Something is brewing in the state of Norway! Kronstad 23 are the latest trailblazers from northern Scandinavia: a creative force exploring the boundaries of musical genres, including but not limited to: psych rock, jazz, post-rock & scandinavian folk music. The group of young players follows the footsteps of Motorpsycho, Elephant9 & El Paraiso’s own Lotus, Fra Det Onde & Kanaan, carving out their path through the musical landscape in seemingly effortless ways! One minute you’re floating on cosmic Pharoah Sanders waters, the next you’re ascending on electrified if-Tortoise-played-Allman Brothers-style jamming. 

The band describes their approach as: “Sommermørket is an escape from inhumane technology and politics in search of something that feels authentic. The music breathes in the little that is left of old air and rises slowly into the hazy summer twilight like brittle thoughts that try to connect and fade away.”

Kronstad 23 was formed in Kronstad, Bergen, Norway in the Autumn of 2023. As old friends and musical collaborators, they rekindled a creative spark that had been dormant for over 10 years. Rarely rehearsed and often caught on first take, Sommermørket was recorded live on tape in the studio of Keyboardist Øyvind Vie Berg in Bergen, Norway. The record captures three sessions across one year, from spring and late summer in 2024 to winter of 2025.

Back in print on black vinyl in heavy brown cardboard sleeve w. Wrap around OBI strip.

In 2017, Causa Sui crafted their heaviest effort thus far. The final chapter in a trilogy, beginning with Euporie Tide from 2013, through Return To Sky from 2016. The Trilogy confirmed Causa Sui’s singular niche, where vintage Sabbath-isms are filtered through a distinctively post-modern ethos, and has continuously sold out as the top sellers at El Paraiso Records.

What sets Causa Sui apart is the fact that the band's individual members have had their hands in a wide variety of music in the past 20+ years – ambient drone, improv sessions with krautrock legends, synthesizer music, and they've made records with guys from Tortoise and Sunburned Hand of the Man. Causa Sui's brand of rock conveys everything so great about fuzzed-out heaviness, yet there's something about it that makes the listening experience far from trivial. In stark contrast to the standards of the stoner/doom scenes, Causa Sui manages to be weighty and peaceful at the same time – forceful, yet vulnerable, ecstatic yet thoughtful. 

On opener ”The Drop” the band drives a thick John Bonham groove into Can-esque freeform ecstasy before liquefying the groove into a warm coda of shoegazy guitars and wistful synths. On 11-minute centerpiece ”El Fuego” they create a sonic stream that channels Popol Vuh as much as Palm Desert stoner rock. And the closing title track can best be described as sounding like that Sonic Youth sludge-metal record that never was. Ounce for ounce, Vibraciones Doradas is arguably Causa Sui's heaviest effort.

All LPs limited to 500 copies. With Obi-strip. Ships Nov. 14th!