Genre/Influences: Experimental, Abstract.

Format: Digital, CD.

Background/Info: Cyclic Law welcomes a new artist from Russia. Dagmar Gertot already released a few productions, but remains a rather unfamiliar name. “Os Lacrimale” features eight songs, which are clearly very special in their global approach.

Content: “Os Lacrimale” is without a doubt one of the most surprising and ‘atypical’ releases from the Cyclic Law roster. You rapidly hear the work is mainly based upon a kind of free-style experiment with vocals. It’s totally improvised and features glossolalia technique (using an unknown language). This approach has something intriguing, even a bit witchcraft-driven, but still totally Abstract by the injection of real instruments like piano, accordion, horns ao.

+ + + : This is more than a simply unusual production on Cyclic Law. I can’t remember having ever heard a similar Experimental production –even if Phurpa also likes to experiment with vocals, but in a totally different way. This is pure expression, which reminds me of Outsider Art. The vocals are intriguing and sometimes anguishing when joined with different instruments or weird piano arrangements.

– – – : I’ve been never a huge adapt of this kind of improvisation. I imagine this kind of work as a part of a wider conceptual approach featuring a strong visual dimension like film, theatre, dance ao.

Conclusion: Dagmar Gertot has composed a work out of the box, but unfortunately it can’t totally convince me for its total Experimental approach.

Best songs: “Two-Headed Roe Deer”.

Rate: (5½).

Artist: www.gertot.com / www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100004782136905

Label: www.cycliclaw.com / www.facebook.com/cycliclaw

Inferno Sound Diaries

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.

www.side-line.com

Genre/Influences: Dark-ambient, ritual.

Format: Digital, CD.

Background/Info: Undirheimar is one of the latest signings by Cyclic Law. The project has been introduced as ‘Undirhaimar is a corpse, a vehicle through which Thursian primal antinomian current is manifested within this world’. It in a way reveals some of the project’s main sources of inspiration resulting in the six tracks of this work.

Content: Behind this Icelandic title you’ll discover an album with two sides. We first get three impressive and overwhelming cuts revealing a perfect balance between ritual- and dark-ambient music. Some throated singing parts appear to be an essential element in the work accentuating the ritual aspect. On top of it all you’ll notice heavy, epic arrangements.

Next we get three long duration pieces, which are mainly driven by the specific and unique throat singing. It reminds me of Phurpa albums.

+ + + : The first three cuts of this work are simply brilliant. The dark atmosphere mixed with the ritual elements and epic arrangements on top create an original, but obscure, anguishing sound. Both debut cuts leave an impact on you; it feels like evil creatures composing bewitching music to convert poor mortal subjects. The slow progression of the tracks reach a total climax, like a morbid, transcendental experience.

– – – : I like the technique of throat singing, which has this natural, ritual effect, but the three last cuts of the album are just based upon this single technique. It creates some monotony, which is a bit disappointing after the astonishing debut. 

Conclusion: “Heljarrúnar” is an album with two sides: three exceptional tracks to take off and three soporific tracks to conclude!

Best songs: “Utgardr”, “Urthursar”.

Rate: (7½).

Artist: www.facebook.com/ThursianRitualArt

Label: www.cycliclaw.com /

www.facebook.com/cycliclaw

Inferno Sound Diaries

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.

www.side-line.com

The Canadian label Cyclic Law definitely belongs to the leading ships of the dark-ambient scene. Set up in 2002 by Frederic Arbour, the label has released an impressive number of essential productions. But behind the label owner also hides a musician. Frederic Arbour has been involved with numerous projects, but it’s the latest album from his Visions project that caught my attention. The full lengths “Lapse” (2005) and “Summoning The Void” were released a while ago, but Visions stroke back in 2018 releasing the “Monad”-opus together with the Russian Phurpa project. And by the end of 2019 Frederic Arbour unleashed the album “Temples”, which is an overwhelming piece of dark-ambient music. This is a truly master piece, which can be the best described as cold, scary and poignant! I talked about it with Frederic Arbour.

(Picture credits by Sebastien Roy / Interview courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q: We all know you as Cyclic Law label owner, but we sometimes forget you’ve been involved with several music projects. Can you briefly remind us all these projects and what makes Visions different from the rest? 

