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Full Album Premiere & Review: Edena Gardens, Edena Gardens

Posted in audiObelisk, Reviews on October 25th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

Edena Gardens Edena Gardens

[Click play above to stream the self-titled debut from Edena Gardens. Album is out Oct. 28 via El Paraiso Records with preorders here.]

The meeting of vibes taking place throughout Edena Gardens‘ self-titled debut is not entirely unexpected, and it’s in keeping with the Causa Sui/El Paraiso Records psych-as-jazz-and-also-sometimes-psych-jazz ethos that, like collaborating soloists, Martin Rude and Jakob Skøtt of the venerable Danish explorers should unite with guitarist Nicklas Sørensen of established countrymen post-jammers Papir for an album that harnesses strengths from all of them. With Skøtt on drums and Rude swapping between bass and guitar, and Sørensen stepping into a kind of featured role, Edena Gardens offer mellow-psych immersion throughout the entirely-instrumental 44 minutes of their self-titled debut — on El Paraiso, naturally — echoing through synth-laced cosmic pastoralia on “Now Here Nowhere” and, crucially, seeming to find its way as it goes, with cymbal wash and guitars waking at the outset of 10-minute opener and longest track (immediate points) “Aether,” which marks out the fluidity with which the proceedings will play out.

Rude, on guitar or bass, is the unifying factor in bringing together Sørensen‘s guitar and Skøtt‘s guitar, and while it’s a jazz-born ethic, one might also recognize it from a near-infinite number of rock power trios, including to some extent Papir, so the argument might be made for some carryover on Sørensen‘s part there, but the thunder-rumble under “Aether” as it comes gradually to life is the rhythmic center around which the song takes shape, a light lumber with a correspondingly light warning of the tonal heft that may or may not follow.

It does, at least a little, but it doesn’t really have to. And that’s not a complaint in the slightest. These seven songs find Edena Gardens willfully embracing the tenets of heavy psychedelia, whether it’s the gathering-consciousness-for-exhale taking place in “Aether” or the immediately more active “Sliding Under” picking up from that extended leadoff with what sounds like Yawning Man-style pedal steel or slide; dreams cast in intertwining lines of guitar, hear-every-string strums and a soft, ethereal, jammy roll.

The song might be titled after its ending fadeout, in which indeed the guitar and drums slide under a line of synth to finish and give way to “The Canopy,” which follows the guitar’s deceptively plotted course — that is to say, just because the listener doesn’t yet know where Sørensen is headed doesn’t mean he doesn’t know either — sweet detailing of synth/effects and quiet drums behind, maybe some chime percussion? It’s hard to know what’s real and what’s imaginary after a while, but the drift factor in “The Canopy” is a righteousness unto itself, finishing with a brief moment of drone that is like a reveal for what’s been filling the song out all the while.

So much flow. And whether or not you can go with it is going to determine basically the entirety of the impression Edena Gardens is making, but it’s hardly an effort to follow Rude, Skøtt and Sørensen through these pieces that make up the whole of the album. “The Canopy” wraps side A with the exact opposite of a feeling of ceremony, as if just to quietly note the passing of time, the fleeting nature of even the universe itself, let alone anything to temporary as art, music, humanity, and so on. One of just two songs under four minutes long — the other is the penultimate “Iod” — it leads to the centerpiece/side B opener “Hidebound,” which pushes the synth forward in cyclical washes alongside a steady progression of guitar and drums, the spirit more cool-river than molten-ooze, with a rise in volume serving as a perfunctory crescendo as that synth line runs by again for the comedown.

Edena Gardens Edena Gardens record

This they follow with the aforementioned “Now Here Nowhere,” putting Skøtt‘s drums along with the synth and Rude‘s bass out there on the quick with Sørensen joining a moment later, a perfectly executed, smoothly realized methodological swap that puts the listener in a different place almost without realizing it. All they had to do was change up who starts playing and where the drums are in the mix, and it works to give a different vibe, more like some lost Hendrix studio track, readily meandering blues licks and tripped-out effects for aural detailing coinciding with a progression that, I’m not sure it’s right to call it straightforward, but perhaps on a relative level.

“Now Here Nowhere” pays off the light warning of “Aether” in its apex, and prefaces the rock aspects in the finale to come, with the droner “Iod” ensuring breath and breadth alike, the ambience so much a factor in what Edena Gardens have been able to conjure in this material. Even in what’s essentially an interlude on a completely instrumental record, the band manage to offer headphone-worthy depth and mood, and though it’s over quick, the open spirit plays well into “An T-Eilean Dubh” (say “anti-alien dub,” which I guess/hope means they’re worried about invaders from outer space), with a far-away-at-first rush on the drums and a central figure of guitar that feels specifically like homage to Colour Haze in its movement.

That also, not a complaint. With Rude‘s bass underscoring the tom work from Skøtt and Sørensen‘s solidified but still laid back lead lines, the volume swells subtly as the closer moves through its 6:51, seeming to come to a head near its halfway point but saving its standout moment for the improvised-sounding dawn-of-enlightenment solo that rounds out before the entirety comes apart and the record ends in duly understated fashion.

I will not pretend to know what will become of Edena Gardens, if it will be an ongoing collab between Sørensen, Skøtt and Rude or if it’s a one-off happening, but it’s hard to listen to the songs on Edena Gardens and not appreciate the fact that somebody in the studio that day hit ‘record.’ The tracks have obviously been edited with the fadeouts and so on, but they’d have to be to accommodate format, the mix becomes part of the art, and accordingly, the album feels like glimpses of and short visits to another world, where at least today it’s sunny and warm if not all the time.

The potential for expansion on what they do here is likewise planetary in scale, but the sweetness of Edena Gardens is something essential and organic that arises from the music, and toward whatever reaches they might ultimately adventure (or not), there will only ever be one first time out. This is it, and they make the most of the occasion.

