Stunned no. 40

ALTAR EAGLE / Pillars of Heaven / Caligine / High Wolf — Essential Elements c35 + c52 (Stunned no. 40) — out of stock —

Four heavy-hitters converge here in totally complimentary energies on Stunned’s 40th release and 1st double cassette edition.

TAPE 1: Things start off right with FIRE as can only be thrown by the Digitalis dynasty’s duo of Brad & Eden Rose. ALTAR EAGLE retains the warm tactility of their previous Corsican Paintbrush project while also bumping it into wildly higher dimensional states. Hot waves of alien electronics, guitars, and voice layer like magma into a thick mix, retaining an admirable delicacy to such chemically volatile process. Countering this initial heat-swell, Sal Giorgi’s solo endeavor blows in some seriously fresh AIR on the c35’s flipside. Many are familiar with Sal’s exquisitely curated & designed Peasant Magik label, but fewer seem privy to the mega dreamscape weaving enterprise that his Pillars of Heaven project serves. This piece is for those devoted to pure lateral synth-escape. A heavy pleasant dream we don’t want to wake from ever, and another good reason why they invented rewind. TAPE 2: According to Gabriele of the Rome-based Monstres par Excès label, the pieces that comprise his Caligine projects’ half of this c52 were improvised “with the aid of fingernails, iron strings, tough woods and the eternal flow of Every-Thing above our horizons.” The perfect approach for such visionary skeletal raag which deftly spins in and out of synchromystic EARTH orbit — an unfolk matrix that’s rich as the best soil around. By the final side of this double tape set, we have certainly been primed for High Wolf’s contribution of cultural boundary dissolution. Following up his Not Not Fun debut jammer, the question lingers on the origins of this Amazonian/African/French/?/? electro-maverick. Meanwhile, as we’re scratching our heads, he’s continuing to summon the musical equivalent of Gaia’s clearest WATER & lights of her aurora borealis. Under amorphous forms of guitar, angel choir, and synthesizer emerges the pulse of a hidden heartbeat, the only identity necessary for apprehending High Wolf’s true nature.

Many thanks to these four artists of unique distinction who, for the very reason of their differences, united as unlikely Essential Elements. Limited & hand numbered edition of 100 c35 + c52 silver tapes in double-cassette vinyl album with transparent covers and insert.
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— ECN