Oriente Lux – “Silver Canyon”

Starting off this Bandcamp Friday with a hushed hummer from Oriente Lux. The name might not sound familiar, but the players certainly should. Brad Rose (The North Sea, Alilvsga, Charlatan) and Valerio Cosi recorded the basis of their eponymous album during the fertile years of Brad’s label Digitalis, back in the early ‘00s. Both players were extremely busy and the tracks were passed back and forth, but ultimately the record sat shelved for years until they could figure out how to finish it. Years passed, Digitalis closed up shop and now Brad’s begun releasing records under The Jewel Garden label, which brought him back to connecting with some of the projects that had been left in stasis in the interim. He and Cosi began chatting about the Oriente Lux tapes and decided that it was time to revisit.

Cosi offered to remaster the tracks, but in doing so he got invested in the recordings again and as inspiration struck the players added new parts, reconfigured old recordings and put the album together into a totally new beast. The results are an album that’s built on the intricate stringwork of Rose and the drums, sax, synths, and flute of Cosi with additional turns through bouzouki, oud, tanpura, harmonium, banjo, and many more accouterments. The first cut, “Silver Canyon” creeps in slower than some others, omitting the fire of Cosi’s sax, but its a nice portal into their world. Hand percussion, processed drones, and a gentle lope of guitar give the song a sunrise quality that’s perfect for easing into the day. There’s a bit of a kinship with Six Organs here, but what the pair have created is truly something all their own. The new record finally finds release today and it should hang pretty high on your Bandcamp wishlist this morning.

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