As a founding member of the critically acclaimed Manes and Lethe, Tor-Helge Skei has pushed the boundaries of both black metal and electronic music. Now, after more than 30 years, he’s expanding his vision like never before with Holissstik, a dark collective experiment that features fellow underground legends and rising stars from the avant-garde.
“As the unsurpassed work of Mr. Tor-Helge Skei of Manes, This Endless Solitude cannot be praised enough”, New Noise writes in a 5 star review. “[…] the proper reaction to this milestone is speechlessness, pure silence”.
“With each new spin, you discover more and more, and it’s rich with emotion”, Dead Rhetoric writes in an 8.5/10 review. “That, my friends, is the power of music in a nutshell”.
Chapter I: This Endless Solitude is released today, Friday, August 14, and you can hear all eight endlessly rewarding songs by listening to the full album stream on the Season of Mist YouTube channel.
“The inspiration for Holissstik comes from the Greek word Hólos, which is the root for the English word ‘whole’”, Skei says. “Collaboration is the heart and soul of this project. The idea is that each part cannot exist or be understood when separated from the whole. The sum is greater than its parts”.
Order & Stream: https://orcd.co/holissstiktheendlesssolitude
As could only be the case, Holissstik’s opening chapter started with Skei alone at his studio. But after meticulously sketching This Endless Solitude with his collection of guitars, recording software and homemade plug-ins, he allowed outside influences to take control. The album features more than 15 collaborators, including Martyna Hallas (Rage of Light), Marita Hellem (Martyra), French rapper Pierre Ripka, Paritta Monks and members of Manes and Lethe. It unfolds with surprising twists and turns right from the start, too. Lead single “The Rhythm of Silence” slips seamlessly through the cracks between trip-hop and industrial noise into rap.
Much like the wilted flowers that lay on its cover, death and its psychological offshoots linger in the many corners of This Endless Solitude. Hypnotized by soft spinning synths, “Reoccuring Dreams” quickly descends into a nightmare. But amidst deep-seeded anxieties, intrusive thoughts and other ceaseless discomforts, like a rope that guides one out of a cave, Holissstik still cling to hope. “Hold it gentle / In the palm of your hands”, Halas offers during enchanting centerpiece “Would You Take This Heart”. As the title track ends the album by turning into the light, it’s not so much an invitation as it is an invocation to become something greater than ourselves.
With This Endless Solitude, Holissstik emerge as a boundless, unified force.
Tracklist
- The Rhythm of Silence (7:06) [WATCH]
- My Salvation (5:27)
- Projections (3:20)
- Obsession Six (6:26)
- Reoccuring Dreams (6:31)
- Would You Take This Heart (5:50)
- Behind Me (4:48)
- This Endless Solitude (6:34)
From the tireless genius Tor-Helge Skei, a radically innovative new force, Holissstik, has emerged. The latest project from the Norwegian mainstay, multi-instrumentalist and producer is his most expansive yet. While it dwells deep within the darkness of our lives, Chapter I: This Endless Solitude, the first chapter in a trilogy of albums, finds salvation through the spirit of collaboration.
“The inspiration for Holissstik comes from the Greek word Hólos, which is the root for the English word ‘whole’”, Skei says. “Collaboration is the heart and soul of this project. The idea is that each part cannot exist or be understood when separated from the whole. The sum is greater than its parts”.
As the driving force behind Trondheim’s legendary Manes, Skei quickly established himself in the ’90s as one of black metal’s key pioneers. With the release of Manes’ classic album Vilosophe (2003), the powerhouse then metamorphosed into an equally magnificent genre-defying entity. Over the years, Skei has only continued to build upon his legacy as an unsurpassed sonic adventurer. He’s received acclaim for his achievements with various outfits, including Lethe, his duo with ex-Eluveitie and Cellar Darling’s beloved songstress Anna Murphy; the international supergroup Høstsol; the veterans Atrox; the brutal metallers Manii and Syning; the wildly experimental Kkoagulaa and more.
Even for the absurdly ambitious Skei, Holissstik represents a Herculean feat. While Skei serves as Holissstik’s composer and captain, the project operates as a revolving door for top-notch talents from across the world. Holissstik’s art can only leave those fortunate enough to be touched by its unshakable audial spells in states of utter speechlessness. This vessel of change cannot be defined; for it rattles the foundations of all we think we know about music while also redefining itself, constantly venturing further out into unknown territories. Holissstik is more sinister than extreme metal and potentially more healing than any New Age practice; this is timeless music without any artistic limitations. As Skei’s longtime accomplice in Manes and award-winning filmmaker Torstein Parelius wrote, “Turn away from the boundaries you create”.
