Friday Full-Length: Lamp of the Universe, Echo in Light

Posted in Bootleg Theater on November 29th, 2024 by JJ Koczan

Because Lamp of the Universe has never stopped growing over the last 23 years since the project’s first release, it’s easy to listen to 2002’s second album, Echo in Light, as a more primitive version of what the solo-project of multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and producer Craig Williamson (now also Dead Shrine, ex-Arc of Ascent, ex-Datura) has become over time. But, hearing the second Lamp of the Universe full-length unfold over an otherworldly 54 minutes, Williamson was already building on what the one-man-band’s debut, 2001’s The Cosmic Union (reissue review here, discussed here), laid out in terms of scope with its Eastern inner-universe-exploration aesthetic and depth of arrangement, and it’s kind of astonishing in hindsight how much there is happening in songs like “Freedom to Godliness,” which opens with its nuance of sitar and nylon-string acoustic, tabla-style hand percussion, and Williamson‘s sweetly floating melodic vocals, and the sense of adventure brought to the aptly-named “Resonance,” which adds synthesizer drones to the procession; a tantric, cosmic vision of psychedelic folk for which I’ve now spent more than two decades trying to find an analog and failing outright.

To put it another way, there’s plenty of psych-folk out there. No shortage. I’ve never heard anyone else do psych-folk, coming from a background in heavy rock, with a specific bent toward Subcontinental influences but yeah definitely also space, while sounding (A:) not at all like a put-on and (B:) both exploratory and memorable. The repetition of “Resonance” as it moves into its last stretch, organ coming back over sitar and guitar after the vocals have dropped to silence, for example. That’s a march. And in an outwardly-heavier Williamson incarnation like Dead Shrine (also a solo-project), it might hit harder, but Lamp of the Universe‘s gentle, music-as-a-kindness approach doesn’t lose the feeling of worship or ritual or celebration. It is singularly gorgeous and, to my experience, a unique sound built from familiar elements. It occupies its own space in terms of aesthetic and again, I’ve had an ear out for something that might fit a decent “more like this” recommendation for over 20 years to no avail whatsoever. If you’ve got one, I’d love to hear it and be like, “yeah, okay, but not quite,” which is how it usually goes.

Included on Echo in Light are two longer-form mostly-instrumentals, “Our Celestial Flow” lamp of the universe echo in light(10:38) and the album-closer “Dream Sequence” (16:59), the latter of which uses distant, echoing voice as part of its ambient affect. Both emphasize experimentalism. “Our Celestial Flow” lays out a backing thread of organ and low-mixed rock drums behind mellow strums of wah guitar, as if to remind via the subtlest of funk that the first album was in decent portion about screwing, and unfolds as a graceful self-jam. By the time Williamson is four minutes in, he sounds like a room full of players dug into feeling their way through the proceedings, prescient of mellow-psych as a style and as hypnotic in reality as it seems to be in intent. Lead guitar weaves through most of it, but after the eight-minute mark, there are vocals over the drum fills for a moment, wavering and disappearing again as though to make the long-since-entranced listener question whether or not the actually happened until they’re confirmed by the intertwining voices at the finish. “Our Celestial Flow” is not mistitled.

And neither is “Dream Sequence,” for that matter, with its drifting collage of sound, departing from the love-as-spiritual-act ethic through which much of Echo in Light operates in pieces like the penultimate “Pyramids of Sun,” “Freedom to Godliness” or the flute-laced “Love,” which follows “Our Celestial Flow” by redirecting the mantra rather than breaking it. Cohesive and expressive in its purposes, Lamp of the Universe is of course patient in the execution, but even as it approaches 17 minutes long, “Dream Sequence” doesn’t lose sight of its goal in manifesting a psychedelic impressionism while maintaining the ambience and mood of the album that precedes it, and it even answers some of the wah and soloing of “Our Celestial Flow” as the suitably hallucinatory course unwinds, though the context is more serene in the closer with synth sounding like manipulated birdsong (maybe also being it) and washes of cymbals and chimes filling out the reaches of the mix.