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Causa Sui and Papir Members Come Together in Edena Gardens; First Single Streaming

Posted in Whathaveyou on September 29th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

I just put this on for the first time. Right now. And I’m about 30 seconds into the opening track, which is called “Aether” and is also the longest (immediate points) of the seven inclusions at 10 minutes and two seconds, and I already feel compelled to note the occasion. If you’d ask why, just look at the lineup here. Edena Gardens is bassist Martin Rude (who plays bass and guitar here) and drummer-and-then-some Jakob Skøtt of Causa Sui and Nicklas Sørensen collaborating for the first time on a release together, and from the languid but voluminous heavy psychedelia that manifests in “Aether” and through the synth-inclusive reaches of first streaming single “Hidebound,” there’s breadth and breath alike in this material (so far), pulling in part from Causa Sui and El Paraiso Records‘ psych-jazz fusion and topping those rhythms with the dream tone of Sørensen, who every bit earns the forward position of his guitar here.

Oh I’m stoked on this one. The release date is Oct. 28. There’s so much to live for.

From the PR wire:

Edena Gardens Edena Gardens

Edena Gardens – Edena Gardens – Oct. 28

Listen here: https://song.link/edena-gardens-hidebound

Three musicians with their own compass: Martin Rude & Jakob Skøtt have shared a wide range of musical quests: from Causa Sui’s “Bitches Brew of Stoner Rock” crossing the folk meditations of Sun River and arriving most recently as members of the pre-fusion electric dealings of the London Odense Ensemble.

Papir guitarist Nicklas Sørensen is not merely adding a new layer to an established duo, but his presence to the party have brought it into more meditative dwellings. These pieces move slowly, evolving like the slow growth underneath the ground. Whereas Causa Sui & Papir have always excelled at blistering panoramic and often sundrenched sounds, Edena Gardens take a dive inwards and downwards rather than outwards. But there’s also an electrically charged ecstatic rawness to the dealings. Like Æther, the 10 minute opener’s 2 guitars-and-a-drum kit improv, finding it’s way from tumbling drones into monolithic slow riffage. Elsewhere, we find trails of electronic vapors, misfiring bursts of noise and slow drones stretched out.

Edena Gardens is a thing to be experienced first hand – it’s not for everyone, but those who decide to stay are greatly rewarded. It’s a debut unlike any other record on El Paraiso, perhaps unlike any you’ve ever heard.

Welcome to Edena Gardens

Preorder soon: Album out on LP and CD, run of 500 copies each. Release date October 28th! On El Paraiso Records.

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Quarterly Review: Nadja, London Odense Ensemble, Omen Stones, Jalayan, Las Cruces, The Freeks, Duncan Park, MuN, Elliott’s Keep, Cachemira

Posted in Reviews on September 21st, 2022 by JJ Koczan

THE-OBELISK-FALL-2020-QUARTERLY-REVIEW

Day three, passing the quarter mark of the Quarterly Review, halfway through the week. This is usually the point where my brain locks itself into this mode and I find that even in any other posts where I’m doing actual writing I need to think about I default to this kind of trying-to-encapsulate-a-thing-in-not-a-million-words mindset, for better or worse. Usually a bit of both, I guess. Today’s also all over the place, so if you’re feeling brave, today’s the day to really dig in. As always, I hope you enjoy. If not, more coming tomorrow. And the day after. And then again on Monday. And so on.

Quarterly Review #21-30:

Nadja, Labyrinthine

Nadja Labyrinthine

The second full-length of 2022 from the now-Berlin-based experimental two-piece Nadja — as ever, Leah Buckareff and Aidan Baker — is a four-song collaborative work on which each piece features a different vocalist. In guesting roles are Alan Dubin, formerly of Khantate/currently of Gnaw, Esben and the Witch‘s Rachel Davies, Lane Shi Otayonii of Elizabeth Colour Wheel and Full of Hell‘s Dylan Walker. Given these players and their respective pedigrees, it should not be hard to guess that Labyrinthine begins and ends ferocious, but Nadja by no means reserve the harshness of noise solely for the dudely contingent. The 17-minute “Blurred,” with Otayonii crooning overtop, unfurls a consuming wash of noise that, true, eventually fades toward a more definitive droner of a riff, but sure enough returns as a crescendo later on. Dubin is unmistakable on the opening title-track, and while Davies‘ “Rue” runs only 12 minutes and is the most conventionally listenable of the inclusions on the whole, even its ending section is a voluminous blowout of abrasive speaker destruction. Hey, you get what you get. As for Nadja, they should get one of those genius grants I keep hearing so much about.

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London Odense Ensemble, Jaiyede Sessions Vol. 1

London Odense Ensenble Jaiyede Sessions Volume 1

El Paraiso Records alert! London Odense Ensemble features Jonas Munk (guitar, production), Jakob Skøtt (drums, art) and Martin Rude (sometimes bass) of Danish psych masters Causa Sui — they’re the Odense part — and London-based saxophonist/flutist Tamar Osborn and keyboardist/synthesist Al MacSween, and if they ever do a follow-up to Jaiyede Sessions Vol. 1, humanity will have to mark itself lucky, because the psych-jazz explorations here are something truly special. On side A they present the two-part “Jaiyede Suite” with lush krautrock rising to the level of improv-sounding astro-freakout before the ambient-but-still-active “Sojourner” swells and recedes gracefully, and side B brings the 15-minute “Enter Momentum,” which is as locked in as the title might lead one to believe and then some and twice as free, guitar and sax conversing fluidly throughout the second half, and the concluding “Celestial Navigation,” opening like a sunrise and unfolding with a playful balance of sax and guitar and synth over the drums, the players trusting each other to ultimately hold it all together as of course they do. Not for everybody, but peaceful even in its most active moments, Jaiyede Sessions Vol. 1 is yet another instrumental triumph for the El Paraiso camp. Thankfully, they haven’t gotten bored of them yet.

