WV Sorcery with DOPE PURPLE, KAWAGUCHI MASAMI / MIKE VEST / DAVE SNEDDON and SENYAWA

Is it time to praise one of my favorite underground labels (and one of only two with their own section in my record collection) again?

Duh, It's always time for that!

SENYAWA - Membaladakan Keselamatan (Ballads for the Survivors) (Rainforest Ether vinyl LP) (2021/2025)

2021, the same year in which the Javanese Experimental Folk/Drone duo released their masterpiece "Alkisah" (still one of my very favorite albums of that year), also saw a seemingly smaller work from Senyawa. Only released digitally "Membaladakan Keselamatan (Ballads for the Survivors)" featured unplugged live session versions, showcasing that even performed on acoustic guitar instead of Wukir Suryadi's usual self-built electric noise devices their songs are just incredibly strong.
In this context Rully Shabara probably only shines even more as one of the most unique, versatile, expressing, just outstanding vocalists imaginable.

Now WV Sorcerer Productions has finally not only made this gem available in a physical format, but also added four previously unreleased tracks. So now we get a total of sixteen amazing tracks presented with all the love you'd expect from the label with great atmospheric photographs, OBI strip, a lyrics sheet and - if you're lucky enough to get one - in a beautiful blue-greenish vinyl colour.

No, this work really doesn't miss anything. Perfectly wholesome magic from another world.
    

KAWAGUCHI MASAMI / MIKE VEST / DAVE SNEDDON - To Be True, Then The Loop Will Run Forever (Phantom Flame vinyl LP) (2025)

But now let's turn on the amps - for some loud crunchy Noise Rock!

Beyond that there's not really much to say about "To Be True, Then The Loop Will Run Forever", which features three figures from the British and Japanese underground scene just spontanously rocking it out - dirty, distorted, trippy and ecstatic.

The name which pulled me in was Doom/Drone/Heavy Psych master Mike Vest, who plays a lively pumping and always very song-serving bass here.
Drummer Dave Sneddon has cooperated with him on multiple occasions before, so even though they are improvising the rhythm section is sticking together very safely.
Judging from the long and winding album title one could expect Keiji Haino to be a part of this trio, but front and center of the group Kawaguchi Masami has at least worked with the Experimental Noise legend in the past - and it shows that there are some similarities.

So there you have it: Raw Psychedelic Garage Rock with Japanese (I guess) vocals that not only pushes forward, but at times also shows some remarkable depth. Yeah, this half of an hour passes very quickly.

The LP is a joint release by WV Sorcerer and Echodelick Records.

DOPE PURPLE - Children In The Darkness (Purple Galaxy vinyl LP) (2025)

Last but not least, presented by WV Sorcerer and Riot Season Records, we have a new album by the Taiwanese band that's so much better than their cheekily derivated name might suggest. Recorded during a midnight live session the five Psych freaks of Dope Purple, including Mong Tong member Hung Jiun Chi teamed up with two guest musicians (Darren Moore on percussions and voice, Yong Yandsen on tenor sax) to create three splendid epic, loud and trippy Psych excesses.

"New Psyche & Beyond The Body" really milks its steadily growing crescendo, building a wall of crunching bass, noisy shredding and screeching saxophone on a repetitive guitar idea that gets wilder and wilder, always adding yet another level of escalation every time you think they've reached the maximum of batshit crazy. Beware: These guys want to burst your speakers!

The B side of this purple-coloured record begins comparatively laid back with "Night Flying 夜間飛行". Clean guitar and cosmic synths set the mood before the saxophone passionately screams into the relaxed mood, signaling that once again Dope Purple will masterfully build this up to a delicious full Acid Mothers Temple Kraut inferno.

The album ends with the title track. "Children in the Darkness 被遺忘的孩子" is hands down one of my favorite tunes of the year so far - and the main reason I featured this record among my Midyear TOP 15. That beautifully yearning guitar chord progression just goes to all the right heartfelt places, while the other sounds swirl around it so gently like magical winds and butterflies.

