-2010

band started in October 2010 with Bruno Duarte, though technically my collaboration with Immundus was never part of Citadel Swamp, in 2016 I decided to merge them to prevent confusion.

-2011

It was on January 17th of 2011 that I proposed to Valerio Orlandini to collaborate on some music. I had been in touch with him, on and off, since 2009 but we hadn’t talked much. We had shared some compilation appearances but that was as far our connection to each other went. However when I got signed to Quartier23 and people suddenly started complimenting my music, I figured that maybe I had the perceived respect needed to collaborate with some bigger names; such as Symbiosis and Immundus. After our first talk, we came up with the possibility to either do a split (between Symbiosis for him and either Soufferance or Vision Éternel for me) or a collaboration for a new project. I was very happy when he agreed to do the later option.

A month later, on February 26th, he sent me a keyboard track (under the title “Symbiosis_Vision_Eternel_1”) for what was to be our first song together. I began working on it right away and two days later sent it back to him with my layer of guitar. But a couple of days after that, I realized that I wasn’t happy with my February 28th mixing of the song. I felt that my guitars buried his keyboard track and I remixed it and sent him a better version on March 1st. On April 17th he sent it back to me with an added layer of beats over the song and he also included a second keyboard piece for our second song (under the title “Fragment”). From these two songs I was already hoping we could get an EP together.

From May to July things were a little slow. I had a great deal of relationship issues with Laura Dolgy and I put my music on hold. When we finally got to talking about it again on July 27th, we concluded that the first song was satisfactory and finished. On my end I would work on “Fragment” and on his end he would work on a Vision Éternel b-side that I sent him, at the time titled “VE4 Extended”. Unfortunately neither of us got working on either of those pieces and our collaboration sort of became forgotten.

-2012

It was a whole year later (on July 25th of 2012) that we started talking again. At first I wanted to gather up three or four songs to release a debut EP but Val didn’t have the time to work on that many songs and we instead came up with the idea to release our first (and only finished) song on a various artists compilation.

For this, I felt that we needed to come up with a band/project name, rather than using the name “Symbiosis vs Vision Éternel”, which seemed to have been the idea floating around. We both had various solo projects and limiting this collaboration to only one of them would have been a mistake. I began brainstorming names, from a list of titles that I liked and had been keeping for years. The names I submitted for band names and song titles were: “Dead August Leaves”, “Nebraska Motion”, “When the Sun Folds”, “Citadel Swamp”, and “Plains of a Billion Suns”. Val liked “Dead August Leaves” and “Plains of a Billion Suns” and my favorite was “Citadel Swamp”. We settled on using Citadel Swamp as the band name and “Dead August Leaves” for the song title.

For a month I tried finding a label that was putting together a compilation in order to release our first song. But nothing came of it. There weren’t a lot of compilations coming together that year and the few that were didn’t like Citadel Swamp. So I decided to put one together myself, to be released through Abridged Pause Recordings. That compilation was in the works for six month but eventually fell through by mid-January of 2013. And so “Dead August Leaves” remained unreleased.

-2014

Finally, in January of 2014, I submitted “Dead August Leaves” to a compilation that would finally release it. I found out about Roach Clip Records through a Google search, looking for new labels putting together compilations. Initially my search was for a Soufferance submission, but I was plagued by recording equipment problems and wasn’t able to record a new song in time. So a week before the submission deadline, I sent the first Citadel Swamp song to Kevin Cazier, hoping he would accept the compensation. He liked it immediately and was happy to include it on “insomniSerpents Vol. 1“, which was released on February 14th of 2014.

With the first song finally coming out (three years after it was finished), I took to creating and designing Citadel Swamp’s social media pages. On January 23rd I created a Facebook page, a band page on Abridged Pause Recordings, a Bandcamp page and a Last.fm page. I also quickly designed a band logo to give the illusion of something of an active band look.

With this new interest in the project, Valerio and I talked of finishing up the second song, “Fragment”, and release a two-song promo EP through Abridged Pause Recordings (by this time the Vision Éternel song “VE4 Extended” had been released as “Sometimes in Anticipation” on the Vision Éternel album “The Last Great Torch Song” in 2012 and Val never brought it up in any of our discussions, thus leading me to believe that he wasn’t a fan of it in the first place).

