maurizio bianchi: symphony for a genocide

Maurizio Bianchi's 1981 Symphony For a Genocide LP is the artist's most well known work, widely recognized as a classic of early industrial music. A year and a half after its initial release on vinyl in a limited edition of 227 copies, the album was reissued on cassette by the Broken Flag label. It was at this time that Bianchi created an entirely new recording drawn from the audio of the original LP. Entitled S.F.A.G. 81 and issued in January 1983 as a companion to the Symphony For a Genocide cassette release, it was a radically different work comprised solely of two extended, side-long tracks. Bianchi had already began to evolve from the harsh and primitive attack of his earliest releases toward a more desolate, introspective sound exemplified by The Plain Truth and Armaghedon albums; S.F.A.G. 81 lands somewhere in between these two approaches. Remnants of the relentless mechanical rhythms and synthesizer churn of the original Symphony remain, but it is as though one were listening to them from a distance, lost in the midst of a massive blizzard. Strains of recognizable sound drift in and out of earshot like hallucinations, echoing across the bleak stretches of grayed-out sound. S.F.A.G. 81 has been re-released (often in abridged form) on cassette and CD several times over the years, and an excerpt appeared on one LP side of Vinyl On Demand's massive five-disc Broken Flag retrospective box set; this reissue marks the first time ever the complete album has been available on vinyl. Remastered and fully authorized, it comes packaged in thick tip-on jackets with artwork by longtime Bianchi collaborator Siegmar Fricke. One-time pressing of 500 copies.