October 23 street date. Ben Chasny was on a holy roll when he laid down the eleven tracks on Dust and Chimes. It was 1998 and y’all were floating on that Bill Clinton peace-and-prosperity bubble. Meanwhile, Chasny had dropped his self-titled debut LP earlier that year, and the cognoscenti and illuminati were pricking up their ears. Dust and Chimes announced the arrival of a brow-furrowed troubadour whose complex, morosely beautiful guitar playing didn’t Basho you over the head with Fahey-isms. The three solo guitar tracks here contain quicksilver skeins of glinting acoustic work, recorded over a decade before the American Primitive style of playing would be of any interest to the indie world. Brilliant darkness and somber ecstasy abound, as Chasny ragas against the machine with a bold inventiveness. Elsewhere one may hear hints of Tyrannosaurus Rex’s impish arboreal-folk charm and feathery Donovan-esque incantations—reverent but not lightweight in the least. Now newly remastered, Dust and Chimes sounds like the work of a young sage wise beyond his tears.
Available again on vinyl! Dark Noontide is the third full-length release from Six Organs of Admittance. While listeners were
pleasantly surprised by Ben Chasny’s out-of-nowhere acid-folk genius on earlier releases, Dark Noontide comes in a notch or
two higher with another spectacular merging of dreamy, hypnotic, finger-picked melodies and psychedelia concrète, not to mention some very fine fuzz guitar. Eight incredible tracks that seamlessly blend powerful blues foot-stomp, backwards interludes,
strange string feedback, dark, tabla-infused vibrations and the amazing debut of Chasny’s electric guitar as a lead instrument.
Drop two tabs in this and come down screaming.
Available again on vinyl! Dark Noontide is the third full-length release from Six Organs of Admittance. While listeners were
pleasantly surprised by Ben Chasny’s out-of-nowhere acid-folk genius on earlier releases, Dark Noontide comes in a notch or
two higher with another spectacular merging of dreamy, hypnotic, finger-picked melodies and psychedelia concrète, not to mention some very fine fuzz guitar. Eight incredible tracks that seamlessly blend powerful blues foot-stomp, backwards interludes,
strange string feedback, dark, tabla-infused vibrations and the amazing debut of Chasny’s electric guitar as a lead instrument.
Drop two tabs in this and come down screaming.
It’s been an exhilarating year of life for Ben Chasny, the heraldic presence behind Six Organs of Admittance, alternately thrilling and trying as he negotiated the ever-swirling path of Six Organs as well as the spin he put on Comets On Fire, Current 93, Badgerlore and even the band of Bonnie Prince Billy for one golden European run. But nothing brought more pleasure than retiring to his aerie, far from the flies of the marketplace. Shelter From The Ash features a most fluid combination of electric and acoustic Six Organs of Admittance styles. Chasny went into the studio with the songs both in his mind and also demoed out, a different way of working than in previous sessions. Sure, improvisations were still a big part of the sound; within the song structures, they create dynamic sparks from the other side of the inspiration. The session featured such luminaries as The Magik Markers’ Elisa Ambrogio, The Fucking Champs’ Tim Green and Chasny’s Comets On Fire bandmate Noel Harmonson and gadabout-to-the-stars Matt Sweeney pitching in. Six Organs of Admittance has been a collaborative ground in the past, and what happened here is what always happens: an organic Seeking change and a fresh killing field at all costs, Shelter From The Ash fords fronts both dark and blustery, lucent and lithe, mining electricity, hydrogen and other elemental forces within.
It’s been an exhilarating year of life for Ben Chasny, the heraldic presence behind Six Organs of Admittance, alternately thrilling and trying as he negotiated the ever-swirling path of Six Organs as well as the spin he put on Comets On Fire, Current 93, Badgerlore and even the band of Bonnie Prince Billy for one golden European run. But nothing brought more pleasure than
retiring to his aerie, far from the flies of the marketplace. Shelter From The Ash features a most fluid combination of electric and
acoustic Six Organs of Admittance styles. Chasny went into the studio with the songs both in his mind and also demoed out, a different way of working than in previous sessions. Sure, improvisations were still a big part of the sound; within the song structures, they create dynamic sparks from the other side of the inspiration. The session featured such luminaries as The Magik Markers’ Elisa Ambrogio, The Fucking Champs’ Tim Green and Chasny’s Comets On Fire bandmate Noel Harmonson and gadabout-to-the-stars Matt Sweeney pitching in. Six Organs of Admittance has been a collaborative ground in the past, and what happened here is what always happens: an organic Seeking change and a fresh killing field at all costs, Shelter From The Ash fords fronts both dark and blustery, lucent and lithe, mining electricity, hydrogen and other elemental forces within.
