Duskdawn by CARTHAGE emerges from late-night recordings and isolation

Transmission 211: Interview with CARTHAGE

CARTHAGE is the solo project of Damian Bennett, co-founder of KHOST and collaborator of Justin K Broadrick. Initiated in an attic room in Handsworth, Birmingham, CARTHAGE developed through late-night recordings marked by ambient noise, sleep deprivation, and a sense of isolation.

Title: Duskdawn
Artist: CARTHAGE
Genres: Experimental Music, Industrial Music, Shoegaze
Description: Interview with Carthage on Duskdawn, released 7 March 2025 by Avalanche and GIVE/TAKE, shaped by insomnia, repetition and minimal gear.

Released on 7 March 2025 via GIVE/TAKE and Avalanche Recordings, Duskdawn was assembled during a period of physical and mental strain, including hospitalisation. The album draws on fragments of overheard speech, degraded loops, and untreated guitar textures, shifting between structure and collapse.

When did your interest in music first begin?

Very much for as long as I can remember.

Were there specific bands or records that had a strong impact on you early on?

• ‘Sabbath Bloody Sabbath’
• ’10:15 Saturday Night’
• ‘Thief of Fire’
• ‘V-2 Schneider’
• ‘Love Like Anthrax’
• ‘… Rhodesia’
• ‘Double Dare’
• ‘Fearless’
• ‘Kaleidoscope’
• ‘Flight’
• ‘Sons And Fascination’
• ‘Second Edition’
• ‘Marquee Moon’
• ‘154’
• ‘The Voice of America’
• ‘Cut’

How did your surroundings in Birmingham influence your sound?

The eras I lived in Birmingham were very unpredictable and a bit volatile in parts, and definitely influenced the sound.

I lived in Handsworth when I started carthage and that was in an attic room in one of the older areas. I would work a lot on atmospheres and spoken word, straight onto 4 track. It sometimes felt like it was like writing in a diary, which still feels like the case.

Some of the ambient sounds of the areas would permeate the recordings too.

In the early days, what were the biggest technical limitations you had to work around, and how did they affect your sound?

The main limitation back then was gear-related. For example I had no real understanding of what a sampler did and was never sure of the questions to ask, though I wanted to use one. Music shops were generally noisy and unfriendly.

I realised a sampler could capture and manipulate sound, but then so could a PC at that stage, just with a line in and some freeware. So I didn’t understand how it was different or ‘musical’.

I later worked with the Swiss band 16-17 and watched them work with samplers, and also using a PC firing off sounds in real time, live, aligned with what we played. I found it indescribable.

When I moved to Bristol I got an E-Mu sampler and learned it by creating presets of instruments and tried to imagine them almost as band members. To ‘shape’ a drum kit from scratch, and then to shape other sounds was a big learning experience, one with no end.

If there was one thing I’d do differently with creating music it would be to leave the sounds as simple as possible and as raw as possible and not worry about cultivating them too much.

Even with the most minimal equipment like a tape recorder or something recorded straight to a small digital device, it’s sometimes more intriguing than an entire, produced ‘thing’… But I do like hugely-developed, massive layers too, totally.

That applies to ‘ambient’ music as well: when it’s overdriven and routed in different ways. I went that way at the end of ‘Intertrans’ which was one of the best parts of DD to do. My ears are still ringing from that.

What initially pushed you toward creating under the name CARTHAGE, and how did that differ from what you were doing with KHOST?

Generating atmospheres, sometimes inspired by the sound you hear when everything’s turned off. That continues a lot in some of the recent tracks.

Also to make music that is as quiet as possible. It’s so good to play this material live too. Super quiet.

About the name: the word ‘carthage’ seemed ok as it sounded like a haulage or logistics company. It’s nothing to do with the city in Tunisia. It’s just an atmosphere that is meant to hang there like a sign or backdrop or a building.

Khost exists in its own dimensional shift.

Duskdawn seems to come from a time marked by intense strain and isolation. Were the late-night, sleep-deprived sessions a deliberate choice, or something that came out of the circumstances?

They were just normal late nights, but I would definitely lose track of time a lot as I would try many approaches, and that can lead on to other things and before you know it, it’s light outside.

Sometimes I would think ‘I should get this one done, go dusk to dawn’ and then over time ‘duskdawning’ felt like a mode. That was almost the album title.

But either way I always loved writing at odd hours; for eg really really early morning: you can do something and then later on that day it seems like a really alien idea, as if someone else did it.

I really like that disassociation, or almost like when external forces have intervened.

‘Dayblurring’ was a term that came to mind too: pushing time together and – in mind’s eye – seeing parts of days and weeks moving as if through and separated by glass filters.

That process was a sense or a feeling that I totally wanted to get infused in certain songs, such as ‘wholivesinsideofyou’, ‘Just Like Glass’ and also ‘Community Service’.

Was there a clear theme behind the album, or did it form slowly?

It’s similar to a roadtrip: blurred views, shifting light, unfamiliarities, changing gears.

I did know early on that the album would be different to ‘Midnight White’. But I just wanted to capture immediacy, and commit the sounds as soon as I could and see where they went.

‘Unattainable’ in particular was very different; it came from a fast and erratic riff which sort of stuck. And when the drums were added, I actually had the playback tempo at the wrong speed and so the drums were messed up, but it fitted, so I left it.

‘Field of Blue’ came from a very early morning riff which needed to be a synth and piano line. The song is meant to be like laying out a series of photos on a table.

‘Rain Indoors’ was written during a period I had a broken forearm from a skateboard accident, where I over-rotated the re-entry from a rock & roll and fell backwards into the ramp… so it is a strange time capsule-on-codeine.

Daniela VK and I would evolve words and lyrics, as was the case for ‘Midnight White’. Over time the ‘fabric’ and shape of vocals evolved, like conversation.

What kind of setup were you using to record? Is there one piece of gear that helped define the sound of the album?

My old Telecaster was omnipresent. I use it relentlessly.

I also use a very worn-in 8 stringer: this became really integral at the time of ‘Midnight White’, particularly for the track ‘Filthy Consumption’.

I do lean towards repetitive blocks of sound generated by guitar, and that guitar is great for these. I sometimes underpin them with synth and the sampler.

I also like to loop these block sections and then work on the eq ‘live’ – while it is looping – and sometimes totally new ideas happen in the process.

Speaking of which, ‘Jefuel’ came from a loop.

The sax from Gus at the end of that song was like a dream.

You’ve worked closely with Justin Broadrick over the years — how did your collaboration evolve for Duskdawn, compared to previous work?

We would communicate now and then about the album and it was so great to hear the masters, and to have it all done. We generally have a similar view to working into the early hours.

Are you already working on something new or planning any future collaborations?

Yes, there’s new material written.  It’s all going to a really different place.

Photos courtesy of CARTHAGE

Matteo Damiani

Matteo Damiani is an Italian photographer and author. Curator of the sites Retrofuturista.com; weirditaly.com; china-underground.com and others