Of course Dope Purple cannot help themselves and ultimately shovel a good amount of noisy guitar over this dream. However its aching beauty persists until the end.

And just to end this review by throwing in the odd unexpected reference, the vibe actually reminds me of both "Pleasuredome" and "Sunday Mood" from Austrian Death Metal innovators Disharmonic Orchestra. Yeah seriously, look those up, if you doubt me!

new sonic spells from the WV Sorcerer feat. DOLPO, FEN, HYPNODRONE ENSEMBLE, IFFERNET, OTAY:ONII and P/O MASSACRE

No, I don't see these particular label specials disappearing as a returning segment on this blog anytime soon! Over the last months I've gathered three pre-orders from WV Sorcerer Productions again and now received a package containing five out of the total of six items. And when the last one is due in several weeks I might have already added something else... Who knows? But for now let's take a listen to what was in the current magick box:

P/O MASSACRE - Sonic Oblivion (2CD) (2024)

There cannot be enough Russian anti-war music right now!

The expatriates Anton Ponomarev and Anton Obrazena thought so too and destilled even more material from the sessions which formed their massive 2023 statement "Aural Corrosion" into another release. And this is not just an EP of leftovers as one might expect, but a double album too inconveniently ginormous to be released on vinyl, as the first of the four tracks alone already endures for forty minutes and the whole thing has a total playing time of two hours. Two hours mostly filled with pure apocalypse created by Obrazeena's scratching, screeching, serrating guitar, by crumbling walls of electronic noises, found sounds, synths and Ponomarev's doomsday saxophone on top.

It's always hard to determine what makes Harsh Noise like this listenable, what makes it good, especially when there are no completely outlandish ingredients like on the aforementioned opener "Progressive Collapse", which is just an endless havoc of pure destruction. The key may be that there's actually always something interesting and headphone-worthy bulding up and going on throughout this whole relentless assault. It's not just an alienating hostile statement you somehow have to live or die with, but it allows you to immerse into it.

"Love Waves", which is not a schmaltzy or sexual, but a scientific term in seismology, takes a similarly patient approach of slowly evolving its soundscape without straying from its main idea, as a minimalist Earth-like guitar lick gets more and more cornered by swarm of sharp Noise glitches, until after twenty minutes (which is two two thirds of the track) in my favorite dramatic moment of the album a very bold brötzmannish Jazz sax enters the crumbling building. In the end, just like finishing one round of a natural cycle, the debris settles close to where the track began.

"Nonslaught" certainly is less noisy than the rest, since it is mainly made by clean guitar and modified pocket trumpet. This is very frantic and unsettling though. The guitar plays in a completely chaotic Free Jazz fashion which I have come to expect in contexts like Jörg Schneider collaborations or the more aggressive side of Dirk Serries' body of work. The trumpet on the other hand seems to emulate a small warplane. And that is only before the atmospherically thick second half of the track...

But speaking of planes: The final track "Kirkenes-Tromsø" is actually based on one continuous sample of a propeller aircraft - while Obrazeena himself was flying it over Northern Norway, fleeing from Russia to escape being drafted for Putin's war in Ukraine.
No, nothing on "Sonic Oblivion" is just noise. This is art - evocative and powerful!

The double CD is a collaborative release of WV Sorcerer with Utech Records.

HYPNODRONE ENSEMBLE - The Problem Is In The Sender — Do Not Tamper With The Receiver (CD) (2024)

Still a long album with over seventy minutes playing time, but surely easier to access and digest than the P/O Massacre we just barely survived is this new recording by Hypnodrone Ensemble.

As you would expect from a band centered around the two prolific Canadian guitarists Aidan Baker and Eric Quach the group stays true to the premise of its name with a wall of Shoegaze, Ambient, Drone and Doom packed in indeed hypnotic, psychedelic, slowly developing long tracks.

