We’re all about the weird shit at W&H this week. As if Japanese sample mash-ups wasn’t enough for us, we’re dabbling in French ethno-ambient music now.
Ujjaya is the musical project of Randriambololona Hery, and it’s clear he’s gone to some lengths to assemble the myriad parts that comprise this mystical aural journey.
Whale song and crashing waves wash and echo over clicking, squelchy beats and congas that fade in and out. Cinematic clouds of soft synths drift vaporously over murky swaps as religious liturgies as Arudra Darshan celebrate the auspicious side of Shiva. The ambience of ‘Arudra Darsha’ is actually the Inner sanctum of the temple of Tiruvinamalai in South India.
|
The title track features bamboo chimes, gong, Tibetan bowls, E-bow guitar. The overture speech, made in Cambodian (Khmer), speaks of the Angkor Vat era artists ("In those time only artist could invoke the Gods by their art because they are half-clean & half-dirty”)
The atmosphere is spiritual and deeply evocative, and as transcendental as it is ambient, making for an intriguing and often powerful work.
The Master of Crossroads Online
|