On January 25th I started composing my portions of “Fragment”, in a special tuning that my guitar Mina was tuned in; G#G#C#F#A#D# (a tuning I had been using since November of 2013 for a planned reformation of Murder on Redpath). That night I recorded an eBow track but due to my fingers being sore, because I hadn’t played guitar in a couple of weeks, I had to delay the recording of the guitar tracks to the 26th and 27th. On the early morning of the 28th, I did a rough mix of all the tracks and sent it off to Val. I wasn’t happy with my mix of the song and asked him to mix it to his liking, as he had done for “Dead August Leaves”.

Confident that Citadel Swamp was back on track, I created a Soundcloud playlist as part of the Abridged Pause Recordings page and uploaded “Dead August Leaves” as well as my mixed version of “Fragment”, which I then officially baptized under the new title “When the Sun Folds”. With this link I emailed three record labels, on February 7th, that I hoped would be interested to work with Citadel Swamp; Kalpamantra, Malignant Records and Inner Ocean Records. The first two were inquiries concerning various artists compilations, on which I was hoping to release “When the Sun Folds”. But neither of them were interested.

Inner Ocean Records was more of a shot in the dark. I somehow found the label while searching for recent ambient releases on cassette tape, hoping to land a deal to reissue the Vision Éternel EP’s on tape. Instead, Inner Ocean’s owner, Cory Zaradur, was immediately interested in releasing the first Citadel Swamp album. Cory was a total hipster and trend follower but he was Canadian and had a very beautifully designed website. He was also the first to offer Citadel Swamp a deal so I was willing to overlook the “selling out” aspect.

While I was waiting for Val to send me back his mix of “When the Sun Folds”, I started working with Marc Hoyland on a separate collaboration. The first recording session for this other project took place on February 12th, but the song didn’t fit with what Marc wanted so on February 27th, I sent it to Val (under the title “03 CS”), hoping he would like it enough to record some keyboards over it and thus turn it into a Citadel Swamp song.

But Val wasn’t responding to my messages, and I couldn’t get him to send me the finished mix of our second song. Not even the motivation of having an EP releasing deal was getting him to respond to my emails. I even considered Citadel Swamp to be on an indefinite hiatus. Eventually the project between Marc Hoyland and myself fizzled out in mid-March and I decided to use the three songs that I had recorded for the project (including the one I had sent Val as “03 CS”) for a new Soufferance album, I intended to name “Memories of Endless Nights”.

On March 31st of 2014, while looking for labels to work with for the new Soufferance album, I proceeded towards my usual routine; checking out what the previous record labels that I had worked with were up to, and if any were available to release my new material. I was happy to find out that just a week prior, on March 22nd, Pale Noir had announced a new “massive compilation in the works”. It was to be titled “Waves in Compendium” and due to be released in June of 2014. They had already posted the artwork, credited to Jason J. Snell, apparently famous for his project Bombardier, who was also going to be part of the compilation.

I immediately messaged Nicole Wilson Renhart (aka Nix or Mahr, the owner of Pale Noir) asking if their was room left on the compilation for both a Soufferance song as well as a Citadel Swamp song. I actually had no intention of sending in a Soufferance song, but used that as an excuse to get Citadel Swamp in. Nicole was a fan of Soufferance and I was confident enough with this that I messaged Val that very night, asking him to finish the mixing of “When the Sun Folds” so that it could be released on “Waves in Compendium”.

When Val got back to me on April 4th, promising that he would have the song in to me by the end of the week, I still hadn’t heard back from Nicole. So I sent her another email, to which she finally responded. She informed me that the deadline for the compilation was June 1st of 2014, and that Soufferance alone could submit a song. This was the complete opposite of what I wanted, and I then made plans to stall the submission of a song until the very last minute, upon which moment I would send in a Citadel Swamp song, explaining that I had not been able to record an exclusive Soufferance song, due to recording equipment problems.

Two weeks later, I still didn’t have Val’s mix of “When the Sun Folds”. And I became even more impatient when Cory asked me to submit a Citadel Swamp song for his upcoming Inner Ocean Records compilation due out in May of 2014. This was thankfully enough on the plate to get Val to get back in touch with me and put Citadel Swamp on his immediate priority list. He confirmed that by the end of the month I would have the finished mix of “When the Sun Folds”, and I also asked him to send me a new keyboard track to work on while he’d work on “03 CS”.