Frederic: Well I’m a musician first and foremost and been an active musician for the past 30 years, this is what lead me to start a label in the first place. Projects of interest here, without going back to my teens as a drummer in various grindcore and D-Beat bands, would be Instincts (Cyclic Law), with one album released in 2002, Visions came about in 2004 as a way to work with sounds in a less structured way; an assemblage of drones and soundscapes with a deep expansive spiritual backbone, away from the more loop based and orchestral approach I had with Instincts, and my previous drummer frame of mind.

Through the years I’ve also played guitar and atmospherics in Longing For Dawn (Grau), a doom-metal band I formed back in 2004 also. Since then I’ve had a few collaborative projects, Havan (Cyclic Law) with Harlow McFarlane of Funerary Call and Sarah Brady of Amber Asylum (a new album is in the works) as well as Skorneg (Malignant Records), joint project with Skinwell. I’m also currently in the duo Stärker (Hospital Productions, Zhark, Total Black) with Martin Dumais of Aun and have a solo-project named Purgate (Aufnahme + Wiedergabe, Total Black). these last 2 projects are more inclined to rhythmic structures, analog circuitry, merging techno and ambient-industrial sonorities, so I am always working on a few projects at a time.

Q: It all feels a bit like in 2018 you reactivated “Visions” with the “Monad” album, which was a collaborative work with Phurpa while last year you unleashed the “Temples” album. What incited you to get back to composition and what did you try to accomplish on both releases?

Frederic: I actually had been sitting on both the “Temples” recordings and pieces of “Monad” for a few years before releasing them. It seems I tend to put my material aside and focus more on promoting others… trying to remedy this now… But all things come in due time and the past years were ripe for some new Visions I felt, and I’ll also be keeping this project alive as my main ambient output.

“Monad” was on my mind for quite some time, I’ve had huge interest and respect for Alexey Tegin’s work and Phurpa for many years and after meeting him and being invited to his home in Moscow some years back it felt natural to cement this special meeting into a musical output, and so “Monad” finally came to be. I’m very satisfied with how this album turned out and the great response it received.

“Temples” was a slight step away from my previous sound and an attempt to re-integrate what I’d first wanted to leave behind, being melodies and some structural elements. It also has a more earthy approach conceptually compared to the previous cosmologically focused themes I investigated earlier.

Q: The album has been introduced as ‘an hymn to lost civilizations, and a gratitude for what can still be found and discovered from our predecessors. As societies fall, most of their temples and shrines seem to remain, perhaps, as a reflection of the materiality of spirit.’ How did you get interested by this subject and what does it say about yourself and your perception about the current life and their civilizations? 

Frederic: Human history and our place and origin within the universe is one of my main interest of research. Our origins have yet to be truly understood, theories abound, but the real truth has yet to be revealed. Many civilizations have been lost in time, cataclysms of all sorts have wiped a many, some of which all traces have gone, while some glimpses of others still remain to be found and investigated. We’ve lost so much of our ancestral knowledge it feels we are still in infancy, trying to relearn or remembering it seems, what has been lost.

The industrial age we’ve experienced is, but a fragment of human civilizations, before and after, and it does seem we’re at the end of a cycle, as it’s long been mentioned in various texts, be it the Kali Yuga or the Mayan calendar etc… yet endings foretell new beginnings.

“Temples” focuses on the spiritual and human quest of figuring out just this, where do we come from and how did we get to this point. Our psyche, through all races and on all continents, seeks this higher link or knowledge though various rites, shrines and temples, but we are all linked by this deep human need to know THE truth. As Madame Blavatsky so rightfully phrased it ‘There is no religion higher than truth’, and to me this sums it all up in one phrase. So “Temples” is an hymn to these sites devoted to spiritual quest, the research within to comprehend what is without.

Q: How did you prepare such an album (regarding the theme) and how did you transpose the ideas/concept into sounds, noises and finally tracks? 

Frederic: Hard to explain how everything ‘fits’ in the end, but it’s a continuous process, I’ve also changed most of my equipment in favor of analog machines so this accounted for a different sound and approach to composing. “Monad” as well as “Temples” or any other works are simply chapters in a long observational, experimental and spiritual quest, and at the right time, elements merge to create a whole, everything has its place and time.

