Broken Gargoyles, Diamanda Galas, LP

Employing a vast array of advanced vocal and instrumental techniques, Broken Gargoyles is arguably Diamanda Galás' most intellectually, sonically and viscerally formidable work to date. The album finds the visionary artist deftly probing the weaving, warping transformation on the nervous systems of her post-traumatic soldiers and dying diseased. The album's first part, "Mutilatus," contains the GeorgHeym poems "Das Fieberspital" and "Die Dämonen der Stadt," and concerns the suffering of the soldier in the trenches and during innumerable operations in the hospital. Composed in 2020 during the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, the first incarnation of Broken Gargoyles was played as a sound installation at the Kapellen Leprosarium (Leper's Sanctuary) in Hanover, Germany. This sanctuary was built around 1250 and served as a quarantine for those who suffered from the plague and leprosy in the Middle Ages. The work was finalized in 2020 in collaboration with the artist and sound designer