Ultra Eczema / Belgium / 2021
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Ultra Eczema celebrated its twenty-third birthday at home, alone: without Macaulay Culkin and without the traditional bacchanal. De Nor — a sculpture–pavilion in the grounds of the Middelheim Museum conceived and designed by Dennis Tyfus and FVWW Architecten, and a summer-long playground in peace time — had no choice but to free all its prisoners, even the jazz ones, and shut its gates. But the red beacon shall shine again! So please raise an overfilled glass to this deluxe vinyl edition featuring exclusive material by some of the artists who were booked to play there last summer — and some who weren’t. Three cheers to Lori Goldston! Hiele! Agnes Hvizdalek! Nubots! Justine Grillet! Thurston Moore! Sami Bergold! Possessed Factory! Stacks! David Edren! Aaron Dilloway & Lucrecia Dalt! Ka Baird! Ben Bertrand! Miaux! Lorie Bevins! and C.O.P.!
In defiance of pandemic-era dress-down codes, this edition (which is limited to 600 copies) is bedecked in a hardcover linen sleeve with debossed lettering and peek-a-boo die-cuts behind which Marcel, De Nor’s legendary bartender, will carry on ignoring you for all eternity. There is also a cut-out-and-fold De Nor paper sculpture by Gerard Herman on the insert!