WV Sorcerer spells with JAYDAWN & WUKIR SURYADI, LI DAIGUO, SUM OF R, SUNDIALLL, WUKIR SURYADI and ZBIGNIEW KARKOWSKI / LI JIANHONG / TORTURING NURSE

Ok, this is it! The last bunch of reviews of albums released in 2025! Or at least of albums released in 2025, of which I own a physical copy. And this copy has already arrived! Because there are still a couple of late ones, overdue to the usual pressing plant problems... Well, but you get the idea!

And hey! Finally it's a WV Sorcerer Productions special again! 

JAYDAWN & WUKIR SURYADI - Pucung, Pangkur Jeung Hujan Bedog (Sanguine vinyl LP) (2025)

"This album is not a soundtrack. It is a piece borrowed from the city wounds. Each track an echo of a shattered home. Each sound a ghost of a market razed."

Undoubtly "Songs of Death, Retreat, and Rain of Machetes" is an album dedicated to the great global war of our times - the perversly rich against the 99+ percent of the rest of the world's population, focussing on one battleground, the radical gentrification of the megapolis of Badung in Java, Indonesia.

Local producer Jaydawn teamed up with Wukir Suryadi, the instrumental half of the Experimental duo Senyawa to create an intensly pulsating clash of hard-hitting beats, samples, field recordings, Ambient and Industrial sounds. Weaponizing old and new culture and subculture against the crushing capitalist powers that be, the duo unleashes a flaming firestorm of explosive Trip Hop that flies by much faster than the forty minutes it appearantly actually lasts.

Few albums of 2025 feel more energetic and boldly in your face than this urgent and passionate collaboration. The artwork and presentation couldn't be better - a close to perfect record.

WUKIR SURYADI - Nginguk & Sopo Ingsun (CD) (2019/2025)

Very different to the urban sound of his work with Jaydawn, here's also a new solo release by Wukir Suryadi, which feels much more spiritual and elemental.

Presented as a CD in a seven inch sleeve "Nginguk & Ingsun" combines a 2018 live performance previously released on cassette with several new recordings from 2023.

Once again it's fascinating how many variations of droning and dripping, textural and percussive sounds between wind and water, aerial flute and metallic clank, synth and guitar Suryadi extracts from his self-built instruments, and what an equally wide range of gripping atmospheric arrangements he puts together with them. This is highly immerse Experimental music mastery!

SUNDIALLL - HUB (CD) (2025)

Sundialll is the Taiwanese-Javanese duo of singer / experimental sound artist Alica Han and producer / electronic artist Rama Saputra, extended to a live quartet with drummer / percussionist Dutch E Germ and guitar player / wind instrumentalist Hong-Yu Chen.

In January 2024, together with several dancers, they performed a fictional ritual of guidance through urban life in eight improvised movements, recorded on this album. It's a fascinating clash of past, present and future, in which sophisticated traditional rhythms collide with droning electronic sounds, where mystical Avantgarde vocalizations fly over Ambient glitches, while clarinets and Chinese flutes rise from a background of Noise and snarling synth basslines.

All in all this a well-produced exciting live album with a fascinating richness of sonic textures, defying categorization somewhere between the musical equivalents of man and machine, human nature and civilization.

ZBIGNIEW KARKOWSKI / LI JIANHONG 李劍鴻 / TORTURING NURSE - Noise In Shadow City (CD) (2025)

The third and final of the CDs in 7" packaging here is without a doubt the most extreme one. It's a 2009 live performance of Polish composer and experimental musician Zbigniew Karkowski, who was specialized in computer-based radical sounds, with Chinese guitarist Li Jianhong and Harsh Noise project Torturing Nurse.

The result is three-quarters of an hour of unbroken - who would have thought? - Harsh Noise. Even though constantly shifting layers of sound provide the listener some room for exploration, this room is still a claustrophobic chamber filled with dystopian Industrial nightmares. Absolute cryptonite for the this is not music anymore crowd. Demanding, exhausting, yes. But somehow... you know. How to explain horse racing to a shellfish? When you know you know.

This "Noise In Shadow City" is not for every day, not for every mood, but if you expose yourself to it at the right time it's some pretty awesome sick shit. 

李帶菓 LI DAIGUO - 笑功 Xiao Gong (CD) (2021)

For the sake of completeness here's also one release, which is already a couple of years older. On this golden CD (packed very similar to the CD edition of Otay:onii's "Ming Ming" WV Sorcerer Productions introduces us to the American-Chinese/Taiwanese Experimental musician Li Daiguo.

