Saturday, February 13, 2016

February 13 - Aghartha

Today's song will be the last "difficult" piece of music, at least for this go around. Tomorrow is Valentine's Day, and while the song I have chosen for that also can be somewhat difficult to listen to, that is for a very different reason. Anyway - I digress...

Today's song is another exercise in slowly developing and played music. The band is Sunn O))), a duo consisting of Stephen O'Malley and Greg Anderson, both on electric guitars, with Greg Anderson also playing the bass. In 2009, they released the album Monoliths and Dimension, and they were joined by a host of guest artists, including Earth's Dylan Carlson, and Hungarian singer Atilla Csihar, a singer who is most known for his work with Norwegian black metal pioneers Mayhem.

It is very easy to dismiss Sunn O)))s music as noise. However, in keeping with my definition of music as wanted sound, this is very much music. Having watched interviews with Stephen O'Malley, it is even clearer to me what his musical project is, as he really is exploring slow changes over time. That also means that many of Sunn O)))s compositions are long and droning (a drone is one note that grounds the music and lies at the heart of a composition), and Aghartha is no exception. Attila Chihar's vocals ore otherworldly, with elements of the more tradidionally Mongolian throat singing, where overtones and undertones create an otherworldly sound.

So my challenge for today is for you to sit back and listen to this piece. Really listen. For every single minute. Listen for the subtle changes - and hopefully find yourself as blown away as I am.



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