The Legendary Pink Dots – So Lonely in Heaven

A little over two decades since the turn of this unbearably turbulent century and the concept appears to have become an unlikely soap opera where we are the cast. Let's hang in there…. Edward Ka-Spel.

The Legendary Pink Dots – ”So Lonely in Heaven”

*** Release Date: 17 January 2025

Way way back in the early days I used to say a lot about ‘The Terminal Kaleidoscope’, a concept comparing the fragile planet we live on to a drowning human being with life flashing before his or her eyes, the images constantly accelerating. It’s 2024, a little over two decades since the turn of this unbearably turbulent century and the concept appears to have become an unlikely soap opera where we are the cast. Let’s hang in there….

Edward Ka-Spel – The Legendary Pink Dots 

SO LONELY IN HEAVEN – THE CREATION 

‘So Lonely in Heaven’ is the second album by The Legendary Pink Dots since the World stopped for a Global Pandemic. With members scattered across three countries and two continents, our guilty confession is that quite a few Air Miles were consumed in its creation. Ideas were spun across Cyberspace for months, but the magic happened collectively in small spaces with the tape running.

SO LONELY IN HEAVEN – THE MESSAGE 

The machine is everything we are. It sees everything, hears everything, knows everything and feeds, speeds, drinks us down, spits us out – we lost control of it at the instant of its conception. You may cough, curse and die, but the machine will resurrect you without the flaws, at your peak, smiling from a screen, bidding someone in a lonely room to join you. It’s an invitation from Heaven, where anyone can be anything they want to be, but it’s a Nation of One. You’ll be everything we are. You’ll be a shadow of yourself. You’ll repeat yourself – endlessly. You’ll be desperate for some kind of explanation. You’ll be lonely. So very lonely…

Erik Drost – Acoustic and Electric Guitars, bass guitar; Randall Frazier – synthesisers, devices; Edward Ka-Spel – Voice, devices; Joep Hendrikx – live electronics, devices. Simon Paul – Cover design and layout.

THE LEGENDARY PINK DOTS
brief biography
The music made by The Legendary Pink Dots has incorporated elements of neo-psychedelia, ambient music, electronic music, tape music, psychedelic folk, synthpop, post-punk, progressive jazz, noise music, pop music, goth rock and alternative rock….occasionally all at the same time.

Often likened to an industrial version of Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd, it was actually early David Bowie, The Residents, Can, Faust and musique concrete composers such as Pierre Henry who were far bigger influences on the Dots when they started out. Indeed, the lengthy fever dream-like sonic expeditions that litter the band’s catalogue have often received the greatest praise.

The group currently comprises Edward Ka-Spel (vocals, keyboards, songwriter), Erik Drost (guitars), Randall Frazier (keyboards, electronics) and Joep Hendrikx (live electronics). Operating outside the mainstream, their discography consists of 40+ studio albums and they have amassed a devoted following worldwide, touring frequently to promote their releases.

Ka-Spel is also a co-founding member of electronic duo The Tear Garden (with cEvin Key of Skinny Puppy) and released an acclaimed collaborative album with Amanda Palmer in 2017. Palmer has often cited The Legendary Pink Dots as being her favourite band.