In ten tracks adding up to one hour total playing time he's using various obscure analogue synths and noise boxes with names likes Cacophonous II, Double Knot or Mengqi's Eggsmash, percussions, a variety of European and Chinese classical instruments from strings and clarinet to Eastern lutes, flutes and zithers, but also the African mbira. And not to forget: just random things.

The result is an interesting kaleidoscope of also seemingly random things. "Xiao Gong" feels like moving through landscapes and cities, and just taking in the varying environments, mentally translating them into music. And while the totality of impressions we're taking in is staggering, it all happens at a mostly rather slow pace, which allows every element to breathe. You won't necessarily understand every single thing happening here, but it's actually still pretty easy to follow the overall flow on this journey through worlds and times.

SUM OF R - Spectral (Ghost Amber vinyl LP) (2025)

I've already talked about five albums far from mainstream appeal, so one could think I'd be sufficently warmed up to write about any kind of experimental stuff. But now this. After the last time I saw Sum Of R live at A Colossal Weekend 2023 I said that "I still don't exactly understand what this special brand of Doom is and what it wants, but for sure it was something and I would watch it again."

My confusion is still strong, but at least I'm not solely depending on my memory of a live show of the Swiss-Finnish trio now, but can listen to "Spectral" while I'm writing this. It doesn't help to answer even fragments of the question Why? - but at least I can confidently say that this music is horrifying and heavy, sick and twisted, dreamy and traumatic, hypnotizing and disturbing, Kraut und Rüben, Black Death and foul rebirth.

Sum Of R 's combination of Avantgarde, Doom and Drone Metal, electronics, effects, samples and Psychedelic Rock with vocal performances from ethereal to excessively extreme draws parallels to Oranssi Pazuzu and the intentional blatancy of Igorrr - and especially when it dips into Oriental sounds it feels like a hellish mirror of the works of Wyatt E.. "Spectral" however finds its very own, perfectly executed yet deeply disturbing flavour of uncategorizable madness.

Whatever that nightmarish hellspawn on the great cover artwork is - it matches the brilliant content.

cassette craze chronicles XLII feat. MAUD THE MOTH, SOLAR CORONA ELEKTRISCHE MASCHINE, TAVARE, THE MOND and THISQUIETARMY x OTAY:ONII

Ok, since I already have enough new tapes for the next epsidode this post is overdue as fuck. So let's not waste time and press PLAY!

MAUD THE MOTH - The Distaff (2025)

This is not a transparent vinyl edition. I had actually ordered that one, together with Messa's "The Spin". Yet somehow my retailer kept putting me off from month to month, even though both limited editions were already on the market. So at some point I canceled that order and rather got the albums in other formats. And I must say that the Woodford Halse tape version of Maud The Moth's "The Distaff" was a great choice, since it surely must be the loveliest edition of the release, with a slipcase, a cut-out J-card and the possibilty to put in an alternatiove cover artwork. A very nice item!

And musically? While Amaya López-Carromero remains the sole songwriter of her project, and her piano work and ethereal or operatic vocals are still the main attraction on her new album, it features a lot of guitar by her Healthyliving bandmate Scott McLean (who also contributes Moog synths and saxophone) and drums, which often make it feel like a "real" band effort.
On top of that it can of course never be wrong to also have Alison Chesley aka Helen Money on cello on your recording.

"The Distaff" is an impressive journey through dynamics and emotions. From the small and brittle to the surprisingly crushing and cathartic it's an amazingly beautiful achievement. And it does it all in complete defiance of genre conventions. Neoclassical, Doom, Ethereal Wave, Singer-Songwriter, Experimental Folk, Post Rock... the tag list on the album's Bandcamp page goes on and on - and nothing is wrong there, while it still feels as if this is made of a dozen more stylistic influences.

Maud The Moth doesn't try to outdo the the hooks and earworm qualities of Healthyliving's 2023 debut, yet instead impresses with touching heavenly heights and profound spiritual depths. Mesmerizing art.

THISQUIETARMY x OTAY:ONII - Howl And Tell (2025)

Speaking of captivating female singers there's no way around the spellbinding magic of Lane Shi Otay:onii, who seems to be everywhere right now - yet still I keep missing my chances to see her live in Hamburg due to clashes with other shows...

