Anecdata’s New Album ‘Vita Brevis, Part 2’ Out Now
Anecdata’s new album Vita Brevis, Part 2 is out now!
Part 1 came out in August. Together, Parts 1 and 2 tell (well, vaguely hint at) the story of a young woman sent on a journey through time after a New Years Eve party at Stonehenge goes horribly wrong.
Anecdata is the sole work of one nerdy guy holed up in his West Auckland bedroom. Everything – from writing to production, mixing and mastering – is done completely independently. Whether that’s by choice, he’s not sure. Probably not.
Vita Brevis, Part 2 features a mix of darkwave, indie, synthpop and new wave, while at times veering into almost progressive rock and abstract instrumental music.
News to Me (Yeah, Nah) and End of Days borrow heavily from Depeche Mode and Devo, while Except could have almost been on a New Order album circa 1988. Existentialert and Set in Stonehenge betray an often unheard Yes bent in Anecdata’s music, while Simulacranium leans heavily into the pop-industrial sounds of early Nine Inch Nails.
Part 2 was recorded alongside Part 1 in the first half of 2025, and continues the protagonist Juliet’s unexpected journey into the future, as she tries desperately to figure out what happened and undo it.
Writing and recording of the two records – initially intended as one! – began in January 2025. As work progressed, and the plot solidified, it expanded to two albums – and brought in tunes and musical ideas written as far back as the 1990’s.
“This isn’t the first concept album I’ve ever written, but it might be the last that gets recorded and released,” said Dan, the guy mentioned above. Well, he didn’t actually say it but wrote it down as if he did, because press releases usually include a quote from the artist.
As befits a pretentious double album, each part begins with an instrumental and ends with the best song – not that many people will listen that far, but it wouldn’t be right to put the best songs in the middle. That’s just not how these things are done.
“Except was originally written as an acoustic tune after a trip to Wellington. I did my first proper demo of it using music software on a PlayStation, and a few years of tinkering later it morphed into an electronic tune, before getting some guitars back in the latest – and hopefully final! – version.”
The Bandcamp versions of the albums – contain several bonus tracks, in the form of demos and embryonic recordings of the albums’ tunes. Notably, there’s the original recording of Existentialert, recorded one drunken night in 2008, and a 2001 recording of Except – the one mentioned earlier using PlayStation music software.