Q: I noticed Visions is also performing live. How do you as a visual artist transpose your music from the studio till the stage? 

Frederic: I’ve recently collaborated with long-time friend Karl Lemieux, film maker and 16mm experimentalist well known for being the live projectionist for God Speed You Black Emperor. For the new live set, which focuses on the “Temples” themes and sound, we’ve reworked one of his early short films for the occasion. Filmed in the desert of Arizona it depicts what could be seen as an abandoned church, house or temple, decrepit and in ruins with a few walls still standing after who knows how many years, it was the perfect film to make the album’s concept come to life, and a still frame from it also became the album’s artwork.

Q: You’re now based in Berlin (Germany), which is often considered as ‘the place to be’ when it comes to (visionary) music and artists. What’s the real impact of this town and its activities on your artistic creation(s) and what’s the difference with your homeland Canada?  

Frederic: I’m actually relocating to Southern France, in a completely rural and different environment. I’ve met great people in my 4 years in Berlin and it was to me a perfect landing spot within Europe after years of wanting to move on the continent. Yet Berlin is about its night life, there’s really great venues, always something to do or see/hear, but there’s so much I can take of entertainment… I need to work and focus and this city will always pull you in different ways, and mostly pull you down. And I knew from the start Berlin was only temporary. Back in Canada I lived out in a cabin a few hours from the city for some years, but had planned to eventually move to Europe and so in 2015 I put that plan into motion. So I sold the cabin, moved back to Montreal and then through friends and connections living in Berlin I focused on trying to get the proper paperwork to move there, which as a foreign artist is quite welcoming in terms of visas etc…

So this is how I ended up there, but the second part of the plan, which I’ve now set into motion, was to relocate again in a rural area within Europe. I wasn’t sure where, but the mountains we’re a definite draw and French being my native language the Pyreenes and its surrounding counties is where I decided to put my attention. Also the history of the Cathars and the ensuing dark period of the Inquisition had long been of interest and so on a few occasions I came to the Pyrenees to visit key sites and villages part of that historic period and the more I visited I came to the realization that this is where I actually belong, as if a had found my true home. And life made it so that me and my girlfriend, who is French, found this house in what is part of the original so called Cathar ‘country’. A key sector filled with UNESCO heritages site of fortified villages from the period of the Inquisition and beyond, a very unique and historically rich region.

So Berlin, although very close friends of mine are there and the music scene, especially electronic music, is quite present and there’s much, too much… to do, the city itself is not for me and I’m glad to now finally have the quiet rural life I wanted.

Inferno Sound Diaries

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.

www.side-line.com

Genre/Influences: Dark-ambient, ritual, industrial. 

Background/Info: I didn’t really find that much info about this German project releasing its debut album on Cyclic Law. “Bod” has been introduced as ‘the music, artwork and concept behind BOD serves as an exploration and installment of a new tradition of ritual and occult arts sourced from various ancient foundations. For this, a new culture with its own history, including a new language was constructed.’

Content: The album features one track taking the listener away for a trip of 51 minutes. It feels a bit strange as you clearly will notice there are multiple and very different tracks included. “Bod” moves from ritual passages with bells and spooky atmospheres into dark, humming sound waves with heavy blasts towards a heavy industrial bombast created by guitar and reminding to The Swans towards ritual throat singing à la Phurpa towards a new industrial passage à la Swans. 

+ + + : MUUR clearly reveals to be an eclectic project. I personally prefer the industrial side with great guitar playing à la Swans and the ritual passage with this enigmatic and sacred-like throat singing. 

– – – : Mixing different influences together feels a bit like listening to a compilation. There’s less cohesion between the tracks. 

Conclusion: MUUR sounds a bit like a summary of dark-ambient-, industrial- and ritual music. I think it would have been a better idea creating separate tracks instead of one long during piece. 

Best songs: “Bod”. 

Rate: (6½). 

Label: www.cycliclaw.com / www.facebook.com/cycliclaw

Inferno Sound Diaries

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.

www.side-line.com

Genre/Influences: Dark-ambient, dark-cinematographic.