For this album the Chinese-American artist spontanously teamed up with Canadian Drone guitar master Eric Quach aka Thisquietarmy. So this is just the two of them - guitar and effects on one side, vocals, keytar and kazoo on the other interacting with each other. A duet and dialogue here, a harmonious or deliberately cacaphonous merging there. Whatever happens, the artistic chemistry is always palpable.

At the latest once you reach the feral despair of the album's midpoint in "Limps Dragging Towards Saturn Slowly", there's no denying that this a meeting of exceptional experimental artists, who know how to make your bones rumble and your soul shake. A logical sequel to Hypnodrone Ensemble's "The Problem Is In The Sender - Do Not Tamper With The Receiver", where they met before, yet a much closer and more dangerous experience. Amazing waves of emotional Noise!

The cassette design is solid, I especially like the full print on the shell itself.

TAVARE- Too Small To Be So High (2025)

Smooth transition to another core member of the Hypnodrone Ensemble with Aidan Baker's trio Tavare featuring him on guitar, Tristen Bakker on bass and Angela Muñoz (who's also part of the Ensemble) on drums.

Their music is quite quiet, a minimalist semi-acoustic form of slow-motion Alternative and Post Rock, very song-driven with all members singing. It is stripped down, but ambitious enough to still intrigue you. Atmospherically this actually reminds me a lot of good old SubRosa, but Tavare have their own very distinct vibe, providing an excellent soundtrack for winding down with songs that keep getting stronger with each listen.

Could this be one of my favorite Aidan Baker projects? Possibly. But he has so many, right? Well, who cares? Especially the natural, imperfect but just right feeling and tasteful harmony vocals on "Too Small To Be So High" are just balm for the soul.

And the interestingly structured "Left Behind" alone makes me happy that I got this cassette, which comes in an all-cardboard packaging, from Cruel Nature Records. A cool, lovely release.

SOLAR CORONA ELEKTRISCHE MASCHINE - Live At Cafe Oto (2024)

And now we're getting really trippy with a live release from last year, featuring a live performance from 2023, when the Portuguese Improvisational Stoner Rock band Solar Corona played an especially cosmic, hypnotic, infinitely improvised and above all very electronics-based show in London - hence the "Electric Machine" extension of the band name.

In two long Kraut jams with robust robotik backbones sounds are pulsating, oscillating, creaking, wafting and drifting through the cosmos like an android's mind discovering its soul and consciousness and the beauty of the stars in existential wonder.

The hand-numbered tape comes in an interestingly designed, layered combination of one transparent, one shiny silver J-card and prints on the cassette tray. A good visual fit for this great Experimental Psychedelic music. Awesome stuff!

THE MOND - 3 修正ニュートン力学 (2019)

My introduction to the Czech trio The Mond and their self-titled 2016 album hasn't been long ago. I actually featured it in the previous edition of the cassette craze chronicles.

Three years later their combination of Electronics, trumpet / bass clarinet, synths, organ and electric guitar still creates a distinct range of sounds. And while this is still home at the crossing of Experimental Free Jazz and Psychedelic Noise the performances on "3 修正ニュートン力学" (which unsurprisingly I cannot pronounce) actually feel less bonkers and more focussed here. Still way too crazy for the average consumer, but that's a basic prerequisite of everything Avantgarde, right?

The kind of weirdness that makes me happy, with a nice artwork that doesn't hurt either.

Ideologische Orgelei mit HAMPUS LINDWALL, KALI MALONE und LUCY RAILTON

Freunde der Randgruppenkunst und exzellenten Experimentalmusik, dieses Rezensionstrio ist für euch! Drei aktuelle Alben von Sunn O)))-Gitarrist Stephen O'Malleys streng kuratiertem Nischenlabel Ideologic Organ, alle digital, oder ansprechend verpackt auf CD (wie in meiner Sammlung) oder als LP zu haben. Maximal effektiver Minimalismus in unterschiedlichen Spielarten.

Wir beginnen mit dem konzeptionell - insbesondere in Bezug auf den Labelnamen - wohl reinsten Werk:

KALI MALONE - The Sacrificial Code (CD) (2019/2025)

Remastered und mit einem zusätzlichen Track versehen auf insgesamt über fünfundsiebzig Minuten Spielzeit verlängert, dröhnt Kali Malones 2019er Album "The Sacrificial Code" nun in neuem Glanz.

Das Cover verrät den Inhalt: nur Malone alleine auf der Pfeifenorgel. Außer einer einminütigen Unterbrechung durch Kirchenglocken nach einer knappen Stunde keine anderen Klänge oder Mitmusiker. Nur die Zeit außer Kraft setzendes, majestätisch introvertiertes Orgelspiel, bei dem ein Schlussakkord schon einmal anderthalb Minuten gehalten werden kann.