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Omen Stones, Omen Stones

Omen Stones Omen Stones

True, most of these songs have been around for a few years. All eight of the tracks on Omen Stones‘ 33-minute self-titled full-length save for “Skin” featured on the band’s 2019 untitled outing (an incomplete version of which was reviewed here in 2018), but they’re freshly recorded, and the message of Omen Stones being intended as a debut album comes through clearly in the production and the presentation of the material generally, and from ragers like “Fertile Blight” and the aforementioned “Skin,” which is particularly High on Fire-esque, to the brash distorted punk (until it isn’t) of “Fresh Hell” and the culminating nod and melody dare of “Black Cloud,” the key is movement. The three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Tommy Hamilton (Druglord), bassist Ed Fierro (Tel) and drummer Erik Larson (Avail, Alabama Thunderpussy, etc. ad infinitum) are somewhere between riff-based rock and metal, but carry more than an edge of sludge-nasty in their tones and Hamilton‘s sometimes sneering vocals such that Omen Stones ends up like the hardest-hitting, stoner-metal-informed grunge record that ever got lost from 1994. Then you get into “Secrete,” and have to throw the word ‘Southern’ into the mix because of that guitar lick, and, well, maybe it’s better to put stylistic designations to the side for the time being. A ripper with pedigree is a ripper nonetheless.

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Jalayan, Floating Islands

Jalayan Floating Islands

Proggy, synth-driven instrumentalist space rock is the core of what Italy’s Jalayan bring forward on the 45-minute Floating Islands, with guitar periodically veering into metallic-style riffing but ultimately pushed down in the mix to let the keyboard work of band founder Alessio Malatesta (who also recorded) breathe as it does. That balance is malleable throughout, as the band shows early between “Tilmun” and “Nemesis,” and if you’re still on board the ship by the time you get to the outer reaches of “Stars Stair” — still side A, mind you — then the second full-length from the Lesmo outfit will continue to offer thrills as “Fire of Lanka” twists and runs ambience and intensity side by side and “Colliding Orbits” dabbles in space-jazz with New Age’d keyboards, answering some of what featured earlier on “Edination.” The penultimate “Narayanastra” has a steadier rock beat behind it and so feels more straightforward, but don’t be fooled, and at just under seven minutes, “Shem Temple” closes the proceedings with a clear underscoring the dug-in prog vibe, similar spacey meeting with keys-as-sitar in the intro as the band finds a middle ground between spirit and space. There are worlds being made here, as Malatesta leads the band through these composed, considered-feeling pieces united by an overarching cosmic impulse.

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Las Cruces, Cosmic Tears

las cruces cosmic tears

Following 12 years on the heels and hells of 2010’s Dusk (review here), San Antonio, Texas, doomers Las Cruces return with the classic-style doom metal of Cosmic Tears, and if you think a hour-long album is unmanageable in the day and age of 35-minute-range vinyl attention spans, you’re right, but that’s not the vibe Las Cruces are playing to, and it’s been over a decade, so calm down. Founding guitarist George Trevino marks the final recorded performance of drummer Paul DeLeon, who passed away last year, and welcomes vocalist Jason Kane to the fold with a showcase worthy of comparison to Tony Martin on songs like “Stay” and the lumbering “Holy Hell,” with Mando Tovar‘s guitar and Jimmy Bell‘s bass resulting in riffs that much thicker. Peer to acts like Penance and others working in the post-Hellhound Records sphere, Las Cruces are more grounded than Candlemass but reach similar heights on “Relentless” and “Egyptian Winter,” with classic metal as the thread that runs throughout the whole offering. A welcome return.

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The Freeks, Miles of Blues

The Freeks Miles of Blues

Kind of a sneaky album. Like, shh, don’t tell anybody. As I understand it, the bulk of The Freeks‘ nine-tracker Miles of Blues is collected odds and ends — the first four songs reportedly going to be used for a split at some point — and the two-minute riff-and-synth funk-jam “Maybe It’s Time” bears that out in feeling somewhat like half a song, but with the barroom-brawler-gone-to-space “Jaqueline,” the willfully kosmiche “Wag the Fuzz,” which does what “Maybe It’s Time” does, but feels more complete in it, and the 11-minute interstellar grandiosity of “Star Stream,” the 41-minute release sure sounds like a full-length to me. Ruben Romano (formerly Nebula and Fu Manchu) and Ed Mundell (ex-Monster Magnet) are headlining names, but at this point The Freeks have established a particular brand of bluesy desert psych weirdness, and that’s all over “Real Gone” — which, yes, goes — and the rougher garage push of “Played for Keeps,” which should offer thrills to anyone who got down with Josiah‘s latest. Self-released, pressed to CD, probably not a ton made, Miles of Blues is there waiting for you now so that you don’t regret missing it later. So don’t miss it, whether it’s an album or not.

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Duncan Park, In the Floodplain of Dreams

Duncan Park In the Floodplain of Dreams

South Africa-based self-recording folk guitarist Duncan Park answers his earlier-2022 release, Invoking the Flood (review here), with the four pieces of In the Floodplain of Dreams, bringing together textures of experimentalist guitar with a foundation of hillside acoustic on opener and longest track (immediate points) “In the Mountains of Sour Grass,” calling to mind some of Six Organs of Admittance‘s exploratory layering, while “Howling at the Moon” boasts more discernable vocals (thankfully not howls) and “Ballad for the Soft Green Moss” highlights the self-awareness of the evocations throughout — it is green, organic, understated, flowing — and the closing title-track reminisces about that time Alice in Chains put out “Don’t Follow” and runs a current of drone behind its central guitar figure to effectively flesh out the this-world-as-otherworld vibe, devolving into (first) shred and (then) noise as the titular dream seems to give way to a harsher reality. So be it. Honestly, if Park wants to go ahead and put out a collection like this every six months or so into perpetuity, that’d be just fine. The vocals here are a natural development from the prior release, and an element that one hopes continue to manifest on the next one.

