New From Projekt: Soulwhirlingsomewhere’s Live at ProjektFest ‘96

Last June, I wrote a deep dive into Soulwhirlingsomewhere’s Eating the Sea, a classic of the darkwave genre from 1993 that’s one of my favorite albums of all time. But the album’s also a nostalgic snapshot of Projekt Records in the early-to-mid ’90s, when the label specialized in richly atmospheric music from the likes of Black Tape For a Blue Girl, Love Spirals Downwards, Lycia, and of course, Soulwhirlingsomewhere.

As label owner Sam Rosenthal notes, Projekt experienced a great deal of success during that period of time. As part of that success, the label hosted several goth/ethereal music festivals in Chicago, Los Angeles, Mexico City, New York City, and Philadelphia between 1996 and 1998. Given that Michael Plaster retired Soulwhirlingsomewhere in 2017, it was a pleasant surprise to see Projekt release a long-lost recording of his performance from ProjektFest ’96. From Rosenthal’s notes:

For the past 28 years I’ve had ProjektFest ’96 front-of-house board-recorded DAT tapes in a box in my studio. Years ago when I tried playing them they squeaked horribly. I thought time had been unkind to these tapes. A few weeks ago, I saw the tapes in the bottom of the box while looking for other DATs; I thought to give them a try as I have a new old DAT machine in my studio these days. And low and behold, this tape played perfectly. It’s so nice to hear Michael’s set again after all of these years, flashing back to the two-day event with 1000 people in attendance.

Live at ProjektFest ’96 features material from Eating the Sea and 1995’s Everyone Will Eventually Leave You, four songs from what would eventually be 1998’s Hope Was, and two previously unreleased songs. One thing that’s immediately obvious with this live album is Plaster’s stripped down performance. While Soulwhirlingsomewhere’s albums are suffused with layers of lush synthwork, Live at ProjektFest ’96 is just Plaster’s voice and twelve-string guitar (and lots of self-deprecating humor). Even so, his performances of “Everything Starts and Everything Ends in March,” “Sealing,” and “The Last Time I Left” are still pretty dreamy and evocative.

Live at ProjektFest ’96 is currently available from Projekt Records.