The plan for Citadel Swamp at that moment was to have “When the Sun Folds” submitted to the Inner Ocean Records compilation, as this one had a closer deadline than Pale Noir’s. Then, whatever song Val or I would finish first as our third song, would be submitted to “Waves in Compendium”. We would then finish the fourth song to complete a four-song EP to be released through Inner Ocean Records and Abridged Pause Recordings on cassette tape and digital formats.

On April 22nd, Val got back to me with the final mix of “When the Sun Folds” and he also sent me a new keyboard piece under the title “Citadel_base”. Planning the self-titled EP, I renamed “03 CS” to “Plains of a Billion Suns” and “Citadel_base” to “Auburn Sights at Dusk”.

That night I immediately sent Cory the final mixed version of “When the Sun Folds”. Cory had already heard the first mix of this song when offering us the album releasing deal so it made his response even more surprising. He suddenly didn’t like the song and refused to feature it on the compilation. He was however interested in using “Dead August Leaves”, even had it already been used elsewhere before. But I was so offended by his complete change of mind and confidence in our music that I turned down the offer. After all, “Dead August Leaves” had an understanding that it was going to be exclusive to “insomniSerpents Vol. 1”. Cory then dropped Citadel Swamp from not only the compilation, but also from his label roster and there was no longer any interest for an album deal.

With “When the Sun Folds” still available, it became less of a priority to finish my parts on “Auburn Sights at Dusk” and Val was presumably making no effort to compose anything over “Plains of a Billion Suns”. On top of this, Rain and I were moving out of Montreal and to Saint-Hippolyte on May 30th. We spent the month packing and I knew that I had a free song to submit to the Pale Noir compilation.

So three days before Pale Noir’s deadline, on May 27th, I sent Nicole “When the Sun Folds”, with an excuse that due to the move, I had not been able to get a Soufferance song in time. A few hours later, she replied that she felt “tremendously uninspired” by the song and also asked if she could use “Dead August Leaves” instead.

I was very sad about this. Two compilation appearances down the drain because of the same song. I started wondering if the music we had created was perhaps bad and if it was even worth continuing. At times I even regretted not allowing “Dead August Leaves” to appear on all three compilations. At least it would have provided good exposure. The funny thing was that in 2012, no one wanted “Dead August Leaves”. Then in 2014, no one wanted “When the Sun Folds” but everyone wanted “Dead August Leaves”. So in May of 2014, Citadel Swamp went under hiatus once again.

On October 15th of 2014 I got back in touch with Val, proposing that we get our things together and finish a four or five song EP by the end of the year. It took him three weeks to get back to me. On November 5th he sent me two new keyboard tracks; “Citadel_Swamp_01” and “Citadel_Swamp_02”. But by then I was already working full time on a new Vision Éternel EP, “Echoes From Forgotten Hearts“, and Citadel Swamp was put on the back-burner once again.

-2015

“Echoes From Forgotten Hearts” was scheduled to be released on February 14th of 2015, so on February 10th I messaged Val to tell him that I was getting ready to put Citadel Swamp back on my priority list and to send me every keyboard parts he wanted me to work with. Nearly a month later, on March 6th, he got back to me with two new keyboard parts; “Citadel Swamp _ track 01” and “Citadel Swamp _ track 02”.

 

History and notes from March 6th 2015 on needs to be written.

 

“Citadel_Swamp_01” re-titled “Moontide in the Shallows”
“Citadel_Swamp_02” re-titled “09”. Left unused

“Citadel Swamp _ track 01” re-titled “10” and was worked on by Raimondo
“Citadel Swamp _ track 02” re-titled “Northern Skies/Lights Abroad”

 

One thing that I feel is important to point out is that throughout the spam of Citadel Swamp, Valerio was going through a shifting phase. That is, his project Symbiosis was slowly being phased out and he started recording and releasing more music under his own name. So his focus starting changing from a band or alias point of view to an almost selfish self-promoting attitude of his own name. Because of that, I really felt that he was never fully dedicated to Citadel Swamp and treated it more as a way to peddle off his rejected pieces. I felt, from what I heard, that he kept the best pieces that he composed for Symbiosis or Valerio Orlandini, and whatever trash he had left he’d send me hoping that I’d salvage it into something decent enough. I always had that feeling about him and what he sent me, and though I never addressed it, I secretly resented him for it.