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MuN, Presomnia

MuN Presomnia

Crushing and atmospheric in kind, Poland’s MuN released Presomnia through Piranha Music in 2020 as their third full-length. I’m not entirely sure why it’s here, but it’s in my notes and the album’s heavy like Eastern European sadness, so screw it. Comprised of seven songs running 43 minutes, it centers around that place between waking and sleep, where all the fun lucid dreaming happens and you can fly and screw and do whatever else you want in your own brain, all expressed through post-metallic lumber and volume trades, shifting and building in tension as it goes, vocals trading between cleaner sung stretches and gut-punch growls. The layered guitar solo on “Arthur” sounds straight out of the Tool playbook, but near everything else around is otherwise directed and decidedly more pummeling. At least when it wants to be. Not a complaint, either way. The heft of chug in “Deceit” is of a rare caliber, and the culmination in the 13-minute “Decree” seems to use every bit of space the record has made prior in order to flesh out its melancholic, contemplative course. Much to their credit, after destroying in the midsection of that extended piece, MuN make you think they’re bringing it back around again at the end, and then don’t. Because up yours for expecting things. Still the “Stones From the Sky” riff as they come out of that midsection, though. Guess you could do that two years ago.

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Elliott’s Keep, Vulnerant Omnes

Elliott's Keep Vulnurent Omnes

I’ve never had the fortune of seeing long-running Dallas trio Elliott’s Keep live, but if ever I did and if at least one of the members of the band — bassist/vocalist Kenneth Greene, guitarist Jonathan Bates, drummer Joel Bates — wasn’t wearing a studded armband, I think I might be a little disappointed. They know their metal and they play their metal, exclusively. Comprised of seven songs, Vulnerant Omnes is purposefully dark, able to shift smoothly between doom and straight-up classic heavy metal, and continuing a number of ongoing themes for the band: it’s produced by J.T. Longoria, titled in Latin (true now of all five of their LPs), and made in homage to Glenn Riley Elliott, who passed away in 2004 but features here on the closer “White Wolf,” a cover of the members’ former outfit, Marauder, that thrashes righteously before dooming out as though they knew someday they’d need it to tie together an entire album for a future band. Elsewhere, “Laughter of the Gods” and the Candlemassian “Every Hour” bleed their doom like they’ve cut their hand to swear an oath of fealty, and the pre-closer two-parter “Omnis Pretium (Fortress I)” and “Et Sanguinum (Fortress II)” speaks to an age when heavy metal was for fantasy-obsessed miscreants and perceived devil worshipers. May we all live long enough to see that particular sun rise again. Until then, an eternal “fucking a” to Elliott’s Keep.

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Cachemira, Ambos Mundos

Cachemira Ambos Mundos

Sometime between their 2017 debut, Jungla (review here), and the all-fire-even-the-slow-parts boogie and comprises the eight-song/35-minute follow-up Ambos Mundos, Barcelona trio Cachemira parted ways with bassist Pol Ventura and brought in Claudia González Díaz of The Mothercrow to handle low end and lead vocals alongside guitarist/now-backing vocalist Gaston Lainé (Brain Pyramid) and drummer Alejandro Carmona Blanco (Prisma Circus), reaffirming the band’s status as a legit powerhouse while also being something of a reinvention. Joined by guest organist Camille Goellaen on a bunch of the songs and others on guitar, Spanish guitar and congas, Ambos Mundos scorches softshoe and ’70s vibes with a modern confidence and thickness of tone that put to use amid the melodies of “Dirty Roads” are sweeping and pulse-raising all at once. The name of the record translates to ‘both worlds,’ and the closing title-track indeed brings together heavy fuzz shuffle and handclap-laced Spanish folk (and guitar) that is like pulling back the curtain on what’s been making you dance this whole time. It soars and spins heads until everybody falls down dizzy. If they were faking, it’d fall flat. It doesn’t. At all. More please.

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The Obelisk Questionnaire: Jonas Munk of Causa Sui, El Paraiso Records, Etc.

Posted in Questionnaire on June 29th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

Jonas Munk of Causa Sui

The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.

Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.

Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.

The Obelisk Questionnaire: Jonas Munk of Causa Sui, El Paraiso Records, Etc.

How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?

Not sure how to define it. I guess the shortest answer is that I’m a musician. I play guitar, I play keyboards, I record sounds – my own sounds, as well as other people’s sounds – I mix sounds, I master sounds and eventually sell them. So basically I’m involved in the entire process of making albums, from setting up microphones in the studio, to putting vinyl in cardboard boxes and driving them to the post office. Some Obelisk readers might be familiar with the band that I’m in, Causa Sui, but I’ve been involved in lots of other stuff as well. I run a label with Causa Sui drummer Jakob Skøtt, called El Paraiso Records, which specializes in all things instrumental and psychedelic. I’ve also worked with a number of bands and artists over the years as producer and collaborator, – Papir, Mythic Sunship, Kanaan, Brian Ellis to name a few.

Describe your first musical memory.

I remember jumping on the couch while listening to The Police on my parents’ stereo when I was 3-4 years old. The first real concert I remember was Santana in 1989, when I was eight years old.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

We (Causa Sui) saw Colour Haze for the first time in Copenhagen back in the early summer of 2004. They played a regular set as part of a small festival, but the following day they played an extended set at a local underground venue (Dragens Hule) run by some of the guys from Øresund Space Collective – a wonderful venue that sadly isn’t in existence anymore. A totally illicit establishment with cheap beer and strong cocktails! Colour Haze played a mindblowing two-and-a-half hour set – on the floor, all backline, with maybe 60-70 people in the audience. That shit was truly inspiring – Colour Haze showed us there were new exciting possibilities with stoner rock. Later that year we started Causa Sui.

