Haus Arafna * New York Rhapsody (cd 2011)
When you think that there was a big gap between “Butterfly” (2003) and “You” (2010) you may, like me, not have heard of a little Haus Arafna side project. Our good Arafna couple was asked to do the music for the 12 September 2009 New York Fashion Week show of Katie Gallagher. Because the result is (of course you would almost say) quite different from the usual Haus Arafna sound, mr. and mrs. Arafna delayed the release untill after “You” on purpose. So, what is it then, this “New York Rhapsody”? The 45 minute album opens with a coule of strange soft industrial sound collages nothing you are familar with of Haus Arafna (but when you know the Herman Kopp album…). The fourth track “I did it for you” begins more familiar. It is a nice soft angstpop song. “You know how to destroy me” is a dark industrial track, a real Haus Arafna piece of electronics, again with vocals. The next one is a softer track and then comes a new floorfiller. “Heart beats blood flow” is a brilliant dirty dance track. From then on the sound becomes softer again.
The booklet has photos that I suppose came from the show and they fit well in the Haus Arafna concept. “New York Rhapsody” is a real Haus Arafna cd, but the circumstances forced or allowed our “Industrialists” couple to think over the presentation. The result may be ‘softer’ for Haus Arafna standards, but this sure is no November Növelet. “No sign of “Screams ‘n’ Shouts” here. Instead Haus Arafna created Angst-Pop hits and Industrial Monsters with an extra dose of darkness, almost as if the March into Destruction has to be sweetened somewhat. Well-dressed, of course…”
Link: Haus Arafna, Gallakthorrö
Finally the debut of this Dutch project is available. Distel makes “angstpop” and “minimal” but this 7″ is not released on 
I had to wait a little longer for this 7″ than I hoped, but I least I got one of the 806 copies. Four tracks, two seem a bit like an intto and outro, two others are more full tracks with the sound of the tranquil tracks from “
I have had this compilation on the computer for some time, but good things I want to have ‘for real’. This compilation celebrated 10 years of 
I probably don’t have to tell you, but November Növelet is another project of Haus Arafna and Galakthorrö is mr. and mrs. Arafna’s label. It is only since a few years that I got to know and appreciate Haus Arafna. I hadn’t really listed to November Növelet yet, but what I heard it seemed that this was the Arafna harsch noise project while Haus Arafna evolved towards a more accessible sound. This assumption turns out to be wrong, because “Magic” is more ‘easy listening’ than anything that has been released under the monicker Haus Arafna (as far as I know). The album opens with minimalistic and even atmospheric sounds as it can be only made by the couple Arafna, but as the album continues the sound goes more towards 80’ies synthpop with of course an odd twist. It seems that the Arafna’s undergo a similar evolution as for example Thorofon who also started as a harsch noise project, but later got a sound that some call “antipop”. This album of November Növelet will appeal to people who enjoy the last Thorofon album, Dogpop, Geneviéve Pasquier and the like. Also where in earlier days mr. and mrs. Arafna were always shown with gasmasks on, they now can be seen in both projects with their real faces and for “Magic” even with an “Austin Powers”-like photoshoot! I must say that I enjoy this development in industrial music, the older the musicians get, the crazier it seems. The music is easy to listen to, but strange enough to avoid the masses (also because of the names they are released under I guess), so if you share that weird musical sense of humour, you might want to get a copy of “Magic”.