Cities Aviv - Even Colder Spring - Import Vinyl LP Record

Credits:

Cities Aviv

Description:

CITIESAVIV’s 2026 album *EVENCOLDERSPRING* is being released on LP!! Released by BlackTruffle, *EvenColderSpring* is the latest work by CITIESAVIV (real name: Wilbert Gavin Mays, also known as African-American Sound Recordings), a mysterious artist who continues to release music at an astonishing pace. It is also notable as one of the few works released outside of his own label, D.O.T. Audio Arts. For over a decade, CITIESAVIV has boldly deconstructed the conventions of hip-hop, creating highly original collages by layering distorted loops, radical production, and ever-shifting vocal styles. On this album, *EvenColderSpring*, that experimental spirit is fully on display across all 16 tracks. Tracks that sound fully formed cut off after just a few seconds, fragments of field recordings suddenly prompt a shift in atmosphere, and a soundscape buried in countless noises envelops the entire work. Vocally, the artist shifts between rhythmic, technically adept rapping, whisper-like murmurs, and free-spirited melodic lines; in the vocal parts in particular, a unique sense of weightlessness is created by intentionally distancing the vocals from the track’s harmonies. The lyrics, like the music, are fragmentary, interweaving apocalyptic visions of social and cultural homogenization, views on life and death, scenes from everyday life, and even enigmatic phrases such as “Maybe Mars is bourgeois?” In addition to Dante, who was referenced in previous works, this album features an even more diverse range of sources, including a title derived from philosopher Henri Bergson’s “élan vital” (vital impulse). Australian listeners might be surprised by the phrase “the tyranny of distance,” which appears at the beginning of “Closing Door.” While Mays’ work sometimes possesses a darkness that even evokes a sense of stagnation, the production on this album also possesses a dazzling brilliance. A transparency reminiscent of privately pressed New Age works and a more playful, Krautrock-inspired approach peek through here and there. The instrumental track “Martine Drift” has a texture that feels as if you’re listening to fragments of Cluster’s *Zuckerzeit* over a dial-up connection, while “L_area” fuses sounds reminiscent of Persona’s *Som* with lo-fi IDM. In the closing track, “Final Heaven,” a cloud of loops gradually melts into a trance-like distortion over the course of approximately seven minutes. At the artist’s request, the cover art was designed in a format strongly inspired by the works of Corwood Industries. It seems to symbolize the very world of *EVENCOLDERSPRING* itself. This album unfolds a world that is impossibly enigmatic yet, at the same time, deeply personal.

Tracklisting:

1.vg-
2.Even Colder Spring - Part 1
3.the elan vital
4.Even Colder Spring - Part 2
5.Martine Drift
6.Spinnin & Spinnin
7.Hit Parade
8.blkcardprince / The World Shares Her Tears
9.Tribeca
10.Concrete Masks
11.Bigger Than The Programme
12.Operation 8
13.Die
14.Closing Door
15.l'area
16.Final Heaven