KABBEL releases When The War Is Over with stark new title-track video
KABBEL has released debut album When The War Is Over via Music of the Void, the label founded by Perturbator. The record arrives alongside a self-directed video for its title track, a synth-led centrepiece concerned with the emotional debris left behind after conflict.
Written, performed and produced by Gregory Hoepffner, with mixing handled by Lars Stalfors, When The War Is Over moves from KABBEL’s more experimental early work towards a sharper collision of pop melody, industrial pulse and uneasy electronic textures.
Hoepffner describes the album as a personal and political statement. “I like to imagine this album as a form of protest, in various ways,” he says. “KABBEL has become a tool for me to question my own education, allow unfiltered emotions to come to the surface, and talk about sexuality on my own terms.”
A song about what remains after the fight
The title track frames the end of a relationship through the language of war, focusing less on the conflict itself than the space and exhaustion it leaves behind. “For me this song is about the fallout of a relationship,” Hoepffner explains. “But being in a state of war can apply to many different things in our daily lives. I wanted to express the exhaustion of having your whole existence reduced to that, and the absolute waste of time it has been when it’s over.
“You are not just what you’re fighting against, you are mostly what you hope to reach after that conflict.”
The album follows earlier singles Fiction Clouds, Elephant and Reward, the latter featuring Perturbator. Stream the album here, or watch the video for When The War Is Over here.
The full track listing
Across ten tracks, Hoepffner pulls together bruised pop hooks, darker club rhythms and moments of widescreen electronic drama, including collaborations with Perturbator and Imer6ia.
- The Blaming Game
- Fiction Clouds
- R Chrome
- Reward feat. Perturbator
- Afterlife feat. Imer6ia
- No More XTC
- Elephant
- You Don’t Matter
- Endless
- When The War Is Over
European dates with Cage Fight
KABBEL will take the new material on the road in November, supporting Cage Fight across Germany and France.
- 7 November – Die Trompete – Bochum, DE
- 9 November – Mikropol – Berlin, DE
- 11 November – Backstage – Paris, FR
- 12 November – Ferrailleur – Nantes, FR
- 14 November – Noumatrouff – Mulhouse, FR
- 15 November – Black Lab – Lille, FR