When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?

The last six years have been strange, on a personal level as well as on a broader political level. There’s been a few tough ones to swallow.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

It leads to humility. 15-20 years ago, when I first started producing music somewhat seriously, I was overly confident, I was kinda under the illusion that I was almost some kind of genius with a special insight and brilliant capabilities. After a while there was a gradual realization that this actually wasn’t the case, at all. And thus began the long, slow trek to actually become decent at what I do – to really put in the hours, and learn how to put songs together that doesn’t sound super awkward, how to play guitar in a way that doesn’t just fill up empty space just for the sake of filling it up, how to record a drum kit so it actually sounds pretty good… and so on.

So, after two decades of doing it I’m now at a point where I think I’m decent at what I do – I’m fairly competent at certain things, still lacking at others – but I’m still nowhere near as brilliant as I thought I was 17 years ago! It’s a much more humble position. The funny thing is I hear of people working in other areas share a similar pattern of development. If there’s anything positive to say about that youthful overestimation, it’s that it gave me a tremendous amount of energy to channel into music.

Being under that illusion somehow persuaded me that this was something I should do. Had my mind been fully adjusted to reality, and had I been aware how far there was to go, I’d probably have found something else to spend my time and energy on. These days I try to be somewhat realistic, and keep raising the bar accordingly, but you shouldn’t lose faith in what you do either, so perhaps I still rely a little bit on illusions to fuel things. Axl and the boys were right: use your illusion!

How do you define success?

That word, success, tastes a little bit weird in my mouth. For some reason I feel like it’s the kind of word that applies better to business and sports – two things I don’t care much about.

What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?

Certain images and stories from the war in Ukraine has haunted me for weeks. Even after 40 years on this planet I still find it genuinely puzzling how humans from one country can torture innocent civilians in a neighbouring country because their boss told them to do so. But I can’t say I wish I hadn’t seen that stuff, cause it conveys truth, and truth should be known so we can act on it. Truth leads to change.

Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.

I’ve come close a few times but I still haven’t made the perfect hummus.

What do you believe is the most essential function of art?

I think the question presupposes the idea that art is supposed to have a function in a similar sense to the function of a piece of technology, or so – as something to bring about a goal of some sort, something that’s good for something else. I don’t believe that to be true. I believe aesthetic experience has value and importance in itself, even if it might also have other kinds of value. The philosopher Theodor Adorno once described this with a paradox: that the function of art is its functionlessness. If we can learn something from aesthetic experience, he believed – it’s first and foremost that not everything that has value in this world has value because it’s good for something else. Great art invites us to see things from a different perspective. Personally I always feel like art loses some of that which makes it valuable if it’s overly political, or functional, or if it’s trying to tell me something in a very direct and clear way.

Brian Eno once stated that humans not only has the need to control our surroundings – that is: nature, people, things – to our own ends (which is broadly the role of science as technology), but that we also have the need to surrender to the world – to let go of that control and release ourselves into the stream of life and flow with it. In other words, it’s fundamental for humans not only to perceive the world as something to be constantly dominated towards our own ends, but also to let go and simply resonate with it once in a while.

Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?

Right now I’m looking forward to going to Berlin with my wife and kids next week. Something of a summer tradition. Besides that I don’t have much planned and that’s kinda how I like it. We’ll see what comes up…

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The Obelisk Questionnaire: Jakob Skøtt of Causa Sui & El Paraiso Records

Posted in Questionnaire on June 23rd, 2021 by JJ Koczan

jakob skott causa sui

The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.

Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.

Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.

The Obelisk Questionnaire: Jakob Skøtt of Causa Sui & El Paraiso Records

How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?

Ever since I was a child, I would always wonder how things worked. “Hmm, what makes the sound come out of the speaker?” That sort of juvenile wonder. And that’s still what drives me: “How do you play the drums to get that sound?,” “How do you design an OBI-strip for a record cover?” Whatever I’m doing, I’m driven by that sense of empirical wonderment — trying to get to the bottom of it, sort of emptying the pool one spoonful at a time, haha.

Describe your first musical memory.

The “Dueling Banjos” theme from the movie Deliverance. My brother and I used to dance around while that played, going faster and faster. When I saw the movie years later, I realized just how twisted it was. “Squeal like a pig.” But I remember the inbred banjo boy was on the cover as well, so that’s probably why it really stuck with me from an early age.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

Motorpsycho live in 1997 — I had bought their CD Trust Us on the recommendation of the guy in the record shop the same day. There were like eight or 10 people in the audience, and the friend from high school I came there with left when he met a girl at the bar before the show. But I stayed and they just slayed it. I love the way they used to mix the vibes of indie bands like Pavement with stoner rock and psychedelic stuff — something very few bands do today (not even Motorpsycho). So yeah, if you know a band that mixes Pavement and Sonic Youth with heavy riffs (may as well throw in some Popol Vuh?), send me a note!

When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?

Many of my beliefs are constantly tested, so I try to spend more effort remodeling my beliefs, than hanging onto them. But I still feel like working with music and being able to make it and put it out is a gift, so my main assumption is that I’m not a musician and not gonna release any more music ever — since, you know, family, full-time job, bills, etc. I often go for months and months and not play a single note. So every time I’m able to work on music it’s in spite of that, so my own challenging my beliefs, come from hard work of actually making or putting out music.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

Hmm, I think that’s a dual-edged sword. On one hand, it’s great to have a driving force and sense of wonderment. But on the other hand, the quest for constant rejuvenation could keep you from refining a few good ideas to become even better. I think a lot of bands end up on this course: They start out really hungry and humble, and want to pour every ounce of their creative energy into making the best thing they can in the best way possible. Perfect. But then they’ve done a few albums, have a fan base, and they want to take it to the next level.