Holissstik truly came into being in 2024 when Skei resolutely decided to initiate the arduous alchemical process of producing order from chaos. Skei is an astoundingly prolific creator whose vast archive of used and unused recordings seems endless. Parelius has remarked that the material from Manes’ past tends to “haunt” the band insofar as it is frequently incorporated in the present. This applies to Skei’s other efforts as well, and, for Holissstik, the visionary meticulously labored on sketches dating a decade or more back, giving them new life, details and twists. Meanwhile, he crafted others from scratch. Eventually, Skei narrowed the selection for This Endless Solitude down to eight mostly instrumental compositions with samples and some old vocal fragments. These tracks already sounded complete and irreproachable in their own right. Each of these interconnected, maximally hypnotic, seamlessly flowing and sometimes mercurial gems emanated its own unique, indefinable brand of magic, far beyond comparison and yet stamped with Skei’s instantly recognizable trademark.
Then, Skei did the unthinkable. He took the leap of faith he had been planning on and invited a flood of collaborators — big names, rising stars and underground legends — to assert their creative freedom on This Endless Solitude by adding individualistic touches on vocals, lyrics and various instruments. “After sketching these songs, I asked my collaborators to do their own thing with them. The only hint that I gave was the music would use minor chords, be melancholic and introspective and that the lyrics would be concerned with the darker side of life and death. But I gave them no rules, no limitations or restrictions”.
The chances of such a risky move actually succeeding seemed minuscule. Yet, the broadest pool of characters rose to the challenge, sharing their pain, anxieties, raw passion, wisdom, strength, refinement, grace and communal will to create pure art through This Endless Solitude. The roughly twenty guests on the album generously gave the music just what they believed it called upon them to express without holding back, thereby exceeding expectations and precipitating drastic transformation. Although Skei had temporarily surrendered control, he took matters firmly into his hands again as the contributions began trickling his way over the months that followed.
“As the collaborators submitted their contributions, I worked on shaping This Endless Solitude into a coherent whole”, Skei says. “It was quite an intense process in itself. But the end result more than made up for the doubts that surfaced”.
Skei is nothing short of a sorcerer when it comes to producing, engineering and arranging. His approaches may be unconventional, but no one achieves mixes and overall outcomes that more powerfully tug at our heartstrings, though we must acknowledge that the aforementioned Anna Murphy has also provided mixes of the highest caliber for Manes. Bit by bit, Skei would sculpt Holissstik’s first chapter to perfection. Worlds open, worlds collide; the spectral voices began twining around each other, a wealth of musical ideas and the said samples with seemingly supernatural effect, clawing their way into a permanent position within listeners’ psyches. While remaining true to their essences, the compositions would evolve in the exact manner of a living organism, in unforeseen and thrilling ways until they reached the point at which further modification would prove folly; ultimately, the miraculously cohesive This Endless Solitude assumed the form that seemed destined. It was then entrusted to Skei’s go-to choice for mastering Knut Prytz (ex-Necrophagia).
The result of This Endless Solitude and that which lies ahead is phantasmagorical wonder, lethal beauty and boundless darkness. Holissstik’s delirium-inducing, absinthine potions threaten to profoundly transform, and perhaps even transfigure, listeners; Holissstik equates to an unfathomably rewarding drug, though it will emotionally overload sentient beings. There is no denying the dangerous spiritual intensity within Holissstik’s hallucinatory soundscapes — dreams that bring audiences to and from the abysmal realm of nightmares. Impregnated with cerebral and poetic qualities, Holissstik provides a cinematic journey, repeatedly invoking primal horror and forever hooking us with suspenseful energy. The mystery of what the music communicates often gives way to melancholic meditations. We never pierce the veil of enigma surrounding Holissstik, rather we drown in the layers of sound, dragging us down into the scandal-infested depths of our own heavy consciousnesses. Holissstik bears parallels to classical music in terms of its inward impact and transcendent nature.
Stylistically, many will perceive elements of nearly every genre under the sun within This Endless Solitude: jazz, trip hop, rock, metal, ambient, avant-garde, pop. However, trying to attach labels to Holissstik would be foolishness. Electronics are superbly implemented within Holissstik, yet the music somehow always retains its organic charm. Skei doubles as a tech wizard, and he twists his expertise in the fields of programming and software development to his advantage for musical purposes. He always strikes the ideal balance between awakening a sense of unbearable loneliness partly by way of technology, frequently amplifying the robotic coldness it can engender, and the human component in all of its sometimes warmly reassuring, mood-driven nuances. Calculation and spontaneity are both accorded their proper place.