 

started tracking some ideas for Auburn and Moontide on March 6th but decided to focus on Moontide only. wasnt sure if i liked the direction of Moontide so on March 21st took a break from mixing the song and recorded a test for Northern Skies.

March 23rd told Val which songs I would use and which ones I wouldnt. also messaged Kontingent Records. March 25th sent all songs from Hoyland collab to Val. they showed interest and on April 6th confirmed that “When the Sun Folds” was going to appear on the compilation.

Then I resumed Moontide and finished mixing it on April 6th and 7th. and came up with the name Moontide. then went back to Northern Skies on April 9th to track a second test but also didnt like it so I put that on hold. i also came up with the idea of the name, either Northern Skies or Northern Lights. they were both eventually combined. Val and I made plans to put together a 4-5 song ep and have it released physically.

moved houses again and after settling into the new place, went back to re-writing and recording Auburn on May 31st. i then realized that Auburn and Moontide sounded very different from Dead August and When the Sun and thought that it may be a better idea to release a 2 song single with only them on it, seeing as the first two songs were on compilations. would fit perfectly as a 7″. Northern Skies would fit better as a compilation track.

remixed Northern Skies on June 2nd using parts from the march and April recording sessions.

on June 29th, I asked Niels Geybels to release an EP through his new record label, Audio. Visuals. Atmosphere., and also asked Mytrip to collaborate on Northern Lights. Angel Simitchiev from Mytrip didn’t give a shit and Niels was so “unimpressed” with the music that he didn’t bother to get back to me. Naresh from Norv was interested in releasing the EP on Dio Drone Records and also to do the artwork.

june 30th 2015, Kontingent II released.

decided to put together a compilation myself again, for Ephemere song, planned to use a CS song, at first considered Northern Lights.

july 22nd, tried recording more stuff to Auburn but ran into writers block and stopped again. realized that i would probably not be able to complete the song and make it into a single with Moontide, and that since Moontide was my favourite song from the CS catalog, that I would use it on the new Abridged Pause Recordings compilation.

On July 28th, I got sick of waiting for Val to finish up the 3 songs that he had on his plate. So I started messaging various musicians to help collaborate to finish up the two songs he had sent me that I didn’t plan to use. I figured that if someone else started adding something else to them, then I might have a clearer vision of what I could add myself at the end, and it would also give us guest musicians to get promotion from.
I asked Howard Change, Eiman Nejad, Vicent Cassar, Michael Krall, Mike Vassallo, Alexandre Fawcett, Monica Renteria and her boyfriend ChaosWolf, Mike Derrick, Naresh Ran Ruotolo, Ivan Shentov, Arthur Burns, Selwin H., Raimondo Gaviano, Ken Camden, Jesse-Osborne-Lanthier, Klara Lewis, Marsen Jules, Amir Abbey, Feisubukku Kyoka, Jeff Grimal, Simon Heath, Niels Geybels, Frederic Arbour, Harlow MacFarlane, Martin Dumais, Robert C. Kozletsky, Johan Levin, Alina Antonova, Jouni Havukainen, Steven Williams, Sergiy Fjordsson Justin Palmieri to collaborate on songs 9 and 10.

Eiman Nejad, Justin Palmieri, Arthur Burns, Michael Krall, Alexander Fawcett, Jeff Grimal, Naresh Ran Ruotolo, Raimondo Gaviano, Monica Renteria, Jouni Havukainen, Ivan Shentov and Sergiy Fjordsson answered that they would work on something. Sergiy Fjordsson also offered to release the material through Depressive Illusions Records as a split CD-R and tape with Saturn Form Essence.

September 13th-19th 2015 Raimondo worked on song “Citadel Swamp _ track 01” re-titled “10”. He recorded 4 tracks of keyboards and shorted Val’s original 8 minutes and 48 seconds song to 5 minutes and 15 seconds.

