Night Sky Productions presents

Moving Shadows: A Dark Solstice Celebration

featuring bands
– NOIR (NYC, Metropolis Records)
– Seeming (New York, Artoffact Records)
– Ships In The Night (Charlottesville, VA)
– Doors In The Labyrinth (Pittsburgh, PA)

with DJ Callisto

– dance performances by Electric Mirage Bellydance
– vending by Distortion Productions, Heidi’s Spooky Creations, and Heroineburgh
– giveaways from Projekt Records (including a copy of their holiday CD compilation, Ornamental, to the first 25 people through the door!)

Sat. Dec. 21, 2019
8 p.m. – 1 a.m.

The Funhouse at Mr. Smalls
400 Lincoln Ave., 2nd Floor
Pittsburgh, PA 15209

18 to enter / 21 to drink
$12 advance / $15 at the door

RSVP on Facebook

Purchase tickets:

SCHEDULE

8:30 – Doors In The Labyrinth
9:10 – Ships In The Night
10:00 – Seeming
10:55 – Electric Mirage Bellydance
11:00 – NOIR
11:55 – Electric Mirage Bellydance
Midnight – DJ Callisto

BIOS

NOIR formed in 2012 when Athan Maroulis, vocalist for Spahn Ranch (1993-2000) and Black Tape for a Blue Girl (2009-2012) sought a way to combine his industrial and gothic past while remaining in the electronic present. NOIR’s releases include the 2013 critically acclaimed album Darkly Near and the 2016 EP The Burning Bridge. NOIR last appeared in Pittsburgh in Oct. 2018 in support of Aurelio Voltaire for Night Sky Production’s Danse Macabre 3.

On Nov. 15, 2019, NOIR released their sixth title on Metropolis Records, A Pleasure. This EP showcases a different side to the band and their brand of sophisticated dark pop. It includes the song “A Pleasure to Burn” with remixes by FIRES and Seeming, along with a new song entitled “Luxury,” and a biting take on Fad Gadget’s “Back to Nature.”

On Nov. 22, 2019, Athan and Canadian chanteuse Sue Hutton (Rhea’s Obsession, Indarra) released Christmas Nocturne  on Projekt Records. The EP offers a haunting brand of holiday caroling with touches of ethereal and world music. The songs include a lush take on “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” a pair of renditions of “Carol of the Drum,” and Sue and Athan’s original exotica-flavored recording of “We Three Kings,” which they recorded for the Projekt compilation Excelsis Vol 2: A Winter’s Song in 1999.

Seeming is transcendent pop and eco-tinged nihilism. Led by Alex Reed, the New York act broke in 2014 with their heady debut single “The Burial,” and have made lean, colossal, and singlemindedly posthuman music ever since. Pounding funeral drums, blaring brass, and synth melodies galore: this is indie pop to conjure an apocalypse that you can dance to. Their latest LP, SOL: A Self-Banishment Ritual, speaks with radically progressive fervor to real 21st-century crises of politics, race, population, and animal rights. Co-produced with Paul Kendall (Depeche Mode, NIN, Nitzer Ebb) and Daniel Myer (Haujobb), SOL boasts guest appearances by Pitchfork favorite S∆MMUS and Japanoise legend Merzbow. With a full-bodied baritone voice, Seeming dissents against the human world of the past and future: no one is safe. Expect a new album soon.

Alex will be joined for this show by Aaron Fuleki (drums & programming). Both made records and played 100+ shows in the successful darkwave band ThouShaltNot, which was based in Pittsburgh from 2001-2005.

Ships In The Night is songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Alethea Leventhal, of Charlottesville, VA. Known for her electrifying mix of haunting, dark electronic and ethereal, ambient lullabies, Ships In The Night’s magnetic sound pulls from dreams, memories and echoes from the outer world to paint an atmospheric landscape with sweeping waves of synths and kinetic beats.

Ships In The Night’s 2017 album, Myriologues, received international attention as “celestial dream-pop,” and “atmospheric darkwave” and sent her on a European tour in the summer of 2017. Myriologues was a full-length follow-up to 2015’s self-titled EP and 2016’s split, Wire & Light. A remix album was released in Sept. 2019, and the single “Lost Times” was released on Oct. 30, 2019 to critical acclaim, accompanied by an alluring video.