Die absolute Gegenthese also zur Aufmerksamkeitsspanne der Generation Social Media. Ungefilterte musikalische Schönheit verpackt in konsequent minimalistischen, in präsizer Detailverliebtheit auf jede kleinste Resonanz und Textur fokussierten Kompositionen, die sich über den Hörer legen wie eine überweltlich meditative Macht aus einer fremdvertrauten Dimension des erhabenen Stillstands.

Schlicht und anspruchsvoll entzieht diese Musik sich trockener Erklärbarkeit. Der Intellekt des Hörers darf sich entspannen, während der Code direkt in der Seele wirkt. Und so kann auch ich mich nur der kontemporären Kritik anschließen, die "The Sacrificial Code" schon vor sechs Jahren zum Meisterstück gekürt hat. Unvergleichlich.

LUCY RAILTON - Blue Veil (CD) (2025)

Ok, ganz unvergleichlich vielleicht nicht. Denn im Grunde macht das Debüt-Soloalbum der Cellistin Lucy Railton, welche vor zwei Jahren auch an Kali Malones mammutösen 3-CD-Epos "Does Spring Hide Its Joy" mitgewirkt hatte, etwas ganz ähnliches wie "The Sacrificial Code", nur eben basierend auf ihrem respektiven Instrument.

In sieben Phasen werden auch hier ohne jede Hast die Mikrostimmungen und (dis)harmonischen Schwingungen erkundet. Nicht formale Strukturen bestimmen den Fluss der Musik, sondern die physische Präsenz des Cellos selbst, sein Puls und Atem.

Neben "befriedigend" und "zufriedenstellend" existiert eine tiefere, viszeralere Bedeutung des englischen Begriffs "satisfying", die beispielsweise in satisfying videos idealerweise getriggert wird. Für dieses Phänomen gibt es meines Wissens nach keine wirklich adequate deutsche Übersetzung. Es ist jener Impuls, der auch in Railtons Cellospiel wirkt. Man muss sich "Blue Veil" nur in Ruhe hingeben.

Mit einem kompakteren Format von vierzig Minuten fällt dies bei geringerer Erfahrung mit Deep-Listening-Musik vermutlich etwas leichter und enthebt einen weniger aus der Zeitwahrnehmung der Außenwelt als Malones Herausforderungen, für die man sich ja mitunter Platz im Kalender freischaufeln muss.

HAMPUS LINDWALL - Brace For Impact (CD) (2025)

Der Sunn O))-Drone Metal-Crunch ist unverkennbar. Der Opener und Titeltrack von Organist Hampus Lindwalls Album "Brace For Impact" überfällt den Hörer sogleich mit einem dramatischen Gastspiel Stephen O'Malleys, über sich in einer akustischen Illusionsspirale scheinbar endlos nach oben ziehen Kirchnorgelklängen.

Der Rest des Albums gehört dann Lindwall allein. Ebenso wie Kali Malone und Lucy Railton entzieht sich sein Spiel komplett der bequemen rhythmischen und melodischen Erfassbarkeit. Und zu Beginn übt auch er sich in chronometrisch eingefrorener Langsamkeit.

Noch im Laufe des zweiten Stücks "Swerve" emanzipiert er sich jedoch deutlich von den Labelgenossinnen. Er erkundet ein ganz anderes Klangspektrum der Orgel als Kali Malone, sucht nach fiesen, gruseligen, kraftvollen Stimmen, die auch durch Effekteinsatz manipuliert sein dürfen. Und vor allem gibt er sich auch schnelleren Tempi und scheinbar chaotischerer Ausdrucksweise hin.

"Brace For Impact" scheint mal gespenstisch wirbelnder Livesoundtrack zu einem Horror-Stummfilm zu sein, mal die in unvorhersehbar wildem, oft geradezu brutalem Stakkatowahn freidrehende Eskalation eines tollwütigen Phantoms der Oper.
Eine geistige Kernverschmelzung der avantgardistischen Randbereiche von kontemporärer Klassik und Jazz mit einem Resultat, das man sowohl als konstruierte Kopfmusik, jedoch noch leichter als konsequenten Orgelpunk verstehen kann. A special flavour of Hirnfick, made in St.-Antonius-Kirche Düsseldorf.

...And Justice For Sean!