On September 29th 2015, still hadnt heard from Val since June, I sent Unsilent (Lucas Martin) from Almofar a message asking to collaborate on a band together. My first instinct was to fire Val from the band and replace him with Unsilent. I then considered simply add Unsilent and working with him separately as Citadel Swamp.

Ugly Snowflake guy, Loneliness guy, Diego Sanchez

Lucas Martin (Unsilent) sent me first song to work on October 10th

October 24th I sent him the 3 guitar tracks from Marc Hoyland session.
On that date I made it official that Valerio was out of the band.
and updated the pages on Discogs and on Abridged Pause Recordings to remove Valerio as a band member and add Lucas Martin as the new keyboardist. I also slightly altered the past history of the band to mention that Bruno Duarte and Marc Hoyland were members, with the 4 songs that Hoyland and I worked on in February of 2014 and also the song that Bruno and I worked on in early 2011 “A Nightmare Ends”, which was later released as a Soufferance song.
After all these mentions that Valerio was out of the band, he never even contacted me to find out what happened or to question why he had been fired from the band. He didn’t care at all about me or Citadel Swamp.
It was only in January of 2018 that Valerio decided to talk shit about me and Citadel Swamp. He cowardly edited the Discogs page so that his ego wouldn’t be bruised, by saying that he had “quit” the band and wasn’t fired. Can this be any more obvious and typical of the fired band members? Why is it so hard to accept that you’ve been fired.

In hindsight; When Valerio and I started working together in 2011, he was in a musical rut. Symbiosis was practically dead and he hadn’t released anything new in a while. So when Citadel Swamp came along, it was a new project for him to focus on. After a couple of years though, he neglected Citadel Swamp for NORV and for his solo project, to the point that he abandoned our band completely.
Valerio also had his own website and social media profiles, on which he always promoted NORV but never Citadel Swamp, not once, not even when we started out. If it wasn’t for all the documenting that I did for the band over the years, his name wouldn’t even appear with Citadel Swamp online anywhere. I was always the one doing everything for that band.

sent second song on November 30th 2015.

On December 5th 2015 I decided to send the same songs again to Niels (the two long abstract songs) but under the name Montgomery Lancaster.
”

Hello Mr. Geybels. I hope that I have the correct name for who is behind this label. I find your name from Discogs and sometimes the information is not always correct. See link here http://www.discogs.com/label/848065-Audio-Visuals-Atmosphere

I know Sequences from a long time ago. I saw you live only once in Ghent, Belgium with Dordeduh in 2010 or 2011. I had never heard of your music before and was surprised to hear that kind of dark ambient play with a black metal band. I was only visiting Belgium for the holidays, so it must have been some time in the winter that I saw this concert.

I do not think that you had many albums out at the time because when I got home I only could find a Myspace page for you. I was not living in your country and so I found a distributor who had a split CD-r that you had only released and bought it for less shipping price.

Ever since then I check every few months to see what new music you have. I also really like your artwork and your images. I wish that I could go to one of your gallery exhibition but I am never in the same country or region at the right time.

Now I see that you have a record label, which makes a lot of sense to me, since you were only missing that to be doing everything yourself in music. I really like that you are doing cassettes because I still have my old walkman from the 1990’s.

I would like to have your opinion on my music. It is like Sequences, but not the same. I don’t know if I could ever been as good as you, but I try to take a different approach and I’m sure that we use different programs and instruments to achieve our sounds.

Right now I have completed a 2 song EP of 17 minutes. Both songs are over 8 minutes in length. I have uploaded one for you to hear in mp3 and wav. I would like very much to have my music released on Audio Visuals Atmosphere, if your schedule can allow a new band.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/6jq05bqefd8xbt6/AABvoRe9tFHIgr9fqZD47s91a?dl=0

Please let me know what you think.
-Montgomery Lancaster”

He responded right away that he loved the music and wanted to release it on a limited edition cassette and offered to do the artwork for free as well. I exchanged a few email with him, still hiding my identity, and considering how I could pull it off, and to later reveal that it was really me. I felt betrayed that he didn’t want to release this music more out of spite

 

After that in December of 2015, I decided to add Citadel Swamp to the upcoming Abridged Pause Recordings compilation “Billowing Tempestus”. “Moontide in the Shallows” was going to be the song. But I always felt like it was one of the two weak songs on the compilation (along with the Cara Neir song) and debated dropping it. Another issue came when it came time for an interview, which was going to be included in the Billowing Tempestus Magazine. I didn’t want to interview myself (as I had done a few times in the past) and asked each of the bands on the compilation to send me one to three questions. Most of the bands didn’t send me any questions and the few that did sent me the worst and most generic questions imaginable, which didn’t even relate to the music (for example “I don’t hear any drums in your music, why don’t you use any?”)

