Acavernus & Yantra to Release Collaborative Gnose LP
There’s a fair amount to unpack here, before you even get to the audio. To wit, Acavernus and Yantra are both solo-projects, belonging respectively to Paula Rebellato of Rakta and Douglas Leal of Deafkids. Those two outfits — both based in Brazil — are no strangers to collaboration, but the pairing specifically of Rebellato and Leal as Acavernus & Yantra manifested at least in terms of the debut studio recording, Gnose, as a pandemic-era exploration. The album is set to release digitally on Friday — no time to waste — with vinyl to follow in November through Peru’s Buh Records, and is a drone-laced rite of experimentalist craft, seven songs feeling their way into the unknown across 40 minutes of varied ceremonialism. It is not for the faint of heart and not to be glossed over in the details. The birdsong amid the percussion in “Enigma,” for example, is essential. And are those waves in the closing title-track? I think so.
This is a debut technically, but obviously there’s a familiarity between the two as regards process, and the results on Gnose are that much richer for it.
Here’s the art and info:
Buh Records presents ACAVERNUS & YANTRA – GNOSE
Pre Order / Digital: May 14
Vinyl Release: November 10
Buh Records presents “Gnose”, the joint full-length by the solo acts of Paula Rebellato (RAKTA) and Douglas Leal (DEAFKIDS), members of two of the most thriving and groundbreaking bands coming out of Brazil to the world lately.
Produced between 2019 and 2020 in São Paulo, Brazil, some of the compositions were first conceived for a live performance in late 2019 and then expanded into a full-length album, part recorded in studio and part at home during the first months of the pandemic.
Inspired by the ritualistic potentials of music, “Gnose” offers a vertical and circular narrative throughout its 7 themes, exploring atmospheres that may contribute to experiences of displacement and inner silence. The fusion of traditional and acoustic instruments with electronic and processed sounds highlights the strong characteristics of both projects, melted into a journey within timeless soundscapes.
Paula Rebellato is an artist based in São Paulo, Brazil. Her journey with music and sound started at young age and became a more consistent path when she co-founded the genre-bending group Rakta. Active since 2011 and with several releases, the group has performed extensively throughout Europe, North & South America, Mexico and Japan. Rakta has lived a vertiginous rise for a band that was born from the DIY punk scene of São Paulo. Paula’s solo project ACAVERNUS, active since 2013, incorporates sound, visual and written language. Inspired by sounds and atmospheres that evokes strangeness and beauty, she dives into memories and encounters that leads to her own center of intuitive and instinctive expressions, always trying to work and explore different tools and materials for composing. Her work with the voice, processed by different effect pedals, takes the listener to both comfortable and uncomfortable places.
YANTRA is the solo project by Douglas Leal, multi-instrumentalist, visual artist and founding member of the Brazilian psychedelic punk trio DEAFKIDS. Active with his band since 2010 with several releases and extensive touring throughout Europe, North & South America, Douglas’ solo project emerged in 2015 as a psychedelic and meditative audio-visual outlet for experimental/home-recordings, but has since evolved into self-released tapes and collaborative recordings, live soundtrack for yoga and meditation sessions and improvisation sets with many different artists from São Paulo. Inspired by the modal music from different cultures around the world and using the electric guitar as the main instrument for his excursions into drones, ragas and maqams, over time Douglas began to explore the use of acoustic sounds such as native wind instruments, the Greek Bouzouki, the Turkish Ney, mouth harps and etc, expanding the project’s color palette into unknown musical paths.”Gnose” is published in Black/Color Vinyl LP, Limited To 300 Copies. Artwork by Douglas Leal.
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