Well that’s another quest all together. Spending weeks in the studio, more layers, mixing with more expensive producers, pondering over artwork, shopping for labels — whatever way you can come up with to add unnecessary layers of complexities to your work – you’re pushing for something that isn’t happening organically. So it becomes an artistic struggle, rather than a natural progression. And I think this fixation on “progression” is what leads us there — most people are probably afraid to stagnate. But what I’ve found is that even trying to do what I did yesterday, I’ll do it differently today — it feels the same, but the results are different. And that’s when artistic progression feels meaningful — going along with the natural current in whatever stream you’re in. It’s not something you should have to actively pursue.

How do you define success?

I find that personal happiness has more and more to do with it, rather than any sort of commercial success. Some of the releases I’m most proud of hasn’t sold more than 300 or 500 copies. But it’s a success that it came into the world. So having that personal freedom to control what I do feels like success to me. Again, it’s a privilege to be able to make music. I’m grateful whenever it’s a part of my life.

What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?

When you get kids and they get sick or hurt, that sucks. Also I wish I hadn’t seen the face of depression in people I know.

Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.

I’d really like to be involved with making a book. Preferably writing it at some point, but if that doesn’t pan out, then just doing the typography and cover. Or maybe doing a graphic book — perhaps when we hit 100 releases on El Paraiso?! We had the 10 year anniversary in January, but we didn’t do anything. So yeah, in just 35 releases we’ll at epr100. Shit! I should start putting it together now! JJ, you can write the prologue [I’d be honored. — ed.]!

What do you believe is the most essential function of art?

I think art in the broadest sense – consuming, creating or curating – makes your mind more elastic! It makes your brain work in different ways.

Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?

Looking forward to seeing Dune. Also finishing Liu Cixin’s Three-body Problem an epic sci-fi trilogy starting in the 1960s ending at the end of time (!!!) – sort of a Chinese modern day version of Asimov’s Foundation. I’m also looking forward to going skateboarding with my son again, since I fell and stubbed my toe and it’s all blue. And I have some Umberto Lenzi eurocrime Blu Rays in the mail that should arrive any day now – love those movies! Gonna watch them with a tasty hazy double IPA. Cheers everyone!

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Review & Full Album Premiere: Causa Sui, Szabodelico

Posted in audiObelisk, Reviews on November 11th, 2020 by JJ Koczan

causa sui Szabodelico

[Click play above to stream Causa Sui’s Szabodelico in full. Album is out Nov. 13 on El Paraiso Records and can be ordered here.]

Recorded over a period of months between 2019 and early 2020, Szabodelico — named for its own centerpiece track in homage to Hungarian jazz guitarist Gábor Szabó, see also second cut “Gabor’s Path” — revels a bit in its sense of disconnection, in the flourish each of its total 13 pieces brings on its own. And yet, with the long-established chemistry of Danish instrumentalists Causa Sui behind it, and a stated focus on capturing early takes, minimal overdubs, recording themselves, etc., there is an overarching flow and immersion taking place over the 2LP’s 63 minutes that is unmistakable. Causa Sui are nothing less than a treasure of the European psychedelic underground. Their ongoing progression and exploratory impulses have in the past 15 years made them essential and influential listening, and as they’ve moved over the last half-decade toward bringing together tonal-presence-minded heavy psych and various manifestations of jazz, the “voice” they’ve found — such as it is with no vocals — has become their own in a way that is vibrant and encompassing.

Last heard from with 2017’s Vibraciones Doradas (review here) and the Live in Copenhagen (review here) live album issued earlier that year, they bring a sense of grace and spontaneity to Szabodelico that transcends the stylistic shifts between ethereal free-jazz warmup in the opener “Echoes of Light,” spaghetti westernism on “Under the Spell” and organ/guitar call-and-response dueling on “Sole Elettrico.” There are a couple heavier-ish moments of distorted guitar and so on brought forth by guitarist Jonas Munk, drummer Jakob Skøtt, keyboardist Rasmus Rasmussen and bassist Jess Kahr, to be sure, but Szabodelico is more about mellow freedom. About finding out where you’re going when you get there. About playfulness and engaging with the creative process as it’s happening. It has become a pandemic-era cliché to note the additional poignancy of such things, so I’ll say instead that Causa Sui are simply unmatched when it comes to the melding of progressive spirit and instrumental conversation, and the patience of craft they display in these works is no less theirs than anything jammed out across the multi-part Summer Sessions series (review herediscussed here), their live outings, or their other studio work.

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As one might expect, the album is structured to highlight the vinyl presentation. Each of the two component platters begins with a kind of introductory short work in the aforementioned “Echoes of Light” (2:33) and its dreamy, key-inflected side C counterpart “Honeydew” (2:58), which gives way with an especially smooth transition into “Lucien’s Beat,” suitably more percussive but still otherworldly. On the other end of these, rounding out sides B and D, are “Szabodelico” itself at 7:14 and the 9:52 album finale “Merging Waters.” The former builds up to become about as full-on rock as Causa Sui get throughout, so it’s only fitting that its companion should be as deeply entrenched in a liquid psychedelia as possible; the quiet lake as opposed to a flowing river, if we’re talking about water.

causa sui (Photo by Danny Kotter)

With the range Causa Sui demonstrate in cuts like the winding “Vibratone,” with its folk-boogie emergence marked out by waves of synth, or the quick cinematic krautrock excursion that is “Premonitions,” Szabodelico can be seen as unpredictable, and it is. On some level, it’s a collection of jams and quick installments gathered from multiple sessions and compiled together as a release. It’s inherent to the form that there would be disparity in purpose and delivery. The genius — and yes, I mean that — of the album is that it doesn’t hide from that so much as make it the point of the thing in the first place, so that each turn Causa Sui make becomes not a hardship for the listener, but a joy to relish along with the band. And on the most basic level of listening, when one puts on Szabodelico, it is anything but a challenge to make the leap from one song to the next. Each side and each movement occurs with such a sure and gentle guiding hand that to not follow where one is being lead is to fail as an audience. The answer is to go with it. Go with it and know it’s all going to work out because, yes, it absolutely does.

