Shub Niggurath
Introduction

Notes from Ude Koomran:

Shub Nigguarth was a French group active in the early 80's till the 90's (no doubt the worst time to play anything even remotely relating to progressive music).Their album Les Mort Vont Vite captured and fascinated me for years This album has gathered much praise and is rightfully considered a classic by critics and fans of the "outer-zone" of the progressive music scene.
As the name Shub Niggurath taken from H.P. Lovecraft's mythology suggests their sound evokes a foreboding and sinister atmosphere.
Combining complex compositions intricate arrangements and passionate playing, the result is a fine balance of dark sometimes suffocating, violent, brutal, and massive passages with beautiful chilling melodies. The line up consisted of drums, keyboards(mostly organ, harmonium and piano), eerie classical inspired female vocals, and the element that made them sound so unique: trombone- the special ingredient that at times could add a lyrical voice to the melodies and at other times sound abrasive, dissonant and powerful. Add to that maybe the most brutal sounding distorted bass ever recorded, and the burning, scorching unique guitar tones produced by master of sonority and timbre Frank Fromy.
Years later I discovered that the line up that recorded the classic Les Mort Vont Vite had also recorded a cassette only release simply named Shub Niggurath After some serious searching I did find this tape (courtesy of my...

Notes from Ude Koomran:

Shub Nigguarth was a French group active in the early 80's till the 90's (no doubt the worst time to play anything even remotely relating to progressive music).Their album Les Mort Vont Vite captured and fascinated me for years This album has gathered much praise and is rightfully considered a classic by critics and fans of the "outer-zone" of the progressive music scene.
As the name Shub Niggurath taken from H.P. Lovecraft's mythology suggests their sound evokes a foreboding and sinister atmosphere.
Combining complex compositions intricate arrangements and passionate playing, the result is a fine balance of dark sometimes suffocating, violent, brutal, and massive passages with beautiful chilling melodies. The line up consisted of drums, keyboards(mostly organ, harmonium and piano), eerie classical inspired female vocals, and the element that made them sound so unique: trombone- the special ingredient that at times could add a lyrical voice to the melodies and at other times sound abrasive, dissonant and powerful. Add to that maybe the most brutal sounding distorted bass ever recorded, and the burning, scorching unique guitar tones produced by master of sonority and timbre Frank Fromy.
Years later I discovered that the line up that recorded the classic Les Mort Vont Vite had also recorded a cassette only release simply named Shub Niggurath After some serious searching I did find this tape (courtesy of my friend, Leor Hardy) and realized that this album had all those special ingredients that made Les Mort Vont Vite such a great album, only a bit less polished and a tad more brutal and raw. For my own pleasure I transferred the tape and mastered it (some tonal balancing some cleaning up and voila!). Through the following years I tried to raise some interest with some of the labels that I knew, sending them a few copies and trying to find why this gem never got a proper re issue...and the end conclusion was put well by Brandon Wu, who wrote a nice review in Ground & Sky on this after I had sent him a copy : "And so the two towering achievements by an unforgettable band are inextricably linked; it's just too bad that one of them is almost impossible to find. My guess is that it must be the mental-health lobby that's been keeping this amazing, demented album out of print." Ah well...
Then last year Les Mort Vont Vite was re-printed and lit the spark again and this time I guess I was more determined... What more natural than to ask Zeuhl specialist Alain Lebon, head of Soleil Zeuhl, a french label that focuses on releasing of archive releases of this type of music. if there was one person that might know, I thought, it had to be Alain. But to my surprise, he was not aware of this album. But once he heard it, he was determined to put it out and give it the proper well-cared release it so deserves. Finding the members of the group did need some investigations but Alain was finally able to trace Frank Fromy and Jean Luc Herve and to their delight and surprise tell them this work has not been forgotten (Fromy told us he has not listened to this piece of music for over then 25 years yet he remembered every note every nuance and small detail).

- Udi Koomran, mastering engineer