Saturday 17 September 2011

More Mystical Inner Islands Magic


On a beautiful and lazy Saturday morning, you would be hard pressed to find something that suits the mood more than this...

Im yet to find a single release from the Inner Islands label that I havent at least found some semblance of enjoyment out of. Focusing primarily on artists who create sound collages that reach out to the environment and become one with it, they have steadily built a roster of acts whose creative aesthetics adheres stringently to this ideal. The two latest releases unsurprisingly follow this trend, yet also prove to be the most exquisite examples of this ethereal experiment. Both acts we have featured in some form here on Sonic Masala in the past.


First we have the incredibly difficult to vocalise gkfoes vjgoaf, whose Nature Eternal Striving doesn't ever attempt to hide the fact that this is a sonic communion with Mother Earth. 'River Friends' is a perfect example of the gentle benignity this artist (known to his mum as Sean Conrad - now isn't that an easier name to utter?) inhabits, further augmented by his nomadic nature which at this juncture has him residing in the idyllic climes of New Zealand. A considerable step up from previous album Glacial Ways - and that is no easy feat.

gkfoes vjgoaf - River Friends


The second is Spirit Canoes, the new release by Utah tribal bunny Stag Hare. Opening with the burbling brook, wind chimes and birdsongs of 'A Rose For The White Witch', this record in its four parts is very much a study in the marriage between analog sonics and field recordings, albeit in a trance-like hippified teepee, with a celebrant whose body is of an Adonis and the head of a buffalo. These tracks are superb, the gradual rise in power of these elongated tracks hold a natural force of their own.

Stag Hare - A Rose For The White Witch

Inner Islands have created their own pigeonhole, one they never intend on leaving, and for that we should be eternally grateful. Grab Nature Eternal Striving or Spirit Canoes here.


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