eiderdown 2017, triple cassette edition of 50
"Search For The Vanished Heaven emerged from extensive travels throughout the uncanny landscape of Europe Endless during times when dream & reality often became confused. What remains... prog gnosis, lunar devotionals, ancient-future rituals & thanks & prayers to the resident spirits, who know of no borders save those liminal ones we may sometimes glimpse... // For John & Peter, Rolf-Ulrich & Gille ...& Cosmic Couriers Everywhere... // David Colohan, Richard Moult, Alison O'Donnell, Guenter Schlienz, Gary Morrison, Dom Cooper, Declan Kelly, Ulrich Rois, Matt Leivers, Jez Creek, Barry Synnott, John Cavanagh, Bart De Paepe, Enda Trautt // All words & music by Raising Holy Sparks, except for the spoken sections, which are taken from the writings of Arthur Machen (3 March 1863 - 15 December 1947) // Recorded variously across Europe // The Search began sometime in 2012 & was completed Under The Light Of A SuperMoon in November 2016, if such a search can ever truly be completed..." - EIDERDOWN
man this zoned me in and out on a scale of biblical proportions, real quick - in a matter of minutes i was sold the whole way, hook line sinker - even if i had no preconceived notion of DAVID COLOHAN or his RAISING HOLY SPARKS project, or EIDERDOWN for that matter, or a glimpse of the awesome screenprint artwork -which, even considering EIDERDOWN's well established artwork excellence is the best yet for sure- i would surely be singing the same praise -- thousand yard staring metronomic percussion with a repetitive minimalist banjo subtly yet inexorably immersed in a cosmic sea of bliss? was that twenty minutes or twenty lifetimes? close listening makes it impossible to discern - and that's just the first track
i was a bit late to COLOHAN's work - i didn't catch on to UNITED BIBLE STUDIES until AINE O'DWYER's MUSIC FOR CHURCH CLEANERS via FORT EVIL FRUIT started making waves, and then not obsessively enthralled by what little i encountered until 2014 when i picked up RHS and DECLAN KELLY's understated yet overwhelming meditative masterpiece TRIVENI SANGAM / THE SAME RIVER TWICE, then shortly thereafter backtracking to ever greater works ERA OF MANIFESTATIONS and FOUR SACRED MOUNTAINS - the latter blew my mind, it had me reeling, it quickly earned the mental check mark of a vaguely defined (lengthy) shortlist for surefire inclusions on any all-time list i might ever bother to put together at some point, or maybe not, but the point is that FSM is undoubtedly somewhere on that theoretical list
well, here's another no brainer check mark worthy effort
in an attempt to reduce this exemplary work to my typical referential trappings, consider old guards of kosmische minimalism like TONY CONRAD WITH FAUST, NEU! and KLAUS SCHULZE as channeled by contemporary captains DIRE WOLVES, ETERNAL TAPESTRY and EXPO 70, with twists and turns synergistic to SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE or STEVEN R. SMITH, particularly his tenure with/as HALA STRANA, or perhaps more akin to NATURAL SNOW BUILDINGS drifting out on a deep current into zoned krautrock territory, with a reserved styling while achieving impressive motorik cruising speeds at times, despite seeming effortless, organic, minimally guided natural propulsion, like a sleek ship steering downriver, or a satellite streaking across the sky, jettisoning previous stages along the way - but a peculiar moss covered new age mystic futurism permeates throughout, like a BLADE RUNNER street level IAN WILLIAM CRAIG juxtaposed with a ceremonial mound soundscape and touches of HAROLD BUDD meets SEAN MCCANN experimentation
there are some elements of SEARCH that to some extent make A MELBOURNE NOCTURNE (PL13) seem like an elaborate collection of live fire tests, not unlike DIRE WOLVES' HOUSE OF TRIANGLES (PL15) to EXCURSIONS TO CLOUDLAND [REC #169] - i'm quite fine with that - to my ears both PSI LAB tapes are more endearing expressions, in the moment, springboards toward more formed and polished artistic statements, and particularly in COLOHAN's case, toward an unequivocal magnum opus, a clear and present frontrunner for my favorite album of the year
