Distel | en

Formed in 2006, Distel is a musical outlet of Æter, one of the monikers of Dutch composer Peter Johan Nÿland - and Scramasax, a percussionist who has been involved in several other Dutch bands. They play 'angst pop', which is sometimes reminiscent of the output of German label Galakthorrö, that was the first to actually coin the term as a genre. Other references that often pop up are British avant-gardists Coil, owing to a seemingly similar experimental approach in their work; the Dutch ULTRA art movement; and genre-wise: minimal electronics, cold wave and industrial. Due to their extensive use of heavily modulating vibrato synthesizers and obscure, noisy and occult atmospheres, Distel has mistakenly been classified as a witch house act in some cases, but as far as the duo has a contemporary whiff to their sound, they might as well be seen as a dark and claustrophobic cousin of The Knife.
Lyrically, using several different languages to do so, Distel's work visits estranging, sometimes philosophical themes; the relation mind-body, failure to reach purity and personal vicious cycles.

2013 saw the long awaited debut album 'puur' (pure) being released on Enfant Terrible. Prior to that Distel had a 7", 'mrok/regn', out on the same label and they had contributed tracks to several compilation albums up to that point. In February 2014 Swedish label Beläten released a cover EP by Distel, 'ULTRA2012', which featured 5 cover tracks of 80s ULTRA group 'Mekanik Kommando' that were recorded for a revival night of the Dutch ULTRA movement in 2012. The cassette also featured one unreleased Distel track.

Both Æter and Scramasax are members of avant-garde ritual collective Hadewych. .