3.5

Release data:

Various Artists – Phra Rahu
CD, Gterma , 2014

Due to the persistence of label owner Johan Rehn, the beautifully designed compilation album “Phra Rahu” (the mythical god of darkness) has made the light of day after quite a bit of delay.

As usual, Anders Peterson was in charge of putting a delicate mastering touch to it all, which he again did brilliantly. The 2-cd is a vast journey meant for deeper listening: the continuous outcome -about 160 minutes in total- and proves to be a high-quality sounds collage into the fascinating depths and beautiful realms of ambient music.

The entrance piece “Premonitions” by Last Industrial Estate (aka Anders Peterson) already takes off into the mysterious unknown with a mesmerizing kaleidoscope of great spacious spheres. Gloomy and more abstract oriented drony environs feature on the contribution of Parikrama. These dissolve later on into the hypnotizing realms of a second track by Last Industrial Estate and the sampled dronescapes of monks on a quiet and minimalist track by LiST. Seetyca’s piece goes vast and deep once more with an alchemic fusion of heavy textural drones, ghost-infested loops and subtle synthwork. The mantra soundscape is set in motion by Indo using distorted sounding rhythms, with Mathias Grassow rounding things out very nicely in his trusted sacred and spiritual–infused fashion of spheres.

Although the previous was already pretty intense, the profound dream journey continues on the second disc, starting with a floating textural drone piece by Anders Peterson which has a few surreal flairs as well. Mr Grassow follows with two pieces: his collaboration with Czech music-ethnologist and multi-instrumentalist Jiří Mazánek turns out spherical and tribal-infused while the longform “Rahukaalam” is a profound minimal-drone exercise with very subtle nuances ending in a spacious realm.
A circular, slow evolving sound design is featured on the lengthy track by Earth Vibration, which receives subtle percussive accompaniment later on. On the final 20 minutes of the Rahu Mantras, David Parsons presents one of his spherical, Tibetan-inspired ambient-drone compositions with tabla percussion that elevate the listener to a higher sphere and perspective in a sophisticated, hypnotizing manner.

Overlooking the whole outcome, “Phra Rahu” makes a fascinating as mesmerizing listen for the experienced ambient fan who likes to investigate the deeper currents of the genre.

You can see what reviews I have done of this artist on the Various Artists page