Background/Info: Frederic Arbour is not only running Cyclic Law (now established in Berlin), but he from time to time also composes his own music under the Visions moniker. He last year released the “Monad”-album together with Phurpa and now strikes back with his first solo-album in nine years. “Temples” is meant as ‘as a hymn to lost civilizations, and a gratitude for what can still be found and discovered from our predecessors. As societies fall, most of their temples and shrines seem to remain, perhaps, as a reflection of the materiality of spirit.’

Content: The main characteristic from “Temples” is the permanent fusion between dark-cinematographic music and pure dark-ambient. The compositions are characterized by heavy, impressive blasting sound waves. You sometimes get the impression to hear electronic signals from outer space. The tracks are rather long, but featuring several climaxes. 

+ + + : Frederic Arbour took me by surprise! He released an overwhelming ambient composition, which is moving crescendo while mixed with background noises and field recordings. The deep, vibrating sound waves are literally resonating in your stomach. It’s an icy and frightening sensation, but still a truly reference to speak about a successful experience. The album features a few masterpieces such as “Ultima” and “Continuum”. 

– – – : This album is a great exposure of Frederic Arbour’s musical taste. It’s just a pity we had to wait such a long time for such a masterpiece!

Conclusion: “Temples” is without a shadow of a doubt one of the best Cyclic Law releases from the year! This is how dark-ambient music has to feel: cold, scary and poignant!

Best songs: “Ultima”, “Continuum”, “Murmur”, “Temples”. 

Rate: (9).

Artist: www.facebook.com/visionsambient 

Label: www.cycliclaw.com / www.facebook.com/cycliclaw

Inferno Sound Diaries

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.

www.side-line.com

Genre/Influences: Dark-ambient.

Background/Info: Neraterrae is an Italian project set up by Alessio Antoni. The debut album “The Substance Of Perception” is a special one as it features collaborations with Northaunt, Alexei Tegin (Phurpa), New Risen Throne & Treha Sektori, Infinexhuma & Taphephobia, Treha Sektori & Xerxes The Dark, Угасание and Flowers For Bodysnatchers. Each song features one or more artists.

Content: The songs are clearly driven by dark-ambient atmospheres, but also with other elements such as experimental sound treatments, field recordings and neo-classic arrangements. The guest artists clearly inject their own touch to the work, which is sometimes easily recognizable.

+ + + : For a debut album Neraterrae has accomplished a real tour de force.Getting such an impressive list of recognized artists in the genre contributing to your album is for sure something really special. It will catch the attention of numerous dark-ambient fans. Content-wise I noticed a few cool songs such as “Becoming The Nightmare” featuring  New Risen Throne & Treha Sektori. There’s an oppressive atmosphere hanging over the track while the sound treatments reinforce the obscure side of the track. Other noticeable cuts are “Beyond” featuring Угасание and “Echoing stars” featuring Flowers For Bodysnatchers. On the last mentioned song you’ll easily recognize the typical piano-arrangements, which became a trademark of Flowers For Bodysnatchers. 

– – – : I’m missing some cohesion between some of the tracks, which sometimes gives me the impression listening to a compilation. Some songs/collaborations left me rather skeptical for missing a truly apotheosis.

Conclusion: The collaborative concept behind this album is just great, but I expected a bit more out of the final result.

Best songs: “Beyond”, “Becoming The Nightmare”, “Echoing Stars”.

Rate: (6½).

Artist: www.facebook.com/neraterrae

Label: www.cycliclaw.com / www.facebook.com/cycliclaw

Inferno Sound Diaries

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.

www.side-line.com

Genre/Influences: Dark-ambient, experimental, cinematographic.

Background/Info: “Monad” is a particular release in the Cyclic Law label history. It indeed is the 100^th release from the Canadian label run by  Frederic Arbour. To celebrate this event Frederic Arbour (Visions) joined hands with the Russian ritual/ambient artist,  Alexey Tegin (Phurpa).

Content: If you’re a little bit familiar with the respective works of both artists you can only, but agree that they deal with different kinds of music. Visions is more into dark-ambient and cinematographic-like work while Phurpa is a very particular, ritual-kind of project characterized by ritual singing. Both artists appear to be quite complementary on “Monad”, this work mixing both influences together. From dark, humming sound waves and ditto voices to a real impressive arsenal of noise treatments you mainly can distinguish by the use of headphones, this album reveals a sophisticated approach in sound.