In light of Williamson‘s collaboration earlier this year with Scott “Dr. Space” Heller for the hopefully-not-a-one-off Lamp of the Universe Meets Dr. Space LP, Enters Your Somas (review here), “Dream Sequence” feels particularly prescient of Lamp of the Universe‘s experimentalism in a way that defines a lot of Echo in Light as compares to The Cosmic Union, but even as it expands the parameters, the sophomore outing reaffirms the stylistic lean of the first. In doing so, however, Echo in Light works vividly to set up and set forth a progression in songwriting that Williamson is still following today. Lamp of the Universe‘s last couple standalone albums — let’s say 2023’s Kaleidoscope Mind (review here) and 2022’s The Akashic Field (review here) — have leaned more into a rock-based sound, and that shift feels organic in light of Williamson‘s three ’10s-era albums with Arc of Ascent, which was a full band, and the fact that between those two Lamp records, Dead Shrine made its own full-length debut with The Eightfold Path (review here). It’s not always easy listening from one end to the other as releases vary in their degrees of drone, heft, groove and melody, but there’s an awful lot you can hear informed by the work being done across Echo in Light, and a revisit finds it not only a worthy successor to a first LP that I consider a landmark, whatever anyone else thinks of it, but a preface to continued sonic evolution.

It won’t be long before Williamson is heard from again. Dead Shrine already has a single up from an impending second record, and again, Lamp of the Universe does have a release out this year (the aforementioned Dr. Space collab), so it’s not like there isn’t current work to dig into. And I hear a Datura reissue might be in the works as well. If you want to believe rumors you read on the internet, that is.

As always, I hope you enjoy, and thanks for reading.

Taking yesterday off for Thanksgiving was the right idea. I spent most of the day back and forth doing hosting stuff. We had 16 people, which is about the usual complement of family and close friends. It was The Patient Mrs.’ show. She baked for days, ran point on turkeys (we had two 18-pound birds; investment in future leftovers) and the timing of everything. It all went well. Nobody left mad, and everybody left full. The Pecan mostly played on the Switch all day, but at least she was around if not at the table with us. We’ll get there. She’s seven.

Today’s Black Friday, which is sad because no one has any money, everything costs a ton and the idea that people are actually saving on sales rings hollow to me. I worked retail. A month before Black Friday, the prices go up. Black Friday doorbusters! Get ’em before the tariffs kick in as if the cost of any such thing would ever be passed anywhere but the consumer. I guess capitalism just makes me sad now. Needless to say I’ve been letting a lot of the big-merch-sale Bandcamp updates that’ve come in this week go unread. Artists shouldn’t be scraping for bucks. Just imagine a better world. For two seconds. It won’t take you long to get there.

But yeah, I don’t think we’re hitting up the strip mall today. The Patient Mrs. mom has been around the last couple days, and helped out yesterday a lot, which was doubly impressive because she had her knee replaced like a week and a half ago. Gravy would be made, dammit. I’m not that tough. On Tuesday, I drove to Providence, Rhode Island — yes, I made a stop at Armageddon Shop; bought a Blind Guardian CD; they were playing Candlemass when I walked it and it felt welcoming — to pick up two turkeys from the farm we used to get our chicken from when we lived in Massachusetts, and picked up The Patient Mrs.’ mom on my way back south in Connecticut before proceeding to sit in some of the worst traffic of my life. I-95, man. Too many people, not enough road. It took four hours to get from CT to NJ. I’ve done it in less than two.

Living to tell the tale from that doesn’t feel like nothing. Tomorrow we’ll take her back north — she can make gravy, but handling a car would be a big ask — and I assume hang out for a bit in Connecticut, then Sunday we’re having a playdate/brunch for The Pecan because, well, I already vacuumed and when your kid plays with another kid now you hang out with the parents, apparently. When I was a kid that wasn’t the case, I don’t think. But whatever. It’ll be fine.

Whatever you’re up to, I hope you have a great and safe weekend. On the Thanksgiving theme, I am incredibly grateful for the continued support this site gets in its weird, quirky kind of mission to Share Music And Write About Stuff™, and if you’ve never heard Lamp of the Universe before and are listening to Echo in Light now for the first time, golly I hope you dig it.