This Endless Solitude proudly showcases artists who have worked with Skei in several other contexts and capacities as well as completely new collaborators. Anna Murphy, a household name within the music community, graces the album with her seductive, otherworldly vocals. Her fellow goddesses, the criminally gifted Marita Hellem and Rage of Light’s Martyna Halas, a masterful lyricist who offers her “heart of pure gold,” likewise deliver some of the most gorgeous vocals imaginable, deranging our senses with their oracular allure. Torstein Parelius, who has always played a crucial role in neo-Manes’ music and concepts, assists on bass and with lyrics.
Besides Hellem, Murphy and Parelius, the other members of Manes’ core and extended family who contribute to Holissstik include Atrox’s Eivind Fjøseide, ex-Atrox’s Tor-Arne Helgesen, The Third and the Mortal’s Rune Hoemsnes, Drontheim’s Tom Christian Engelsøy and Atrox’s Rune Folgerø. Holissstik also welcomed involvement from Kristoffer Oustad of Kristoffer Nyströms Orkester, Plague Machinery and formerly V:28; Christophe Denhez of Område and Ecr.Linf; rapper Pierre Ripka, or “K-rip”; Nik Košar of Kamra; Gabriel Trentini of Luce d’Inverno and Malaflame; rocker and engineering guru Stig Waltoft, a.k.a. “FluffyBunnyFeets”; and Trond Johansen. Not to mention, Buddhist monks were even persuaded to contribute chanting. While This Endless Solitude is mostly in English, it also features Pali, French, Polish and Italian.
Although the very nature of Holissstik demands that we expect the unexpected, the collective’s future certainly seems to guarantee obsidian horizons and torrential deluges of artistic truth. In other words, the project promises to persistently and ritualistically pummel us with devastating yet necessary, epic masterworks. Skei and his collaborators truly present the most immersive experiences possible and, in Manes language, offer a safe place in the unsafe; dive in with your hands bound, and be submerged within the imprisoning brilliance. Skei continues to participate in a range of outstanding groups, and yet Holissstik stands as the most unpredictable and, counterintuitive as it might sound, accessible undertaking in the history of his illustrious career.
Lineup
Tor-Helge Skei
Guest musicians
Anna Murphy – Vocals on “Obsession Six”
Christophe Denhez – Guitars on “The Rhythm of Silence”, Guitars, vocals and lyrics on “Behind Me”
Eivind Fjøseide – Guitars on all songs except “Projections”
Gabriel Trentini – Vocals and lyrics on “Obsession Six”
Kristoffer Oustad – Synth on “The Rhythm of Silence”, “Projections”, “Reoccuring Dreams”, “This Endless Solitude”
Tor-Arne Helgesen – Drums on all songs except “Behind Me” and “This Endless Solitude”
Marita Hellem – Vocals on “The Rhythm of Silence” and “This Endless Solitude”
Martyna Halas – Vocals and lyrics on “The Rhythm of Silence”, “My Salvation”, “Would You Take This Heart” and “This Endless Solitude”
Nik Košar – Vocals and lyrics on “Projections” and “Reoccuring Dreams”
Pierre Ripka – Vocals and lyrics on “The Rhythm of Silence”
Paritta Monks – Chanting on “Would You Take This Heart”
Rune Folgerø – Vocals on “This Endless Solitude”
Rune Hoemsnes – Drums on “Behind Me”
Stig Waltoft – Synth and sounds on “Would You Take This Heart”
Tom Engelsøy – Vocals on “Obsession Six”
Torstein Parelius – Bass on “Behind Me” and “This Endless Solitude”, lyrics on “This Endless Solitude”
Trond Johansen – Guitars on “Would You Take This Heart”
Production credits
Recorded, produced and mixed by Tor-Helge Skei
Mastered by Knut V. Prytz
Songwriting credits
All songwriting and arrangements by Tor-Helge Skei
Biography
Jillian Drachman
Cover art
Adrien Bousson
Follow Holissstik
Official website: https://www.holissstik.com/
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2kUEjjZJGqkwgszR0HQ8IK
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/holissstik/1895853949
Bandcamp: https://holissstik.bandcamp.com/
YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzTKclWOedWL9-sznSesabA
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/holissstik
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/holissstik/
Discord: https://discord.gg/rmfY8Jd8ww
