A few recordings from the archives, circa 2021 - 2023...

1) The Empire That Fell From the Sky - I recorded this just after the time of Invoking the Flood and In the Floodplain of Dreams. I got an EQD Astral Destiny octave reverb pedal (which is used extensively on the aforementioned two albums), and this was just a jam pushing that pedal to its droning, ambient extremes. It's one of my favourite songs I ever recorded. Also partly inspired by the game Elden Ring which I was pretty immersed in at the time. It's nearly 25 minutes, so easily the longest song I ever made (even longer than some of my albums!)

2) Lament for the Japanese Wolves - this track was recorded in the same session as Nothingness Is Not a Curse along with some other songs that ended up being re-recorded for other albums. It was inspired by the film Ring Wandering, and is a homage to the very sadly extinct Japanese Wolves.

3) Ballad for Burns - my attempt at learning clawhammer banjo. Super clumsy, very slow, but a lot of fun to play. It's a little homage to one of my favourite poets, Robert Burns.

4) Nothingness Is Not a Curse - probably the most "spacious" song I ever recorded. A lot of air between notes and the sounds of birds, distant traffic, etc. infiltrates the recording. The title is taken from a line in the Cormac McCarthy book "Suttree".

5 - 7) Ninavanhu-Ma (The First Goddess and the Tree of Life); Visions of Sahasrara // Colours of Ajna // Blessings of Yoganidra; and The Extinction of Craving is the End of All Suffering - these three pieces were recorded as improvisational explorations after doing an hour long yoganidra session, and some extensive silent meditation. At the time I was immersed in Buddhist philosophy and the collection of Southern African myths, folklore and legends, "Indaba, My Children", by Vusamazulu Credo Mutwa. I had also recently returned from spending some time at the Buddhist Retreat Centre in the hills of Ixopo, KwaZulu Natal (the South African province where I live). I recorded the pieces digitally and directly to cassette. What's kind of cool is that the cassette recording plays back at a slightly different speed to the digital recording, so it starts off creating a chorus-like effect, which slowly grows into a more substantive and noticeable delay. I love how it sounds, and feel like it adds an additional layer of auditory richness to the meditations. Far out man.

8) Ballad for Burns (Rob V. Mix) - this is a somewhat trippier version of Ballad for Burns, where thee mighty Rob V. laid down some of his sonic wizardry, cutting up the pennywhistle and adding some shruti box, hacked the track up, psyched it out, etc. to the extent that listening to it, at times, makes you feel like a drunken sailor lost at sea in a tropical storm. God bless Rob Vaughn.