The Allegory Of Vanity, by Cédric Pin/Glen Johnson

The Allegory Of Vanity

by Cédric Pin/Glen Johnson

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Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
'The Allegory Of Vanity' (12 track double CD album) plus 'Nil Omne' (6 track CDEP) only.

Album artwork by Cédric Pin. Design by Maria Makripoulias.

IMPORTANT!
This item will be sent by Royal Mail regular shipping. If you'd like tracking, please email second-language@hotmail.com *before* placing your order to request a tracking price.
Second Language Music assumes no responsibility for items lost in the mail. Refunds will not be forthcoming for non-tracked orders.

Includes unlimited streaming of The Allegory Of Vanity via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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Purchasable with gift card

£12 GBP or more
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
Cédric Pin and Glen Johnson's 'The Allegory Of Vanity' double CD album plus the bonus 6 track CDEP, 'Nil Omne' plus 'The Burning Skull' CD album.

'The Allegory Of Vanity' comes as a 6 panel, 12 track double CD album with lyric booklet plus 'Nil Omne' - 6 track CDEP in slipcase. ‘The Burning Skull’ comes as an 18 track CD in a debossed, gold foil blocked digipack.

Includes unlimited streaming of The Allegory Of Vanity via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 2 days

edition of 25

Purchasable with gift card

£20 GBP or more
Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

£9.99 GBP or more
12 track double CD + 6 track bonus CDEP + Ltd edition gold-plated coin bundle
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
'The Allegory Of Vanity' (12 track double CD album) plus 'Nil Omne' (6 track CDEP) + 24K gold-plated. embossed, polished, commemorative coin designed by Cédric Pin (limited edition of 40 only; 40mm x 3 mm).

Album artwork by Cédric Pin. Design by Maria Makripoulias.

IMPORTANT!
1) Only one coin per person. Duplicate orders will be returned.
2) This item will be sent by Royal Mail Special Delivery with tracking - hence the slightly higher shipping cost. Second Language Music takes no responsibility for packages lost in the mail - very important that you bear this in mind before ordering! There are no replacement coins!

Includes unlimited streaming of The Allegory Of Vanity via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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	1.	The Sands Of Time Prevail 04:15
	2.	Prick 04:15
	3.	You Should See The Other Guy 04:35
	4.	Machiavelli 04:02
	5.	Nomen Est Omen 04:18
	6.	Type Grotesque 03:06
	7.	Soliloquy 04:30
	8.	Practical Dreamers 03:39
	9.	The Right Is Wrong 04:02
	10.	Where Once I Was, I Now Am Not (Pt I) 04:32
	11.	Impermanence 19:40
	12.	Resolution 20:05
	13.	Three Figures (Bonus track) 04:22
	14.	The Clinic (after Derek Jarman) (Bonus track) 04:28
	15.	Semper Augustus (Bonus track) 03:59
	16.	Your Sadness & My Own (Bonus track) 04:31
	17.	Danza Della Morte (Bonus track) 04:18
	18.	Where Once I Was, I Now Am Not (Pt II) (Bonus track) 04:21

about

There’s something of a Jekyll and Hyde paradox about the work of Cédric Pin and Glen Johnson. On the one hand, there’s their unashamedly ‘80’s electropop-referencing Future Conditional project, inspired by everything from Kraftwerk to Soft Cell. On the other, as testified by their 2020 album, ‘The Burning Skull,’ a darker fascination with unfashionable, oft-avoided themes, vanitas and memento mori.

The follow-up to that weighty, twenty track tome, is no less monolithic. Three years in the making, ‘The Allegory Of Vanity,’ reflects on the deception of time and how, particularly in the Internet Age, much of life is wasted on trivia and self-obsession.

Since 2020, Pin, recording in his sleepy home town of Alès, the capital of the Cévennes region of Southern France, swapped files with London-based, Johnson, each augmenting the other’s work with a variety of both electronic and acoustic instruments. Eventually, they met to mix the album with sound engineer, Jon Clayton, at OneCat recording studio in Crystal Palace, South London.
Peter Ulrich, former drummer/percussionist of Dead Can Dance, contributes ocarina and backing vocals to the opening track, ‘The Sands Of Time Prevail,’ as well as percussion to ‘Where One I Was, I Now Am Not (Pt.1).’ The Lewes-based, American artist, Josh Hight provides additional vocals to the EBM-inspired ‘Prick.’
Indeed Pin and Johnson’s inspiration for ‘The Allegory Of Vanity’ is mostly drawn from their obsessions with ‘80’s EBM, industrial music and Ivo Watts-Russell-era 4AD Records. Coil, Soisong (Peter “Sleazy” Christopherson’s project with Ivan Pavlov), Richard Chartier’s Pinkcourtesyphone and glacial music pioneer, Asmus Tietchens, have also found space on their collective pinboard.

‘The Allegory Of Vanity’ includes a bonus disc of solo work. Johnson’s ‘Impermanence’ first elaborates on the album’s original inspiration, a painting of the same name by the Spanish Baroque-era painter, Antonio de Pereda and via a labyrinth of dark ambient and industrial sounds, drops us off with Quentin Crisp’s sublimely optimistic take on death, “This is a message of hope. It will come to an end and we shall be free.”
Pin’s ‘Resolution,’ no less labyrinthic over the course of its twenty minutes or so, evokes nothing less than the end of everything, the absolute folding up of all we know until there is nothing (as it was at the beginning) but darkness.

Not yet exhausted by their three years of Sisyphian collaboration, a bonus, six track EP, ‘Nil Omne’ (lit. “All is trivial”) collects the no-less engaging deleted scenes from ‘The Allegory Of Vanity,’ including a more empyreal version of ‘Prick’ (as ‘Three Figures’) and the playful skeleton jig of ‘Danza Della Morte’ (lit. The Dance Of Death).

Both former members of the Anglo-French, “ghost-rock” band, Piano Magic, Pin and Johnson are already planning a third, continuation of the memento mori theme as well as a future Future Conditional album.

credits

released February 9, 2024

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about

Cédric Pin/Glen Johnson France

Both former members of the Anglo-French "ghostrock" group, Piano Magic, Cédric Pin and Glen Johnson have been collaborating since 2005.
Their work invariably centres on their fascination with vanitas and memento mori.
Pin records in Alès, France whilst Johnson is London-based. They cite ‘80’s EBM, industrial music, Ivo Watts-Russell-era 4AD Records and Coil amongst their inspirations. ... more

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