The trust is well earned on the part of Causa Sui, and will only be more so going forward because of the work they do on Szabodelico. It is a standout among their catalog of now-six full-lengths, various sessions-type offerings and sundry live albums, and is intended to be precisely that, right unto the ultra-chill percussion drips on “Rosso Di Sera Bel Tempo Si Spera” and the penultimate sunshine rocker “La Jolla” echoes and expands on some of the meditations in “Under the Spell,” bringing singular warmth ahead of the cool dive in “Merging Waters.” Wherever Causa Sui go in a given track, they go with purpose, even if that purpose is simply the going itself, and while some who’ve basked in their desert-style fuzz progressions might be surprised by what Szabodelico is doing, the basic fact of the matter is it’s not a high hurdle to jump.

That is to say, Causa Sui make it easy for the listener to expand their palette (and consciousness), to keep an open mind, because the material itself has such a correspondingly open approach. Maybe this is the band proving they can go anywhere. Maybe this is the shape of psych-jazz to come. Maybe it’s a one-off. You never really know with Causa Sui what direction their output might next take, and when the result of that is material like they bring to Szabodelico, which retains its vitality even at its most subdued and is lush without sacrificing the organic nature of its performance to craft a wash of effects, it is their righteousness reaffirmed. This record feels like a gift built by masters of the form, and it is precisely that. Whatever it may lead to, if anything, is for future hindsight to dictate. As of now, it is a welcoming for anyone ready to be welcomed.

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Album Review: Ellis/Munk Ensemble, San Diego Sessions

Posted in Reviews on July 30th, 2020 by JJ Koczan

Ellis Munk Ensemble San Diego Sessions

And a significant ensemble it is. Traveling from his native Denmark to San Diego, California, guitarist Jonas Munk of heavy psych innovators Causa Sui was set to meet up in Sept. 2019 with Brian Ellis (Astra, Psicomagia, Birth, etc.) whose solo work has been issued through Causa Sui‘s label, El Paraiso Records. By the account in the liner notes for the release, it wasn’t the first time Munk made the trip, but it would seem to have been an occasion nonetheless, as Munk and Ellis, based in Escondido, were to spearhead what has been tagged as the Ellis/Munk Ensemble featuring players from bands like Radio Mosow, Sacri Monti, Psicomagia, Joy and others. It’s a pretty extensive roster. To wit:

Brian Ellis (keys) – Astra, Silver Sunshine, Brian Ellis Group, Psicomagia, Birth, etc.
Jonas Munk (guitar) – Causa Sui, various solo-projects and collaborations

Plus:
Dominic Denholm (bass) – Monarch
Thomas DiBenedetto (drums/guitar) – Sacri Monti, Monarch, ex-Joy
Dylan Donovan (guitar) – Sacri Monti, Pharlee
Paul Marrone (drums) – Astra, Cosmic Wheels, Radio Moscow, Psicomagia, Birth, Brian Ellis Group
Trevor Mast (bass) – Birth, ex-Joy, Psicomagia, Brian Ellis Group
Anthony Meier (bass/keys) – Sacri Monti, Radio Moscow
Conor Riley (keys) – Astra, Silver Sunshine, Birth
Andrew Velasco (percussion) – Love, the City & Space
Andrew Ware (drums) – Monarch
Evan Wenskay (organ) – Sacri Monti
Kyre Wilcox (bass) – Truth on Earth

The most striking thing about this lineup — aside from the fact that among the 12 participants, there are no women — is the sheer amount of overlap. Members of Sacri Monti playing in Monarch and Joy, members of Astra resurfacing in Birth, and so on. Like any scene worthy of the designation, San Diego is plenty incestuous, but in no small part that’s essential to what makes it the heavy psych haven it’s become. The entire situation is fluid, so how could the music be anything else?

With Munk‘s arrival in town as impetus for the get-together, San Diego Sessions arrives (via El Paraiso) as seven tracks/48 minutes carved out from these several evenings’ worth of jams and fits with Munk and Ellis‘ apparently shared vision of the stylistic interaction between psychedelia and jazz. Indeed, the stated comparison is to Miles Davis‘ Bitches Brew, and track titles like “Pauly’s Pentacles,” “Munk’s Dream” — as opposed to “Monk’s Dream,” i.e. Thelonius Monk — and “Larry’s Jungle Juice” honor that tradition as well, as does the immediate thrust and twist of 10-plus-minute opener “The Wedge,” which features eight players, three of whom are on keys, and sets a tone with scorching runs of lead guitar atop intricate rhythmic turns.

ellis munk ensemble personnel

One thing: they picked their drummers right. In MarroneDiBenedetto and Ware, the Ellis/Munk Ensemble — whoever else happens to be around at any given moment — have some of the best San Diego’s underground has to offer on board when it comes to drums, Mario Rubalcaba of Earthless notwithstanding. With this foundation, guitarists like Munk — who appears on every track except the penultimate madcap freakout “Larry’s Jungle Juice”; Ellis likewise sits out the brief but spacious “Munk’s Dream” — Donovan and DiBenedetto are able to freely explore various reaches and textures of sound, and so the variety of San Diego Sessions stems as much from its sonic moods as from its personnel.

