Penny Rimbaud, according to this press release that just landed, “is pleased to announce the launch of Caliban Records”, a new label specialising in new music or, as he himself puts it, “that which might not otherwise get the hearing it deserves”.

Caliban’s first release will be ‘Kernschmelze III – Concerto For Improvised Cello’ in which Rimbaud supplies electronic backing to the sonic wizardry of cellist Kate Shortt. Translated from the German, “kernschmelze” means “meltdown”, generally nuclear. However, it can also mean “the process or state of irreversible breakdown or decline” which, in the context of this recording, Penny Rimbaud sees as the catastrophic social effects of Covid-19 through punitive politicisation.

More details of Kernschmelze III