In striking contrast to most releases of their respective main projects Nadja and thisquietarmy however this ensemble features real organic drums - and a lot of those. One, two, three drummers are working here in unison, there in polyrhythmic chaos under the long guitar notes and noises and the steadily pumping bass lines. As a whole you could file this slighty tribalistic, transcendent sound either in the Kraut or in the Post Rock folder. Is Space Gaze a genre? Wonderfully trippy escapist stuff.

But wait, that is not all! This session was recorded without an audience, but while Hypodrone Ensemble was on a European tour with special guest Chinese-American singer Otay:onii, who lends her special voice to all five tracks, adding an enigmatic mystical vibe and emotional resonance to the music, which makes it even (significantly) more special.

Besides classic digipaks it seems WV Sorcerer has found a new favourite packaging for CDs, as just like the last Zaäar live album "The Problem Is The Sender - Do Not Temper With The Receiver" comes in 7" vinyl single format with an Obi strip. (You choose if you prefer the black or white side of it.)

The multi-label release is also - more or less - available on vinyl and cassette, offered by Wolves and Vibrancy and Cruel Nature Records.

OTAY:ONII - 冥冥 Míng Míng (Sanguine vinyl LP) (2021/2024)

Speaking of Otay:onii: Here's a vinyl reissue of her amazing album "Ming Ming"! Yes, this is undoubtly the most unnecessary purchase of this bunch for me, because I already own it on CD.

But sorry, I just couldn't help it. After all this emotionally gripping Experimental Electro Folk Artpop Noise masterpiece is one of the most essential works on the label so far. Having seen the Elizabeth Colour Wheel singer dedicate the most breathtaking performance of Roadburn Festival 2023 to it elevated the deeply personal concept album about her two-world identity even further for me. Music seldom gets more powerful than here.

The transparent red vinyl comes in a completely new alternative artwork. And with "Enter The Wound" it also features an excellent six-minute bonus track.

FEN - 結構 Structure 1603 (CD) (2022)

And here's the long overdue purchase. I had saved this CD to get alongside with something else for a while and now finally the time had come. It's a thirty-five minute live performance of experimental improvisation inside a historical castle in Kyoto by a collective of four musicians from Japan, South Korea, China and Singapure, with the biggest name probably being Otomo Yoshihide.

Even though the performance of guitars and electronics starts and ends with a mean feedback which made even my half-deaf cat look up a little annoyed for a moment, the core of it actually is a very introspective and meditative experience.

Fuzzy warm, bubbling and buzzing frequencies and neuron-stimulating impulses in Ambient equilibrium. Entering Zen through Fen.

IFFERNET / DOLPO - Split (Dark Red vinyl LP) (2024)

And now some nasty dirty rancid low-fi, but somehow still pretty epic Black Metal! There's not really much I can say about the French Black Metal duo Iffernet, except that they are reminding me of a raw caveman version of Misþyrming - and fuck yeah I dig it. But their two tracks are only the first half of this split release.

The B side belongs to the Italian Drone Doom group Dolpo, whose previous album "Inner Himalayas" still has a special place in my heart and on my cassette shelf. Their new longtrack "The Gonzo Anthropologist: Advanced Techniques" takes a long while to fully embrace Metal territory. Most of the time the closest element to that is the Stoner Doom bass line, which could just as well be labelled as Psychedelic Rock. The rest is an interesting mix of traditional Tibetian wind and percussion instruments, a rather tribal, shamanic rhythm approach and a dynamic tapestry of layered guitar and Ambient sounds culminating in a beautiful Post Rock fashion. Great stuff!

The transparent red vinyl looks good, actually very similar to the Otay:onii record, and the packaging... is something. Nice cover artwork, obi strip, lyric sheet and postcard for Iffernet, so far so good. But then there's that booklet for Dolpo. WTF? Do you know that Erich von Däniken Space Jesus  conspiracy VHS tape weirdness item from the vinyl version of Blood Incantation's "Hidden History Of The Human Race"?