On December 11th I messaged Lucas to find out if he had worked on the music yet, It took him a month to reply to me in January 4th and he said hadnt done anything yet.

On December 26th I designed a new Logo/banner for Citadel Swamp, which I intended to start using in promotion of the new song being released on the compilation. It would have been added on the Abridged Pause Recordings website at the same time as all the band pages for the bands on Billowing Tempestus. It would have signified a new era for the band with Lucas Martin in the band.

-2016

On January 11th I offered Lucas the opportunity to add some stuff to “Moontide in the Shallows”, as I wanted to have him introduced on the new compilation, instead of it being only the old line-up. But he never replied to me.

I messaged him again on March 9th to tell him that I wanted to make Citadel Swamp a serious band

“Hello Unsilent! I hope you have been well. I know we have not talked for a few months and I hope we can change that. I’ve been working on finishing the new Abridged Pause Recordings compilation, which will feature “Moontide in the Shallows”, the last song to feature Valerio on keyboards, before you came into the band. I hope to have that out next month.
I would really like to start working together on new music. I listened to the demos you sent me and I personally don’t think that they fit the atmosphere that Citadel Swamp is about. Citadel Swamp is a dark ambient band, but I don’t want the “darkness” to come from dark, noisey, drone sounds, but more from a sorrow or sadness that can be felt in the end. I like Citadel Swamp to be more atmospheric, more beautiful, more uplifting. That is the reason why I wanted you in the band, because the music you make with Almofar is exactly the kind of music that I want Citadel Swamp to be, with my ethereal guitar and bass over it.
I would really like to start talking often with you and exchange many ideas, to make this project a mutual collaboration. Not only my ideas but yours as well. I want you to be an integral part of the new Citadel Swamp.
Do you have any new atmospheric, beautiful, ethereal keyboard compositions that you could show me? Or could you try to record something new in the next month?”

he responded that he was interested but again disappeared for a month. when he sent me a message on April 1st, I was in the dumps from having shelved Billowing Tempestus the week before and didn’t reply to him. I knew that he wasn’t the right band member to have any way and didn’t attempt to force him into working together again.

 

almost a whole year went by without any interest for Citadel Swamp. on December 27th of 2016 I emailed Angel JL of the bands CrepusculaR and Disciplina De Exterminio, who also used to have his own record label, BPM Front. I had met Angel many years ago, probably in 2006, on the Street Metal Forum. He was a huge fan and follower of Les Legions Noires and became a moderator on the forum. I was never a fan of his music but I thought that he might be a potential new member. We had also appeared on two compilations together, Obscure Synergy and Welcome to Our Decayed Factory.

on December 28th of 2016 I messaged Raimondo again. Svart1 had been really busy over the last few years and he was getting a lot of press coverage and record label interest. I wanted to benefit from that and thought that maybe someone with his accomplishments would be willing to put an equal amount of effort into the band and music. I also got the idea that instead of Citadel Swamp being two specific band members, perhaps it could be me + whoever I am collaborating with on any particular song. In that sense, the Ephemere song could even be considered a Citadel Swamp song (although that idea wouldn’t make sense since it IS an Ephemere song already). The problem with that idea would remain that I would have to be the only one doing all the work, looking for record labels to work with and release the music (either as albums, eps or compilations) and do all the artworks and promo myself. What I really wanted in Citadel Swamp was an equal partner with a common vision.

-2018

on January 12th 2018 I messaged Raimondo to find out if he’d be interested in collaborating on 1 or 2 songs in 2018, so that maybe we can get the ball moving on Citadel Swamp.

On July 6th 2018 I decided that it was time to call Citadel Swamp quits. So I retroactively chose December 2016 as the breakup date based on my personal activity with the band.

