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Reviews

Jarguna — Animas-K
(Projekt no#, 2021, DL)

Jarguna / Lam Sadashiva — Puja in the Temple of Sound
(Projekt no#, 2021, DL)

by Peter Thelen, Published 2021-07-04

Animas-K Cover artPuja in the Temple of Sound Cover art

Jarguna (Marco Billi) is a prolific artist who’s certainly hard to keep up with; in the first five months of 2021 he has already released four full length recordings: Analexis, A Peaceful Granular Day, Animas-K and the collaboration with Lam Sadashiva, Puja in the Temple of Sound. At this rate he’ll have another four or five by the end of the year. Here I am reviewing the latter two of those four, for no reason other than they are his most recent two releases at the time of this writing, but don’t let the lack of a review cast a shadow on any of Jarguna’s releases, everything he does is positively superb and masterful. I believe he has close to forty albums to his credit at this point in time, and I haven’t heard a single dud among them. Animas-K is from April 2021, a collection of eight discrete tracks, mystical and explorative deep atmospherics with strong rhythmic undercurrents that takes the listener within the mask behind the animal soul. Each piece is overtly cross-cultural and ceremonial, with strong ties to shamanism, borne of his travels throughout Africa, Asia, Central and South America, where he collected photos and field recornings, many of which are featured within these grooves. While the hypnotic percussion offers a solid rhythmic bed, the pieces also feature native flutes, field recordings of voices, and dreamy soul stirring electronics, with plenty of studio ambience. It’s truly a world that a listener can get lost within, though the anchoring rhythms follow the listener across the continents.

Working with harmonic vocalist Lam Sadashiva, Puja in the Temple of Sound was released in June 2021, a single long-form piece just shy of an hour in length. Lam contributes overtone singing, gongs, singing bowls, shruti box and clamshell trumpet, while Jarguna offers gongs, frame drum, and wind chimes, along with post-processing with synths, samples, loops, drones, as well as Tibetan bells and more. This unique meditative piece evolves through a number of different sections as it proceeds, beginning with a section featuring gongs and Tibetan bells, slowly bringing in additional atmospherics, drones, voices, wind chimes and other percussives. The incorporation of overtone vocals adds a powerful element that opens distinct contrasts between sounds and silences as the piece floats along. This is where a listener can find something new to discover with every repeated play.

Filed under: New releases, 2021 releases

Related artist(s): Jarguna (Marco Billi)

More info
http://projektrecords.bandcamp.com/album/puja-in-the-temple-of-sound
http://projektrecords.bandcamp.com/album/animas-k

 

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