Thanks again for reading. Back Monday.

FRM.

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Friday Full-Length: Lamp of the Universe, The Cosmic Union

Posted in Bootleg Theater on November 3rd, 2017 by JJ Koczan

Lamp of the Universe, The Cosmic Union (2001)

Whatever you’re doing, stop. Take a minute. Take an hour. Take whatever you need to take, and breathe. That seems to be the underlying message of Lamp of the Universe‘s 2001 debut album, The Cosmic Union. The ongoing psychedelic project was formed and continues to be manned solely by Craig Williamson, guitarist at the time for the underrated Datura, who in 2001 were two years removed from the release of their second and — as would turn out to be — final full-length, 1999’s Visions for the Celestial. Immediately, Lamp of the Universe presented a different direction for the Hamilton, New Zealand-based vocalist and multi-instrumentalist, engaging richly textured Eastern-influenced acid folk of rare potency. Sitar, tabla, keyboards, acoustic and electric guitars, chimes, synth, various percussive elements and a cascade of watery melodies lend The Cosmic Union an experimentalist feel, but in the years and numerous offerings since, Williamson has never deviated from the core vibe Lamp of the Universe established its first time out, despite delving into drone, full-band sounds, and other avenues of exploration.

Still, if Lamp of the Universe has always been a project with a mission, part of that mission has been not sounding like a band with a mission. That is to say, to listen to the seeping space-born pastoralism of “Born in the Rays of the Third Eye,” the sense of inner peace that comes through is nigh unmatched in psychedelic realms. Likewise the acoustic strum of the later “Give Yourself to Love,” on which Williamson offers subtle self-harmonies atop birdsong-esque guitar noise and backing swirl. Taken together, “Born in the Rays of the Third Eye,” the subsequent nine-minute highlight “Lotus of a Thousand Petals” and the late wah-soaked electrified soloing atop hand percussion of “In the Mystic Light” form an essential salvo for anyone who would seek to understand Williamson‘s methods. Core elements of Lamp of the Universe are laid as bare as the figures on The Cosmic Union‘s cover art. Key rhythms are set. Melodic progressions are established. Methods are honed. It’s by no means even close to the entirety of the scope that Wiliamson has unfurled with the project over the last 16 years, but it’s definitely the foundation, and as the theme of love as spiritual and physical entity arises in “Give Yourself to Love” and “Freedom in Your Mind” looses itself on organ-flourish and ultimate guitar drift — gorgeous, flowing, and utterly gone — the increasing complexity of the overarching approach does nothing to undercut the resonant ambience or the serenity that seems to emanate warmly from each of the album’s beautiful arrangements, so seemingly minimal and yet so spacious on “Her Cosmic Light” where only a few songs prior, “Lotus of a Thousand Petals” had seemed nearly like an entire group celebration of consciousness and mantra, universe-minded, somehow sexual and coherent despite the fact that its intricacy is the result of one person’s work. Williamson‘s skill as a craftsman is on ready display throughout the eight tracks of the original release, but there never seems to be a formula employed.

Rather, the variety seems to emerge as a result of organic processes, and a balance is struck between experimentalism and poise of songwriting. The peaceful noodling of “Her Cosmic Light” is a prime example of this, but one can hear it all throughout The Cosmic Union as well, whether it’s the uptempo, handclap-ready circle-folk of the sitar-led “What Love Can Bring,” or the immersive hypnotism brought on by “In the Mystic Light”‘s slow-moving liquefied swirl. Beauty is central to the process, and whether it’s longer tracks or shorter, freak folk or freak psych, layered or singular in delivery, Lamp of the Universe‘s debut offers a listening experience unlike anything I’ve encountered since — and make no mistake, I’ve looked. There’s purpose behind it, but the purpose is having no purpose. It oozes forward and yet keeps its feet on solid ground. Its scope is vast and diverse, but it remains deeply human and believable as the output of a lone individual. As “Tantra Asana” closes out with sitar echoing over a backing drone, building to one last consuming, gorgeous melody, keyboards emerging late to further the depth of Williamson‘s arrangement — again, without distracting from the effectiveness thereof — the shimmer of the album as a whole is reaffirmed, and though one couldn’t have known then what was being set in motion, it’s plain to hear across the 50-plus-minute outing that a world is being made, a place in which to dwell.