-2019

January 9th 2019
contacted Kontingent Records to find out if he was putting together a third compilation.
he said he may and to send him some songs.
put together a bunch of unreleased songs which included:
ephereme – half light notte, vision eternel – moments of intimacy reprise,
citadel swamp – a nightmare ends, citadel swamp – moontide in the shallows, citadel swamp – northern lights/skies abroad, and i wanted to include the song with raimondo.
but since it didn’t feature any of my playing on it, i would have felt bad sending that in. so at first i got the idea to record some new, abstract bass just to have me on it, but it took me a couple of days to find the time to settle down and listen to the song.

I got around to it on the morning of January 15th 2019. In the process, i discovered some unused guitar bits from over the years that sounded better. A lot of unused Citadel Swamp guitar sessions.
that way i was actually happy not recording anything new for citadel swamp, since it was technically and officially done with. i didn’t mind mixing old recordings in though.

I took an unused guitar jam idea from the Moontide In The Shallows session for the second part of the song. And for the first part of the song I used the guitar and bass recording from Plains Of A Billion Suns.

Idea for title. Seems that a lot of Citadel Swamp titles have to do with the sky, so I thought of the word “Horizons”.

Horizons
Beyond Grey Horizons
Beyond Clear Horizons
Beyond Blue Horizons
Beyond Western Horizons
Horizons West
Beyond Horizons West

in mid-January I started to talk a lot with Lorenzo of Dornwald Records, whom I had first contact in the summer of 2018 to release Vision Eternel’s then unfinished 6th EP.
Lorenzo was trying to revive his record label and I suggested that he put together a various artists compilation to get the word out. Vision Eternel was going to be one of the bands on there but I also sent him the same zip file that I had sent Kontingent Records for him to hear Citadel Swamp.
Dornwald Records had previously already worked with Valerio and Raimondo on a various artists compilation called Messina 1908, so he was familiar with those two ex-Citadel Swamp members. I was always kind of hoping that he wouldn’t put it together that they had played in Citadel Swamp with me, the member of Vision Eternel, because I was scared that he would side with Valerio.
I couldn’t have been more wrong. When he found out about Citadel Swamp, he loved the music and he wanted to release our music! So I took the time to tell him everything from behind the scenes about Citadel Swamp, all of the members that came and went and why each left. I told him my entire side of the story about Valerio but made sure he understood that it was just my side of the story, not me bad-mouthing Valerio.

Lorenzo was totally cool with that and he said he would talk to Valerio to get his approval on not only using “Horizons” on the new various artists compilation, but also to put together a full discography of Citadel Swamp through Dornwald Records.
At this time, my plan was to try to make up with Val, if only long enough to agree on a deadline to mix and finish up all of the songs and get them in to Dornwald Records. I would finish all of the songs, even the ones with Lucas, and send all of that in to Dornwald, put together a nice, respectful biography of the band to include in the booklet of the discography, and put a closure to the band.
I was hoping that we could get around to doing this before I move in the spring/summer of 2019. I wanted everyone to get on board again, myself, Val, Raimondo and Lucas, to finish these songs, maybe Raimondo could work on one more with us, then find a way to get Niels and Marc involved. Perhaps Marc could do the artwork and Niels could be coaxed into release the tape version. Or maybe it could be done through Dio Drone.

January 28th 2019 came up with title Beyond Horizons West.

Thinking of doing a 9-10 song discography.

 

Total of 15 songs were worked on over the 6 years (more like 5)

1. Immunds-Soufferance (A Nightmare Ends)
2. Symbiosis_Vision_Eternel_1 (Dead August Leaves)
3. VE4 Extended (Sometimes In Anticipation)
4. Fragment (When the Sun Folds)
5. Marc Hoyland guitar track
6. song with hoyland 1 (Beyond Horizons West)
7. song with hoyland 2
8. song with hoyland 3/ 03 CS / Plains of a Billion Suns
9. Citadel_base (Auburn Sights at Dusk)
10. Citadel_Swamp_01 (Moontide in the Shallows)
11. Citadel_Swamp_02 / 09
12. Citadel Swamp _ track 01 / 10 (Beyond Horizons West)
13. Citadel Swamp _ track 02 / (Northern Skies/Lights Abroad)
14. track 1, October 10th 2015 –  first Lucas song
15. track 2, November 30th 2015 – second Lucas song