Not really a review, but a lesson in fact-checking yourself and a humbling reminder that stupid defiance is only getting in the way of the enjoyment of shit.

Recently I sneakily deleted a whole paragraph in my last Cynic review. I can do that, I'm not claiming to be a reputable news-outlet, right? But why did I do it? Well, simply put: It was embarrassing for me.

Sometimes - maybe fostered by some attendant circumstances which point in a seemingly similar direction - a wrong information forms in your head by itself and you just dont even come up with the idea of verifying whether it's actually true.

As I stated in great detail in said review Cynic's "Focus" transcends just being a great album for me. Instead it's one of the best things among all things ever made.
And even though it doesn't have quite the same status for me, I still absolutely love their 2008 reunion work "Traced In Air" like very few other albums. I've even had the poster which came with the digipak CD framed on my wall for surely a dozen years now. Yet it's hanging beside their signed 2009 German tour poster, which features the live line-up of original Floridian members Paul Masvidal and Sean Reinert and the Dutch section of guitarist / growler Tymon Kruidenier - who also performed on the album - and Robin Zielhorst - who definitely did not.
Instead the studio bassist had always been original band member Sean Malone, who just didn't play live at the time. This circumstance and the fact that the production didn't highlight the bass as it did on other Cynic releases may have led to the fact that at some point the false conviction nestled in my mind that it was already Zielhorst being heard on the recording. And for some stupid reason I never checked if that was actually the case.

But why did that even become an issue? Well, in 2019 Cynic released a remixed (and partly re-recorded) version of "Traced In Air". The teaser for it didn't get me excited and the news that all growling vocals had been removed and that there would be new bass lines by Sean Malone made this feel like an Ozzy Osbourne situation, where infamously the complete original bass parts of some of his albums had been replaced by new recordings by Robert Trujillo. So I was thinking it felt somehow disrespectful and just completely dismissed the remix ever since.

And now? What has changed?
Season Of Mist offered "Traced In Air (remixed)" for a bargain price, so I finally got it. And while comparing the booklet to the original I stumbled over my cringy mistake. Plus I also realized that this new version really sounds clearer and better than the original mix - at least in most parts.

And concerning the growls - they aren't actually as gone as I expected. There are still some kind of harsher and deeper vocals present where they used to be, so mostly there's just some kind of more aggressive texture absent, but appearantly not desperately missing.
So that point of critique actually doesn't make a great difference at all. The only track where I miss the bigger contrast and rollercoaster dynamic is "King Of Those Who Know". Here the new version omits the existence of the dueling voices completely, so I'll probably continue prefering the original version.

Yeah, so that's it. Usually I think that I'm always right, being the brightest mind I know from the inside and all, but with this I most definitely fucked up big time. Sorry! 

cassette craze chronicles XXV feat. BRUIT ≤, JAKOB BATTICK & TONGUE DEPRESSOR, LANA DEL REY, URN and WHITE WARD

Only one brand-new item, but a very beautiful bunch - inside and outside - in today's edition of my tape appreciation series:

LANA DEL REY - Did You Know That There's A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd (2023)

The new one, released on Friday, obviously is album no. 9 by Lana Del Rey. It's pretty huge and deep and diverse - and haven't really made my mind up about it enough to write a proper review. Yet since I've half-accidentily bought two versions of it anyway, I will just postpone my (hopefully) deeper insights and devote another post to my vinyl copy it later.

Lana and photographer Neil Krug never seem short of material, so there are several versions not only with alternative covers, but completely different layouts out there. I'm honestly not even sure if one is supposed to be the standard artwork. All I know is that I think the one I chose here in my mind leans best to the tape format. Once again it's a beautiful item with a long fold-out J-card. And of course, because Warner is such a poor little start-up, you won't get a download with the cassette. Greedy vultures. 

WHITE WARD - Love Exchange Failure (2019)

Let's continue with the band which needs your support the most right now! I was looking forward to watching White Ward perform their latest album "False Light" at Roadburn one month from now, but unfortunately the Ukrainians had to cancel their complete European tour due to growing restrictions caused by Putin's war. So no matter which release or t-shirt or whatever of the Black Metal / Doomjazz fusionists you'll purchase - your money goes into the right hands.

The blending of contrary styles between blasting evil, epic Blackgaze and smooth saxophones and pianos is already amazingly seamless and flawless on this album from 2019. Especially the B side with various clean guest singers is a fantastic genre-transcending experience. The cover artwork works great for tape and the transparent blue shell surely is the most beautiful in this selection. Phenomenal stuff!