This thing, which absolutely cannot even be meant to be in any way conclusive or even readable (I'm not even showing the worst pages below), plays in the same ballpark. Absolutely bonkers, all over the places insanity? Enlightment? Whatever? Not exactly what I would have connected with the music, which just doesn't sound like Skeletor speaking in emojis at all, but it's a fun extra anyway.

And definitely a thing where some other underground labels would probably have stopped the artist to save money. But WV Sorcerer Productions is of course all about special stuff slightly outside of the norm.

Great split LP. And what a great haul as a whole! 

cassette craze chronicles XXVI feat. EYES, OTAY:ONII and WHERE MERMAIDS DROWN

Tapes, tapes, tapes! This is a post (or rather inbetween) festivals edition with three cassettes I bought at the merch table of A Colossal Weekend and one, which I did not buy at Roadburn, but at least the artist played my favorite show there this year.

OTAY:ONII - 夢​之​駭​客 Dream Hacker (2023)

But while the performance of Elizabeth Colour Wheel singer Otay:onii was an absolutely breathtaking experience unlike anything I've ever seen before, it was all about her previous album "冥冥 Míng Míng" and didn't feature one note of this recent work yet, which in parts goes into more pop-affine, easier accessible segments, but on the other still disturbs those with droning, noisy or just plain "weird" electronic experimentalism.

Instrumentally as well as vocally a lot of different exciting things are happening on this collaged album. So if you're listening to this tape - which is available with a transparant shell or in Aegean Blue - for the first time, you might not even notice that both sides feature the same half hour of adventurous artistic expression. And you won't mind at all enjoying this fantastic stuff twice.

For a more detailed description please check out the review I did as part of Veil of Sound's pre-Roadburn special! [MY REVIEW ON VEIL OF SOUND.COM ]

EYES - Congratulations (2023)

Speaking of Veil of Sound: I still have to get back at that sneaky son of a... Thorsten there! Just one day after I set the record for the shortest introduction paragraph ("No way, Norway!" for Wizrd) he started his Eyes review with "Congratulations." Admittedly that's the obvious low hanging fruit. But I'm going to take that shortest introduction title back again, promised!

At least the Danish Post Hardcore commando deserved those congrats, because the album is a killer indeed. Not as deadly as watching their full craziness unfolding on stage live, but still a pretty maniac teardown, which flies by incredibly fast.
Of course "Congratulations" only has a total playing time of half an hour. But then most of its tracks are two and a half minute Hardcore bangers with several little sprinkles of Mathcore and Noise, so that's absolutely fine. This fucks!

WHERE MERMAIDS DROWN - And The Raging Winds Do Blow (2021)
WHERE MERMAIDS DROWN - Reminisce (2023)

Admittedly it is a bit weird to talk about "And The Raging Winds Do Blow" as an EP after just calling the same half-hour length an album in the cases of Otay:onii and Eyes, but it probably depends a lot on the music, what kind of format you feel it to be be. For the brand of epochal instrumental Post Rock Where Mermaids Drown are playing it certainly is short. But at least you can rule out the risk of being bored from the start.

Not that the music would give you any cause for that, because the beautifully layered, very dreamy and elevating sound of the French group, which effectively utilizes voice samples to underline its score nature, sits comfortably between the likes of Mono and Bruit ≤ and has enough profound substance to easily carry you on its waves if you let yourself fall into it. Unless you're a mermaid of course.

"Reminisce", the first full album (which actually isn't that much longer, but who cares) continues right where the splendid EP left off. The careful yet determined exploration of atmospheres, prolonging self-control to build tension, bursting into mountainous climaxes... It's all still here, with even refined love to detail and put into shorter, yet more numerous tracks, putting it a little bit closer to the works of Wang Wen for me, but that's probably only because my resources of references within this field are still rather limited. Or I'm just not thinking hard enough. I can assure you though, that Where Mermaids Drown are premium players in their scene - of course not in terms of renownedness / popularity, but the class to justify them getting more attention is there in spades.

Both releases are beautiful items. These tape shells are among the loveliest in my collection. One should also emphasize that the band sells them with download codes, which is always a plus in my book and sadly still not the accepted norm.
All in all Where Mermaids Drown definitely keep the promise of their live performance, and vice versa their studio work makes me want to see them on stage again. Luckily there's a good chance that I can do that at a small open air festival pretty close to home next month.  

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! 

WV Sorcery addiction feat. ALESSANDRO PARISI, 水門汀 CEMENTIN, COLD DEW, 李劍鴻 LI JIANHONG & 文智湧 WEN ZHIYONG & 鄧博宇 DENG BOYU and ZAGUŠLJIVI DIM

No, I'm not buying every release by the French-Chinese label WV Sorcerer Productions. But since all of them are interesting at least, I'm surely getting tempted a lot.

Additionally Ruò Tán doesn't only publish his own releases, but also distributes some great Asian treasures to the rest of the world. Among those is a double CD from Psych Delta Productions, which starts this little roundelay of reviews:

水門汀 CEMENTIN - 稍​縱​即​逝 糟​選​集 Worst of Cementin (CD) (2021)

Why waste time to find my own words, when I can just cite the Sorcerer's introduction to the band: Cementin was formed in July 2015 in Shanghai, combining Krautrock, Psychedelic Rock, ethnic music, and experimental music. Indulging in aimless improvisation is a katharsis and also the starting point of their creativity, and they keep exploring the fusion of traditional Chinese music and psychedelic sound.

As the title suggests this is a compilation, namely a collection of live recordings from 2016 to 2019, which means over two hours of sprawling jams with an ever-changing line-up, which includes guitars, sitar, keyboards, bass, drums and further percussions, but also occasional vocals and the bouzouki on one track. So yes, this is a lot of a lot - and it's all fantastic. The blend of Chinese sounds and melodies with Psychedelic Rock is a match I don't see myself getting tired of anytime soon, and these guys get the most out of it. Who even needs to record a studio album, when you can fill two CDs to the brim with so much and diverse awesome unfiltered live magic?

The double disc comes with a poster and postcard, which look nice, but also raise the question: Where to put all this stuff? Vinyl releases make this a little bit easier: If you don't hang it up your wall (which I would if I had a giant hallway with free space left), you just leave the extras in the record sleeve. But since CDs or cassettes are too compact for that solution, you always have to find another place to store these extras. At least the OBI strip fits inside the CD booklet. 

COLD DEW - Yuyu 欲欲 (Coral Pink vinyl LP) (2023)

[MY REVIEW ON VEIL OF SOUND.COM ]

Now let's get to the bunch of actual WV Sorcerer albums! Jumping from the continental mainland to Taiwan we encounter Cold Dew, whose album "Yuyu 欲欲" is based on the contemplation about the Buddhist concept of the same name, which describes a never-ending desire, growing so strong that it prevents us from actually being free.

Soaked in big watery reverb it opens with the almost too sugary and schmaltzy ballad "雲 Cloud", but then already in its solo part, yet especially during the course of the following kaleidoscopic long tracks "山​地​情​歌 San​-​Di Love Song", "溫泉 Hot Spring" and the live recording "六神無主 In a Daze" develops into a wild boundless ride through Psychedelic, Eastern and Western music, pulsating with energy and creativity. This album is the ideal medicine if you are looking for substitutes to fill the void which the departure of Kikagaku Moyo left and you don't want to rely on Minami Deutsch alone for that matter.
So far "Yuyu 欲欲" is the 2023 release which I have listened to on repeat the most. Which is quite unexpected for a work which on multiple occasions features vocal lines which in Germany would be filed under the dreaded category of "Schlager". But then they just work this in so fluently and there are also those big sincere emotions and raw chaotic Acid Mothers Temple excesses...

As you would expect the packaging of the beautiful record meets the label's high standards. It features liner notes, credits and a lyric sheet, all with English translations. As an original twist this is a gatefold where you put in the medium from the inside. You often see this with CDs, but in 12" format not so often.
(As always OBI strips are cool, but I just still wish they were glued to a complete ring like those from Guruguru Brain, so you could simply keep it on and didn't have to bugger about with it every time you you handle the record.)

