( photos: Scott McMillan/Bettina Herzner )

There’s about a month to go until the release of Musique Fragile Volume 02, and over the next few weeks we’ll be revealing more details about each of the three albums comprising the box set, including artwork, release notes, and more music.

This morning our friends at Ad-Hoc premiere “Gentil the Unlucky Astronomer,” from Hangedup & Tony Conrad’s Transit of Venus – violin and viola restlessly circle one another before tense, brawny drums advance and the three coalesce into an eleven-minute rush of towering, beautiful drone. It’s a behemoth.

According to Ad-Hoc:
 

“Gentil The Unlucky Astronomer” is a grand unification of Conrad and Heistek’s string theories with Craven’s constant coupling drums — a true music of the spheres, if ever La Monte sounded one. Unlike some of Conrad and Hangedup’s efforts divorced from one another, the exposition here pretty much provides everything ye need know; for such a seemingly careening track, “Gentil The Unlucky Astronomer” ultimately proves quite organic. Of special note, as well, is the combined timbre of Conrad’s violin and Heistek’s viola. Sawing away feverishly, but in two separate tessituras, theirs is a stratified hue not heard on the former’s Four Violins, much less the latter’s Clatter for Control.

 
 
STREAM: “Gentil The Unlucky Astronomer” (via Ad-Hoc)
 
 
Transit of Venus will be available as of June 26 on digital formats, and on heavyweight vinyl as part of the Musique Fragile Volume 02 box set, which also features albums from Kanada 70 and Pacha. Check the Musique Fragile release page for more info, including pre-order links, and stay tuned for info on those albums in the coming weeks. If you haven’t yet, check below to hear the mixtape we put together for the set, featuring music from all three artists: