Avant garde singer, composer, organist and piano player Diamanda Galás has announced a new solo piano piece titled De-formation: Piano Variations, which will be released via Intravenal Sound Operations on July 24th. This upcoming piece will be released as a one-sided limited vinyl edition, an EP length CD and digitally.

This latest piece was recorded in September of last year, and clocks in at 21:19. This piece was inspired by the German expressionist poem Das Fieberspital (The Fever Hospital), written by  German poet Georg Heym in 1912. The poem discusses the treatment of patients infected with yellow fever in a warehouse, which would serve as prophetical to the treatment of soldiers harmed in combat during World War I.

Galás has been working on various performances of Das Fieberspital since at least 2012, when she recorded a bulk of the project in San Diego, California and Poland. She has been hosting live performances of this work sporadically since 2014, and has been performed using solo voice, multitrack tapes of Galás’ vocal experiments, and piano.

Galas first appeared on the scene in 1982 with her debut album The Litanies of Satan, which was remastered and reissued at the beginning of the month. Her most recent album At Saint Thomas the Apostle Harlem / All the Way was released in 2017.

“Far off, there is distant howling, the shrieks of dying animals and a slow clink of piano keys. The wind whips then falls silent. There are only keys now, there are only wolves now, weeping into an ear, crying out, hungry. On At Saint Thomas the Apostle Harlem Diamanda Galas harnesses this cold and wild energy, creating an oppressive and occasionally enjoyable record,” mxdwn reviewer Drew Pitt explained.

De-formation: Piano Variations

De-formation: Piano Variations