ZAGUŠLJIVI DIM - Dolina Kralja Viktora (Blue Marble vinyl LP) (2022)

The focus on Far Eastern artists shouldn't cloud the fact that WV Sorcerer obviously understands music as a global language. So here are Zagušljivi Dim ("suffocating smoke") from Croatia!

Drifting between dream and reality, tangible grooves and surrealsistic ambience, the trio takes us through one beautifully crafted piece in two parts and multiple subsections. Sometimes light and hallucinatory, sometimes gripping and heavy (yet not going into Noise or Metal territory), it would already be more than enough, if guitar, bass and drums carried this wonderful album alone. Yet when they are aided by strings or Italian horror style synths, that's when "Dolina Kralja Viktora" has its most glorious and memorable moments. All in all a very substantial, meaningful Psych release with a noteworthy distinct atmosphere. Anyone with interests in that direction should check this one out!

ALESSANDRO PARISI - La Porta Ermetica (Sanguine Marble vinyl LP) (2013/2023)

Speaking of Italian horror: Let's switch the genre from all this psychedelica to... yes, an indeed Italian Electronic artists, who lets his synths creep and wail in the tradition of Goblin.
"La Porta Ermetica" celebrates its tenth anniversary this year, and this reissue presents the album in a remastered, rearranged and extended form. I don't know the original release, so there's no ground for comparison, but what I'm hearing from Alessandro Parisi here and now has me completely sold.

The selection of beats and sounds seems more retro than say Zombi or Carpenter Brut, so this music definitely breathes a lot of nostalgic vibes. But above all the whole production is just super tasteful and finds the perfect balance between danceability  and being scary. The "Profondo Ross" style artwork and vinyl colour certainly is a great match.
 
What? You have no idea what Italo Horror Electronic even is? Good, then start here, because this is such an exemplary album of its genre. It is as much that as Judas Priest's "Painkiller" is Metaaaaaaaaal!!! *screamsinhighpitchedHalfordvoice*

李劍鴻 LI JIANHONG & 文智湧 WEN ZHIYONG & 鄧博宇 DENG BOYU
- 歲​寒​三​友 Les Trois Amis de l'Hiver (2CD) (2023)

And so it ends as it began, with a double CD live album. This however is not a compilation, but one single full giant performance of experimental Noise guitar master Li Jianhong, drummer Deng Boyu and Wen Zhiyong on trumpet, bone flute and synths, recorded in Beijing in November 2021. This monumental improvisation session was simply too big for a reasonable vinyl release, the sixth track "銀島 The Silver Island" alone being an over thirty-two minutes long behemoth.

One thing is for sure: This album offers more than enough magic to nourish any fan of experimental guitar Noise and Drone (Li's sounds just as rich and satisfying as on "山霧 Mountain Fog"), Free Jazz drumming, smooth transcendent horns and Ambient passages with traditional Chinese atmosphere. And if you don't think that this descrption fits you, it still might. You just don't know it yet!
The communication and interplay, the organic melting of textures, unburdened by the pressure of catering to a specific genre... the whole symphonic approach of these three virtuosos is that sensational. 

"The Three Friends Of Winter" (referring to the plant species of pine, bamboo and plum, who all remain strong during the winter months) is a suite one could write whole chapters about. But that rabbit hole is too cosmically endless to even enter for me. This post already is long enough as it is.
And this recording defies an adequate account anyway. I'm asking myself: Hey, which live album is actually definitely not just on a par, but better than this one? And I know that there are probably plenty, but while I'm listening to this masterpiece I'm having an extremely hard time pinning only one of those down. It's such a breathtakingly powerful piece of art.

Even among the high-quality peers of this WV Sorcerer / Psych Delta haul this double album stands out as a class of its own.

The CDs come in a digipak, together with four fine matt postcards. Beautiful - but as I elaborated on earlier above: Where do I put all this stuff?