinthine structures into the sphere of electronic music". He used "Tense Stage" and "Ontological Love" as examples. The former song's foundation is a "sinuous interplay between its pounding bass beat and an urgent

synth A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...

pattern". The track introduces several variations at an unsteady rate, resulting in the song being a "complex and unpredictable dance" track. As the song progresses, Hunt-Hendrix's voice is more incomprehensible as vocal track slicing and pitch-changing effects are used on it. The exact first half of "Ontological Love" is a "hypnotic instrumental", the rest of the track consisting of a rap verse from Hunt-Hendrix over "a swelling, swirling maelstrom of artificial strings". In the track, the rap consists of a "litany of jarring collisions between the sacred and the profane", lines including "I do cocaine with the clergy/ I teach peace to jihadis/ I show my tits to a leper." "Bezel II", which closes the album, uses an improvised

chiptune Chiptune, also called 8-bit music (although not all chiptune is 8-bit music), is a style of electronic music made using the programmable sound generator (PSG) sound chips or synthesizers in vintage arcade machines, computers and video gam ...

lead melody and the same instrumental and rap elements as "Tense Stage" and "Ontological Love". A majority of the other cuts on ''New Introductory Lectures'' are of short length, minimal and "more single-minded in their explorations" as Hemmerling described. "NMWE" only has multitracked vocal parts and a single improvised synthesizer riff in its instrumentation. "Bezel" features a "impressionistic", very distorted guitar line that Hemmerling compared to the beginning part of "High Gold", a track from Liturgy's second LP '' Aesthethica'' (2011). Hemmerling compared the latter half of "Kairos" to the works of

John Carpenter John Howard Carpenter (born January 16, 1948) is an American filmmaker, composer, and actor. Most commonly associated with horror film, horror, action film, action, and science fiction film, science fiction films of the 1970s and 1980s, he is ...

. The album opener, "Mea Culpa", was described by ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork or hay fork is an agricultural tool used to pitch loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. It has a long handle and usually two to five thin tines designed to efficiently move such materials. The term is also applie ...

'' writer Kevin Lozano as music that would be fit in an action scene of a

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

horror

Z movie Zmovies (or grade-Zmovies) are low-budget films with production qualities lower than Bmovies. History and terminology The term "Zmovie" arose in the mid-1960s as an informal description of certain unequivocally non-A films. It was soon adopted ...

Release and reception

Two tracks from ''New Introductory Lectures on the System of Transcendental Qabala'' were released as singles before the album's release. "Tense Stage" was the

lead single A lead single (or first single) is the first single to be released from a studio album by an artist or a band, usually before the album itself is released and also occasionally on the same day of the album's release date. A similar term, "debut ...

of the record, released on May 26, 2016. The track also had an official music video containing 3D visuals by AUJIK, which was honored by ''

Fact A fact is a truth, true data, datum about one or more aspects of a circumstance. Standard reference works are often used to Fact-checking, check facts. Science, Scientific facts are verified by repeatable careful observation or measurement by ...

'' magazine as one of the "best videos" for the week of June 19, 2016.Kelly, Chris (June 19, 2016)
"The week’s best videos: Danny Brown on VHS, D∆WN in VR and Major Lazer go MMA"
''

''.

The Vinyl Factory The Vinyl Factory is a music company based in London. It includes a record label, vinyl pressing plant, and a venue space. It also publishes ''Fact'' magazine and owns Phonica Records store. Overview The Vinyl Factory began as a pressing plan ...

. Retrieved July 31, 2016. The second single of ''New Introductory Lectures'' was "Ontological Love", premiered by ''

'' magazine on June 23. The album was released on Hunt-Hendrix's label YLYLCYN on July 15, 2016. Hemmerling, who graded ''New Introductory Lectures on the System of Transcendental Qabala'' a B, called the album a "brisk, exhilarating listening experience, and one that helps to clarify Liturgy’s divisive creative arc."Hemmerling, Joe (July 14, 2016)
"Kel Valhaal – New Introductory Lectures on the System of Transcendental Qabala"
''

Consequence of Sound ''Consequence'' (previously ''Consequence of Sound'') is an independently owned New York-based online magazine featuring news, editorials, and reviews of music, movies, and television. History ''Consequence of Sound'' was founded in Septem ...

''. Retrieved July 29, 2016. He also wrote that "these peculiar compositions are able to take on a life of their own, and give hints of brilliance where once there appeared folly." Lozano was more negative towards the album, scoring it a 3.5 out of ten: "He is bold enough to say that his music, his career, will be a Wagnerian Gesamtkunstwerk, a total artwork so engrossing and multivalent that it speaks to all walks of life. And yet his music, time and again, is treated like an afterthought, just another piece of a larger and more pointless scheme of self-aggrandizement."

Track listing

Length adapted from the following source:

Release history

References

{{Authority control 2016 debut albums Electronic albums by American artists Experimental music albums by American artists