Still, much of the tone — and much of the album, frankly — happens at the outset with “The Wedge” and “Pauly’s Pentacles.” As the latter tops 11 minutes, the two songs comprise 22 of the total 48-minute stretch here, so not an insignificant portion, and more important, it’s in them that the spirit of San Diego Sessions is established in looking toward the aforementioned tradition of the jazz session. “The Wedge” locks in a solid groove early before spinning heads with guitar and keys alike, and “Pauly’s Pentacles” turns more mellow lead vibes into a vibrant apex ahead of dipping into a bit of cosmic funk, the drifting end of which is a suitable transition into the ethereal “Munk’s Dream” — the shortest inclusion at just 2:24 but an atmospheric highlight nonetheless.

By the time, then, that they dip into album-centerpiece “Electric Saloon,” which runs just under nine minutes long, the expectation is wide open for what might actually take place within that span of time but set in the sphere of heavy psychedelic improv. “Bucket Drips,” which follows, is another more meditative vibe, so “Electric Saloon” is given a mindful showcase, led into and out of as it is. It’s a two-sided LP and certainly there’s a flow across the span as one jam ends or fades out and the next arrives, but one might think of San Diego Sessions as taking place in three distinct movements: the opening two, the middle three, and the finishing two. Elements of personality drift in and out along the way — much like the people — but the way in which the pieces complement each other, right up to how the finishing chase of “Larry’s Jungle Juice” gives way to the smoother procession of “Stone Steps” to close out with a relative wash of keys, is such that each chapter has something of its own to offer the listener.

There is further nuance to how the pieces are arranged and how they bleed from one to the next that one might point out, but what that goes to underscore is the fact that San Diego Sessions has been carved out from the raw material that emerged over those nights. It’s got its warts-and-all feel intact, but one assumes there was more recorded than appears in the completed product. Maybe that means a San Diego Sessions 2 is in the offing, or maybe these were all the highlights; I don’t know. But Ellis/Munk Ensemble captures a special stretch of time when talented players — many of whom already had established chemistry from years of collaboration in various bands — joined together to welcome a friend into the fold.

The instrumental and improvisational nature of the record might mean that not every listener is up for making the trip, but what comes through most of all in the tracks is the feeling of celebration, of challenging each other, of playing with sound and technique like the implements of magic they are, and of enjoying all of it. That atmosphere is infectious.

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Monarch Post “Face to Face” Video; Release Enough’s Enough: Live at Steel Mill

Posted in Bootleg Theater on June 22nd, 2020 by JJ Koczan

monarch

This February, San Diego’s Monarch announced their first-ever European tour dates. The San Diego-based band would’ve just been the latest export from their hometown’s enviable — and envied — heavy psychedelic underground scene, and they would’ve headed abroad supporting their 2019 offering, Beyond the Blue Sky (review here), which of course was their second album through Denmark’s El Paraiso Records behind 2017’s Two Isles (review here). As part of that run, they would have taken part in Tube Cult Festival in Italy, Desertfest in London, and I know I was looking forward to seeing them at Esbjerg Fuzztival in Denmark, where they’d have shared the stage with their label heads in Causa Sui and others.

Those plans, naturally, went the way of everyone’s plans for anything in the first half of 2020, and though Monarch are currently listed as taking part in Finland’s Sonic Rites Festival on Oct. 30-31 and may have more tour dates surfacing around that, monarch enoughs enough live at steel millit was still one of the multitudes of the bummers of this past Spring to see their tour come apart. So. It. Goes.

As civil unrest across the United States has not-inappropriately taken precedent over the that pesky pandemic (that just because it’s not the top story anymore has stubbornly not stopped killing people), Monarch have chosen to take part in raising funds for Black Lives Matter by posting the new four-song live performance titled simply Enough’s Enough: Live at Steel Mill recorded in San Diego at Steel Mill Coffee, which is owned by pro skaters Riley Hawk and Shea CooperHawk also took part in filming the new video for “Face to Face” that you can see below. The song is more recent even than Beyond the Blue Sky, so Enough’s Enough is a chance to get a sneak peak at the next stage in Monarch‘s evolution, but to hear live versions of “Assent” from Two Isles and “Pangea” and “Felo De Se” from the second record, supporting a good cause with good prog. You can’t really go wrong there.

I don’t know Monarch‘s plans for their next record, if anyone’s daring to plan for anything at this point, but “Face to Face” is a most welcome eight minutes of prog-psych escapism, further distinguishing Monarch‘s personality as a band among the classic minded vibemakers from the City in Motion.

Video and stream both follow below. 100 percent of the $20 for the live album download goes to Black Lives Matter.

Enjoy:

Monarch, “Face to Face” official video

Been a while since we’ve made any noise here but today we break our silence! Announcing the release of a new live recording “ Enough’s Enough “ Live Steel Mill Coffee paired alongside a video for our newest song “ Face to Face”….

This release is available on our bandcamp – https://monarch4.bandcamp.com/album/enoughs-enough-live-at-steel-mill paired with a limited run of t-shirts w/art done by @hartchaseman.

100% of proceeds from the record & shirts will be donated to Black Lives Matter in the fight against racial injustice and police brutality ! Huge shout out to @rileyhawk @justsomedude @paconertz for the camera work, enjoy!

Filmed by : Jacob Nunez, Riley Hawk, Lannie Rhoades
Edited by : Jacob Nunez
Mixed by : Dominic Denholm
Mastered by : Mike Tholen

Monarch is:
Dominic Denholm – Guitar/Vocals
Thomas Dibenedetto – Guitar
James Upton – Guitar
Matt Weiss – Bass
Andrew Ware – Drums

Monarch, Enough’s Enough: Live at Steel Mill (2020)

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