BRUIT ≤ - The Machine Is Burning and Now Everyone Knows It Could Happen Again (2021)

My fellow writers over at Veil of Sound, who put this on several of their top 5 album of the year lists for 2021 will probably be shocked that it took me so long to finally get a copy of it. Well, I had put it in many shopping carts, but somehow the grass was always greener and I couldn't really decide which format I wanted - until I discovered that these golden tapes were still out there for a very decent price.

In a spirit quite akin to White Ward the voice-sample-loving instrumentalists of Bruit ≤ fully commit to a concept which sets naturalism in contrast to civilisation angst. Their musical tools are mainly Post Rock with a lot of very strong Classical influences, expressed in strings and horns, as well as Ambient and Trip-Hop elements. But just breaking the album down by its genre and instrumentation doesn't do it justice, since it's really the powerful narration and emotion which especially makes the second half pieces "Amazing Old Tree" and "The Machine Is Burning" stand out. The title track undoubtly is a huge composition for the ages. Yeah, a part of me now wishes I had stayed at their live show last year, which really hit me at the wrong time and mood, a little longer.

URN - Recitál (2019)

Finally I bought some stuff from Stoned To Death Records again, among it two tapes. With two long tracks just called "A" and "B" and the very pastel-coloured cover it's obvious that Urn isn't the Black Metal band of the same name, but something different. Indeed the Danish (I guess?) artist has recorded an interesting moody mixture of Jazz, Western and experimental elements both acoustic and electronic. I cannot bring the totality of this album down to one specific formula, there's guitar-centric Jazz Fusion, Earth and sometimes even a little bit of The Comet Is Coming. As if that would help you, I know... But trust me, this is a worthwhile little atmospheric gem of relaxing and inspiring Future jazz.

JAKOB BATTICK & TONGUE DEPRESSOR - Raise The Dead (2022)

My second Stoned To Death tape of this haul is best described starting with the instruments used by the duo Tongue Depressor: bells, cello, double bass, microtonal organ, pedal steel guitar, tapes, violin. Nope, this is no upbeat Rock'n'Roll extravaganza. In two almost-twenty-minutes tracks with the light-hearted titles "Reek of Resurection" and "Under the Wormwood Star" they team up with singer / almost-narrator Jakob Battick, who uses their crawling oscillating soundscapes as a fitting backdrop for dark poetry sung in a mostly very warm and calm way. If you're looking for an occult Drone experience somewhere between Coil, Hypnopazuzu, Swans and a detuned Anna von Hausswolff with a pinch of Black Metal-ish atmosphere this isn't exactly that, but it surely comes close. An album which requires attention and a certain mood, but knows how to reward both.
The artwork is cool and the layout proves that cassettes and readabilty of lyrics don't actually exclude each other. Commendable! 

cassette craze chronicles XIII (DOLPO)

Yes, this new issue of my cassette craze chronicles only features one release. I just didn't get any other new tapes since the last time, but I want to share this - and it's awesome enough to stand on its own.

DOLPO - Inner Himalayas (2019/2022)

Previously released in two limited special vinyl editions, "Inner Himalyas" isn't brand new, but it's still pretty obscure for sure. This cassette version comes from the fantastic French/Chinese one-man-label WV Sorcerer Productions, so it's guaranteed to be made with much love.

Dolpo are an Italian band with Tibetian ties, and they are fully embracing this connection. Imagine heavily droning, noisy cosmic doom metal, enriched with tons of authentic Himalayan field recordings and the usage of Tibetian (and other Asian) wind and brass instruments like ding-chen, dung-dkar, kangling, rag-dung, taishogoto and overtone flute, as well as according percussions and occasionally also vocals.

If you're asking for references, from my personal circle of favorites Bong, Bong-Ra and also Bell Witch come to mind for the doom part, while the ambience reminds me of Mong Tong and Saba Alizadeh, whereas thinking of Phurpa feels almost too obvious. But in the end these six tracks are set in such a special sonic and spiritual space, that none of those names speaks the whole truth.

Dolpo have a raw purity about them, which radiates a primal mystic beauty, while still nursing you if you just want that crispy and skull-crushing slow motion doom experience. I may be reaching a little here, since this tape was intended to come out in December, but as it just arrived this week it's safe to say that with a new Mizmor coming soon, this January is already a heavenly month for doom.

The cassette sounds great and comes in a handmade package, wrapped in cloth and cord with a rice paper credits insert and accompanied by a cone of Tibetian ritual incense.