+ + + : It was years ago now I heard any new work from Visions, but Frederic Arbour recovered his machines from dust to create a special work together with Phurpa. Both artists seem to have found each other, the work being complementary and even innovating. There’s an interesting twist between the influences of both artists. I like the progression in the song structure, which makes me think to a sonic web that has been patiently elaborated to reach its ultimate point at the very last cut. This sonic structure has been built up with an impressive sound canvas featuring multiple little noises and effects. This is the kind of release you have to play loud or by using headphones.

– – – : The tracks are a bit similar to each other and maybe too much focused on the diversity of sounds & noises instead of creating the ultimate ‘atmosphere’.

Conclusion: I’m not always that convinced about the artists working together on one full album, but I have to admit there’s a real strong connection between both artists. So I hope they’ll consider working together on a new album.

Best songs: “Reminiscence”, “Ascendance”.

Rate: (7½).

Artists: www.facebook.com/frederic.arbour / www.facebook.com/PHURPAband

Label: www.cycliclaw.com / www.facebook.com/cycliclaw

Inferno Sound Diaries

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.

www.side-line.com

Celebrating its 100th release, Cyclic Law presents an exclusive collaboration between label head Frederic Arbour’s long standing project Visions and Russia’s ritual formation, lead by Alexey Tegin, Phurpa.

On “Monad” you’ll find a merge of Phurpa’s meditational chants and shamanic percussive elements and Visions’ slow-shifting, multi-layered textural drones. You can listen to a preview of all the tracks below.

The album comes as a CD edition of 500 copies in a 4-panel digisleeve and as an LP edition of 200 copies in a standard LP sleeve. Both formats hold 4 tracks with a playing time of just over 40 minutes. You can order both via the label’s website or via Bandcamp.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

side-line.com

Genre/Influences: Ritual, ambient.

Background/Info: Phurpa strikes back one year after their first chapter of “Rituals Of Bön”. The Russian information is strongly inspired by Bön, which is the oldest Buddhist tradition from Tibet. This new opus features 2 new cuts.

Content: I’m now a bit more familiar with the work of Phurpa, which each album again moves into pure ritual music. The sound becomes meditation, which is accentuated by the constant deep, humming tantric chants. They again accomplish their work by the use of Tibetan instruments, creating this particular and ceremonial sound often played by the monks during their rites.

+ + + : Each time again I’m surprised by the overwhelming and vibrating chants of Phurpa. It’s a ritual sound featuring a strong visual aspect. With some imagination you can smell the particular odor hanging in the Tibetan temples. The Tantric chants remain a very unique experience, which needs a hard and constant practice. But I also enjoy the great sounds of the Tibetan instruments, which are accentuating the ritual aspect of the music.

– – – : My single reproach remains the same for each new Phurpa release. The sound formula remains exactly the same and there’s less diversity between the tracks and the albums. It makes the work predictable and on the long run a little bit monotonous.

Conclusion: Two new Phurpa tracks revealing ritual music with an authentic taste!

Best songs: “Long Life II”.

Rate: (7).

Band: www.facebook.com/PHURPAband

Label: www.zoharum.com / www.facebook.com/zoharum

Inferno Sound Diaries

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.

www.side-line.com

Genre/Influences: Ritual, ambient.

Background/Info: Set up in 2003, Phurpa is a Russian collective inspired by ritual music and Buddhism. It also is a prolific formation, which is releasing multiple albums a year. The main characteristic of the band remains the special type of tantric overtone singing/chanting, called gyukye (rgyud skad), from Tibetan words ‘rgyud’ (tantra) and ‘skad’ (sound of the voice). This singing is based on the principle of practitioner’s transmogrification during chanting meditation. This technique is achieved through an extensive training, including both meditation and physical, breathing and vocal exercises.

Content: Each disc features a long during piece of music, which more sounds as pure meditation. Next to the particular and tantric overtone, buzzing meditation chants the band is also using authentic Tibetan instruments reinforcing the ambient part of the work, which however remains ritual-like.