The Cosmic Union remains a joy to dwell in, and as the beginning point of a Lamp of the Universe discography that’s gone on to include no fewer than 10 full-lengths — the latest of which, Hidden Knowledge (review here), came out last year on Clostridium Records — it is all the more a genuinely special landmark. Williamson has at times over the last half-decade lent his focus more toward the heavy psych rock trio Arc of Ascent, whose third long-player, Realms of the Metaphysical (review here), arrived earlier in 2017, but he seems to perpetually return to Lamp of the Universe — a new split with Kanoi is currently on offer that I’m hoping I get the chance to check out — leading one to believe the project is as essential to him as it should be to anyone who’s ever sought an experience of communion with the aurally lysergic.

Note the version above comes from the Lamp of the Universe Bandcamp page and includes the bonus track “By the Grace of Love.” This is featured on the 2011 reissue that came via Williamson‘s own Astral Projection imprint. The album was originally released via Cranium Records.

Bottom line is I love this record, and I hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading.

Interesting week. I guess it started last Friday when The Patient Mrs., The Pecan and I made a daring escape from the hospital and headed home, the baby for the first time. The weekend was kind of a blur. I tried to do as much writing as I could, changed diapers, did daddy-stuff, cleaned as much as possible, made sure The Patient Mrs. was fed and so on. We listened to music. Family came up on Saturday or Sunday. I don’t remember which.

Then the power went out. That might’ve been Monday evening. There was a storm. Apparently a decent section of the Northeast was hit and because it’s 1930 and we put electric wires on poles in the air instead of in the ground where they belong, we lost power. In the three years we’ve lived in this spot, we’ve never had the power go out for more than an hour. New baby home? Two days. Solid. Bound to happen.

I thought we were going to die. I think it was Monday night. We toughed it out changing diapers and doing feedings by flashlight, but it was cold. Tuesday we decided pretty early on to get the hell out of dodge. We had an appointment in Providence on Wednesday anyway, so Tuesday afternoon I packed up the car and drove us the 45 minutes to Rhode Island. The Pecan sleeps in the car anyhow. I hear that’s a baby thing. There was a doctor’s appointment in there — the “you’ve been born” check-in for The Pecan; all is well — I think on Wednesday, and when we got back home after that, the lights had miraculously been turned back on. We damn near wept with joy. Then I made myself a protein shake for dinner. It was unbelievably good.

Yesterday was relatively quiet. A short walk, a daring half-hour of alone time for The Pecan and I while The Patient Mrs. ran an errand, and so on. Today I think we’re going to try to hit Costco, and then family comes up tomorrow, so yeah, goings on going on and whatnot. You might’ve noticed the last couple days have been lighter on posts, today included. That is not a coincidence. I’m doing the best I can and trying to support my wife as best I can.

Real quick, here’s what’s on tap so far for next week. I’m still waiting for some stuff to come together, so this will likely change:

Mon.: Uffe Lorenzen review/track premiere; Josefus live videos.
Tue.: Fireball Ministry review; Iron Monkey video.
Wed.: Maybe a review/premiere of some new Eggnogg.
Thu.: Six Dumb Questions with Great Electric Quest, I hope.
Fri.: Video premiere & album review of the new The Moth.

Pretty busy but hopefully manageable. We’ll see how it goes, and again, things might shift around pending baby stuff and whatnot. He’s been pretty cool to have around thus far though. He doesn’t have much to say at this point — though he grunts like a madman — but it’s been nice to hang out with the little guy after waiting for so long for him to show up.

Have a great and safe weekend, whatever you’re up to, and please don’t forget to check out the forum and the radio stream. Thanks again for reading.

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