ENSEMBLE PEARL

Ordinarily mentioned but it sounds like this album discharges their dark life and lifestyle in the past, present (in the year this album was released), and future. A multi-national one-off project ENSEMBLE PEARL released only one eponymous album related to their homeland Sunn O))) or Boris. Drenched in spacey / doomy / depressive / psychedelic ambience, their short story goes forward slowly but steadily. The four geniuses, who get inspired by lots of psychedelic / Kraut / electronic vanguards and already had walked through various combos, expressed their 'dark catastrophic fantasy' upon this creation in a fascinating manner. A kind of heavy, lengthy trip is quite tough to digest completely but we can enjoy their so-called kosmische musik launched from their inner minds.

The first jab "Ghost Palade" is pretty sensational. Repetitive schizophrenic attacks only with two keys (!) should catch the heart of the doom freaks. Too sticky and slimy for the first shot but the viscosity is also good I guess. A similar vein to Domo or Perizona can be found through this track. "Painting On A Corpse" or "Giant" is veiled in dissected harmonies and exaggerated sound environments. Feel free to jump into them. We can be filled with their infernal noises, that also give us some mysterious comfort. "Island Epiphany", not sure what the title says, involves complicated oscillation and slowtempo psychic-agents-ish mind-driven movement. Great feedback by the twin guitars reminds us of the similarity to Les Rallizes Denudes, and dreamy ambient drumming takes us into another dimension. No need to consider deeply but better for us simply to follow the sound horizon created by them. The last "Sexy Angle" is not sensual at all but addictive hallucinogenic niches we can find out via the longest, slowest, darkest improvisational propaganda. Not so strong nor impressive but full of charm and magic.

To be honest, not novel nor innovative this opus is (even in 2013), but we can say this should have been produced fully with their sincere mental condition and playful minds. I feel so ... but it's slightly tough for me to listen to this album repeatedly haha.