+ + + : Phurpa is a very unique experience in the ritual music genre. You directly recognize the collective throughout the buzzing chants. You feel like assisting to a ceremony in the mystic temples of Tibet. It remains a particular sensation for me personally as I ever got the opportunity visiting Tibet and numerous temples where monks were performing similar ceremonies. No doubt about it, this way of singing is absolutely singular and needs an active practice, but I especially enjoy the sharp sound of the Tibetan horns.

– – – : The other side of the coin is that the sound and singing formula of Phurpa is pretty repetitive and suffering from a lack of diversity. I’m especially missing more ‘music’, the main part of the recording being based upon the chants.

Conclusion: Phurpa is an invitation to meditation and an opportunity to get into your inner-self.

Best songs: Untitled.

Rate: (7)

Band: www.facebook.com/PHURPAband

Label: www.zoharum.com / www.facebook.com/zoharum

Inferno Sound Diaries

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.

www.side-line.com

Genre/Influences: Ritual, experimental.

Background/Info: Phurpa is a Russian collective inspired and driven by the ritual music of BON, which is the oldest Buddhist tradition of Tibet. Phurpa has released an impressive number of productions on a wide range of labels. “Gyer Ro” is double disc featuring 4 compositions.

Content: I had the opportunity travelling through Tibet, visiting numerous Buddhist temples and even assisting at some ceremonies. “Gyer Ro” fully evokes this particular atmosphere from the temples. Phurpa sounds totally devoted to ritual music, in a way reproducing the sphere of mantras performed with these unique, buzzing and throated vocals.

Another main characteristic of Phurpa –and an essential element, is the use of authentic instruments like  cymbals, and different kind of horns etc.

The first disc features one single and long duration piece (of 78”) while the second disc features 3 cuts. The sound and format both remain the same, inviting the listener to visit a ritual, mysterious and dark universe.

+ + + : I’m particularly touched by the sound universe created by Phurpa, which reminds me of the atmosphere of the Tibetan temples. This is an original and somewhat different approach in music, which will catch the attention of the dark-ambient and ritual music lovers. It’s a sound and composition you’ll easily keep in mind. You can feel the passion of Phurpa, which has been transposed in their oeuvre. The use of authentic instruments reinforces the strong visual appeal of this work. I’m just missing the particular smell hanging in the temples to really get the impression of being there.

– – – : Despite of my enthusiasm for the concept, “Gyer Ro” is not exactly an easy listening work. The sonic mantras are quite monotonous and especially focused on the magic of the vocals. This album rapidly appears to be a real challenge, which you will either like, or not like. There’s no real way in between. I think I would have liked it if using more instruments and less vocal parts.

Conclusion: Phurpa invites you to join in for a spiritual trip to the highest tops of the world accompanied by ritual chants. I like the concept, but the result couldn’t fully convince me!

Best songs: “Mu-Ye”.

Rate: (6).

Band: www.facebook.com/PHURPAband

Label: www.cycliclaw.com / www.facebook.com/cycliclaw

Inferno Sound Diaries

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.

www.side-line.com

Out on April 5 via Cyclic Law is a brand new release from Russia’s shamanic ritualists Phurpa. You can expect chanting meditations accentuated by the use nga drums, rolmo cymbals, gyaling oboes, as well as telescopic dunchen horns, dunkar shells and short wandun horns.

The double album was recorded in Moscow, Russia in March 2016 and holds 4 extra tracks on the bonus album. The release comes in an edition of 500 copies only packaged in a gatefold A5 sleeve. You can order it right here from the label.

The first ideas for Phurpa were created in the middle of the 1990s in Moscow, Russia, when a group of artists and musicians led by Alexey Tegin commenced their studies of traditional ritual music at the legendary Cardinal Art Factory. The artists drifted away from the field of contemporary electroacoustic and industrial music whilst finding ideas in the ancient musical cultures of the ancient Egypt, Iran and Tibet. The band was finally formed in 2003

The current members of the project include Alexei Tegin, Dmitry Globa, Eduard Utukin, Anastasia Tomskaya and Pavel Selchukov.

Here’s a preview of the album:

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

side-line.com