Doors In The Labyrinth is the work of Josh Loughrey, creating darkwave electronic punk out of Pittsburgh. He draws from a diverse background and experience, including experimental/noise, synthpop, traditional folk and film scores, as well as influences including Nick Cave, Gary Numan, The Legendary Pink Dots, Current 93 and many others. Doors In The Labyrinth began playing live in 2015, have released several EPs and singles and are currently working on a full-length album. In honor of this show, Doors In The Labyrinth released a two-track holiday single on Bandcamp on Nov. 25. It includes an interpretation of the traditional carol “To Drive The Cold Winter Away” as well as “Sally’s Song” from The Nightmare Before Christmas.

DJ Callisto is a native Pittsburgh DJ with more than 15 years of experience spinning a wide variety of music, including electronica, downtempo/trip-hop, electropop, electroclash, indie-dance, Britpop, post-punk, goth, new wave, and early darkwave. She is a former resident of the goth nights Ceremony and Obsidian, and has made guest appearances at Hanging Garden, The Atrocity Exhibition, Upstage reunions, Ceremony reunions, and many other public and private events. Her most important rule is FUN, and she happens to adore Christmas. Her between-band sets will include plenty of dark holiday tunes from Projekt Records, and she’ll be spinning more dance-oriented sets after the bands.

Electric Mirage Bellydance are the students of Amethyst, leader of ElectroBelly Dance Troupe. Amethyst began bellydancing in 1997 and started ElectroBelly as a way to blend her love of bellydance with her love of electronic music dancing. She teaches weekly classes and private lessons, and is available for parties.

Electric Mirage will perform two dark holiday-themed numbers at this event. One of their performances will be set to a recording of “We Three Kings” by Rhea’s Obsession featuring Athan Maroulis (vocalist for NOIR). (View a video of Electric Mirage’s May 7 performance.)

Distortion Productions was founded by Jim Semonik as a concert promotion company in 2000. After his cancer diagnosis and treatment, Jim partnered with Chase Dudley to create the acclaimed Electronic Saviors: Industrial Music to Cure Cancer charity compilations, released through Metropolis Records. Distortion Productions transformed into a full-fledged record label in 2013. Jim will be vending at this event, offering Distortion Productions CDs for all your last-minute holiday shopping needs. One of Distortion’s most recent releases is Ulterior Muses: Electronic Music For Bellydancing. Curated by professional bellydancer Nephri Sinclair, this compilation showcases the ever-growing genre of tribal-industrial and its uses for performance.

Heidi’s Spooky Creations is the brainchild of Heidi Bottorf-Graham, of the Pittsburgh industrial band Tragic Impulse.

She will be selling her handcrafted gothic Christmas ornaments and stockings to help you add just the right touch of spookiness to your holiday decor.

Heroineburgh is a superhero action series featuring all female protagonists and is set in Pittsburgh. As the story goes, one night above the skies of Pittsburgh, an unusual meteor explodes, releasing a massive wave of dark energy that activates dormant genes in citizens who develop various powers based on their own desires and interests. The dark energy exhibits a proclivity for the XX chromosome, so the majority of the new superpowered beings are female. The latest Heroineburgh video, Episode 16, stars Josh from Doors in the Labyrinth as the villain Crainiac, Master of Machines! Heroineburgh’s creators will be on hand selling comics and merchandise at this event.

Projekt Records is the king of the gothic holiday compilation, and they’ve sent us some gifts just for you! The first 25 people in the door will receive a copy of the 2012 collection Ornamental. The 23-track, 2-disc compilation includes Athan Maroulis of NOIR singing on two songs: a Latin version of “Ave Maria” and Black Tape for a Blue Girl’s cover of “Forbidden Colours” (theme from the 1985 David Bowie film, Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence). Three lucky winners will also receive the following four Projekt CDs: Ooky Spooky by Aurelio Voltaire, Sugar Wingshiver by Paulina Cassidy, the A Dark Noel compilation (highlights from Projekt’s Excelsis holiday releases), and the 2015 Projekt sampler The Hues of Infinity.

Moving Shadows is new darkwave music with DJ KellyA (who also runs Night Sky Productions). Moving Shadows is the name of her two-hour podcast of darkwave music (and related genres) released within the previous four months. (Listen on Mixcloud.) She also hosts periodic Moving Shadows live events featuring artists she plays on her show. The first Moving Shadows live event was held in Sept. 2019, and this Dark Solstice Celebration is the second.