Temple Fang Premiere “The Radiant” Video; Lifted From the Wind Out April 25
Amsterdam-based longform heavy psychedelic rockers Temple Fang release their new album, Lifted From the Wind, April 25 through respected purveyor Stickman Records. Below, they’re premiering a video for “The Radiant,” and below that, in the blue text you’ll see kind of a brief background on the record that the band asked me to write a couple months ago. It’s not the story of how they got together, or the partnership of bassist Dennis Duijnhouwer (also synth) and guitarist Jevin de Groot (also percussion) going back to their time together in cosmic celebrants Mühr and probably well before that — both on vocals, they are more in harmony than they’ve ever been here, figuratively and literally — or of the deepened collaborative feel as the four-piece have solidified the lineup with guitarist Ivy van der Veer (also Myriad’s Veil) and drummer Daan Wopereis, both of whom also contribute backing vocals.
Lifted From the Wind isn’t the first Temple Fang studio LP, even if it feels like the beginning of their future. One might be forgiven for thinking of it as a kind of debut since it seems both so fresh in its delivery and so much like a moment of arrival and declaration for the band. And neither 2021’s Fang Temple (review here) nor any of the handful of live outings they’ve done since manifests their sound in the way Lifted From the Wind does.
This happens across an encompassing five-song/74-minute sprawl, and that is going to be an attention test for some listeners to be sure — I don’t know when the last time you tried to concentrate on anything for an hour was, but I’ve made a recent attempt and the results were nowhere near as gorgeous as the expansive verse and proggy twisting riffery, lush melody, heavy underpinning and welcoming grace of “The River,” which both gets outwardly heavier than Temple Fang have ever been and aligns their ethic of massive jamming around a structure of verses, allowing the band to tell their story in a different way than they have to this point.
If you’re worried, I get it. The jams are still there. We’re talking about a question of balance of the elements in Temple Fang‘s sound, and yes, as discusssions go, it’s heady, nerdy shit. Know this: If you’ve never heard Temple Fang before there’s still a decent chance Lifted From the Wind ends up on your list of 2025’s best albums, unless you have some moral objection to life-affirming heavy psychedelia, spiritual realization or, like, sunshine. I’m not saying the album is without its challenging aspects.
The 2LP puts “The River” and “Once” on the A and B sides, respectively, with de Groot‘s lyrics around the nine-minute mark in the latter, “Once you feel the sadness/You become the sadness/When you let it go/It finds another home/Shackles will explode,” leading into a tempo kick of swirl nonetheless plotted in its trajectory before the flow ebbs and the ebb flows, the build builds and they cruise, backing vocals arriving in a call and response on repeated lines until another starburst after 13 minutes in. Speedier solocraft and rhythmic rush ensues, but the last five minutes of Lifted From the Wind‘s longest track, summarized by the lyric, “Once you feel this way, then you surrender,” move into cymbal wash and ethereal noodling around this repeated mantra. Surrendering advised.
A belly breath starts “Harvest Angel” at the outset of side C, and fair enough. “Harvest Angel” bring shorter than “Once” by eight minutes gives it a more straightforward initial impression, but don’t be fooled, there’s a whole infinite of ‘far out’ in/out there to be explored. Languid at the start, and almost a little like ‘Temple Fang does the blues,’ the song transitions to a speedier, jazz-proggier stretch in its second half, everybody singing overtop, and though they give the listener a moment to recover afterward — nothing if not considerate — the intention behind the placement of the centerpiece feels all the more purposeful.
“Harvest Angel” and “The Radiant” are the only two inclusions to share a side, and de Groot‘s guitar-following vocals at the end of the former give the standalone drums at the beginning of the latter clear reign to create a feeling of movement. If you haven’t already stopped reading this and listened to the song — thanks, but don’t feel obligated to make the blah-blah journey — you’ll find it a resoundingly efficient encapsulation of what Lifted From the Wind is doing in terms of not grounding the band’s sound but giving new and solid shape to the skies in which they’ve largely heretofore floated. There’s an engaging hook delivered in harmonized layers, and with “The Radiant,” Temple Fang position themselves among Europe’s finer prog-psych .
Could it be a sign of a transition to a more verse/chorus approach? Hell if I know, and just at this moment it doesn’t matter. “The Radiant” is Temple Fang announcing themselves. They’re ready, and since the circa-2019 inception of the band, Lifted From the Wind is what they’ve been working toward. 15-minute capper “Josephine” gives serenity of guitar, gentle cymbals and vocals up front, moves with patience (and choice backing vocals throughout; not gonna spoil it) into a section of intertwining guitar reachout, purposeful twists and pulls somehow not struggling because the pace is so fluid.
They’re not a third of the way through when a more prominent lead takes over, beginning to shift in a section of all-in Dutch prog. It stops, it turns, and it’s precise instrumentally in a way Temple Fang have not been until this record. Closing the album with a love song is reasonable for an offering that has so much heart at root across the board, and in both the forward emotional expression of the lyrics and the takeoff of the instruments accopanying them, “Josephine” resolves in gorgeousness as it invariably must, piano lines in among the dream of guitar and light-bouncing groove that takes the record into its final fadeout.
Granted, if they were arrogant about it, the whole thing would fall flat, but my only gripe with Lifted From the Wind is how obviously its finished form wasn’t. By implying communion with the otherwordly in the making of the songs — which the sonic aesthetic reinforces; I am a firm believer in the jam-room conversation between instruments as a moment with something beyond oneself — the band skillfully redirects the conversation around the material from the clear work they have done, not only in nailing their performances in the studio, but in undertaking a willful aural growth and progression over the last six years that’s brought them to this moment of triumph. That harmony in “Harvest Angel” and that shuffle in “The Radiant” didn’t happen by accident. These are works of craft, of mastery, and deserve consideration as such, even if the four-piece aren’t going to lay them out that way for you.
With a few weeks still to go before the release, I offer the video for “The Radiant” premiering below, and encourage you to enjoy. Thanks for reading:
Temple Fang, “The Radiant” video premiere
With ‘Lifted From the Wind,’ Temple Fang posit their creativity not only as a communion with each other — a conversation of instruments — but with something more ethereal.
Their psychedelia is one of soul as much as sound, and where plenty of bands out there cast their songs as rituals, Temple Fang convey the joy of true reverence in the name of sonic 
exploration and, now more than ever, craft.
That’s right, kids. They’re still plenty sprawling, but these are the most refined songs Temple Fang have wrought to-date from their particular corner of the cosmos (somewhere in Amsterdam), digging into repetition for hypnosis and emphasis alike, and remaking various notions of heavy in their image.
‘Lifted From the Wind’ helps give shape to the trajectory Temple Fang have been on from their outset, and feels like a moment of arrival in terms of manifesting a vision of who they want to be. It’s a special, deeply honest record, and whatever Temple Fang do from here on out, a Landmark in the life of this band. You’d be lucky to see others working under its influence. – JJ Koczan, Feb. 2025.
Tracklisting:
1. The River (18:24)
2. Once (21:11)
3. Harvest Angel (12:34)
4. The Radiant (7:26)
5. Josephine (15:00)
Temple Fang are:
Dennis Duijnhouwer: Vox, Bass, Synth
Jevin de Groot: Vox, Guitar, Percussion
Ivy van der Veer: Guitar, Vox
Daan Wopereis: Drums, Vox
Still mourning our ties with the mainland, stupid little island decision to cut off our nose to spite the face.
Not that Temple Fang would definitely be playing in the UK otherwise, but it seems that like many euro bands they now definitely won’t.
Maybe this year it’s time to dust off my purple passport and get over the water to see some stuff.