Nam-Khar – Antimon (Digital/CD Album – Cyclic Law / Zazen Sounds)

The Romanian collective Nam-Khar has been active since 2009, releasing numerous albums and collaborations over the years. In recent years, much of their work has appeared on labels such as Zazen Sounds, Winter-Light, and, more recently, Cyclic Law. With this new release, Nam-Khar explores a concept centered on alchemy, specifically the transformation of the self; the connection to—and inspiration drawn from—psychoanalytic pioneers such as Freud and Jung is therefore evident.
It is no coincidence that the album comprises seven tracks, a number of symbolic significance in alchemy. Here, Nam-Khar gives free rein to their creativity. While the music remains rooted in the Ritual genre, it is clearly much more than that. It incorporates strong Dark-Ambient elements alongside Industrial sounds and a pronounced Cinematic influence, manifesting itself primarily in deep, astral passages. Add a healthy dose of experimentation to the mix, and you get a sense of the highly diverse “Antimon”, where magical analogue sounds, acoustic instruments, and field recordings converge. The album oscillates between mysterious, dreamlike passages and others that are menacing and ominous.
With “Antimon”, Nam-Khar once again delivers a compelling release that is sure to captivate a wider audience interested in the aforementioned genres. (Rating:8).
Listen to “Melanosis”:
About Nam-Khar
Nam-Khar is a ritual ambient project centered on Romanian musician Konchog Gyaltsen, active since 2009. The project debuted with “A Hallowed Ground Within” the same year, and its catalog mixes ritual and dark ambient with industrial and cinematic elements, built from ethnic instrumentation, analog synthesis and field recordings.
Nam-Khar released “Secret Essence / Sangwa Dupa” (CD, Winter-Light) in 2018 and “Sur Chöd” (Winter-Light) in 2020, followed by “Dok-Pa” (Zazen Sounds) in 2022, a sequence Cyclic Law describes as the project’s “Tibetan Trilogy”. The same year brought “Nag-Hammadi” (Winter-Light), a collaboration with Vortex. Nam-Khar has also recorded with Alone in the Hollow Garden and Sielwolf, releasing “The Sarajevo Spiral” with Vortex and “Antariksha” as Alone In The Hollow Garden & Nam-Khar, both in 2024.
With “Antimon”, released July 20, 2026 on Zazen Sounds and Cyclic Law, Nam-Khar returns after “The Sarajevo Spiral” with a seven-track album built around an alchemical concept.
Support Side-Line
More people read Side-Line than ever, and there is still no paywall and no advertising. Readers pay for it instead - from $5 a month.
Why we ask
Advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news organisations we have not put up a paywall, and we refuse to add annoying advertising, so we need to ask for your help. Side-Line’s independent journalism takes time, money and hard work to produce, and we do it to push the artists we like, who are equally fighting to survive.
Handled by PayPal.

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.