Jan. 20 street date. The double-CD, triple-LP epic called RTZ fashions several lesser-known pieces from Six Organs of Admittance’s early years into a massive prismatic arc, colossal and organic like some wonder of the ancient world. RTZ travels back to the dawn of this century to locate "Resurrection", half of a Time-Lag split 12" with Charalambides. "Warm Earth, Which I’ve Been Told" is half of a Mental Telemetry split CD with Vibracathedral Orchestra and Magic Carpithans from 2003. "You Can Always See the Sun" was part of Three Lobed Recordings’ Purposeful Availments subscription CD series in 2002. And "Nightly Trembling" was released way back in 1999 in an edition of 33 copies, all given away for free! Combined with a never-before-released extended piece called "Punish The Chasm With Wings" from pre-millennial days and you’ve got yourself a deep, DEEP box set.
August 18 street date. In answer to the question what's heavier, a pound of rock or a pound of feathers, SIX ORGANS OF ADMIITANCE has devised this for 'Luminous Night': a pound of rock covered with a pound of feathers - twice as heavy, but feathery light to the human eye. For its blanketing sound, 'Luminous Night' draws inspiration from such cinematic sources as Jodorowky’s 'El Topo' soundtrack and the scores of Kurosawa's samurai films, but is at the same time music that could only have come from the singular sound world of Six Organs Of Admittance.
August 18 street date. In answer to the question what's heavier, a pound of rock or a pound of feathers, SIX ORGANS OF ADMIITANCE has devised this for 'Luminous Night': a pound of rock covered with a pound of feathers - twice as heavy, but feathery light to the human eye. For its blanketing sound, 'Luminous Night' draws inspiration from such cinematic sources as Jodorowky’s 'El Topo' soundtrack and the scores of Kurosawa's samurai films, but is at the same time music that could only have come from the singular sound world of Six Organs Of Admittance.
Feb. 22 street date. Comprised of ten blissful, primarily acoustic tunes, a delicacy wafts forth from 'Asleep On The Floodplain', the new album by SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE. After 2009's sonically dense 'Luminous Night', Ben Chasny returned to the familiar environs of home recording to sculpt and assemble this batch of jams, freeing himself from the restrictions and deadlines studios might normally impose upon a song. Thus creating a living nest in which this material could grow and breathe, the album took longer to complete but sounds effortless - and bright with light. Working alone allowed for what could be described as a more cohesive album, giving Chasny time to reflect and make his own conclusions about how a song should move, or when it was finished, in his own time. To that end, each song is memorable of its own volition, yet drifts as necessary onto the common plane of 'Asleep On The Floodplain'.
Feb. 22 street date. Comprised of ten blissful, primarily acoustic tunes, a delicacy wafts forth from 'Asleep On The Floodplain', the new album by SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE. After 2009's sonically dense 'Luminous Night', Ben Chasny returned to
the familiar environs of home recording to sculpt and assemble this batch of jams, freeing himself from the restrictions and deadlines studios might normally impose upon a song. Thus creating a living nest in which this material could grow and breathe, the album took longer to complete but sounds effortless - and bright with light. Working alone allowed for what could be described as a more cohesive album, giving Chasny time to reflect and make his own conclusions about how a song should move, or when it was finished, in his own time. To that end, each song is memorable of its own volition, yet drifts as necessary onto the common plane of 'Asleep On The Floodplain'.
July 24 street date. SIX ORGANS goes stomping wordlessly into the next phase with heavy gravity boots on. This prefigures the
rock and role-playing of the interstellar trip coming next month from SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE, entitled ASCENT. This is full-bore, petals-to-the-metals SIX ORGANS, featuring BEN CHASNY backed with his erstwhile bandmates known as COMETS ON FIRE. Blues in space? It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that 'Blues For Jack Parsons,' isn’t really a blues, although it is an ode to a rocket scientist –- the infamous California scion and co-founder of the Jet Propulsion Laboratories and Aerojet, as well as proponent of the dark arts. Parsons claimed no ideological preference between science and magick - and his
death following an explosion in his home laboratory at the age of 38 has been ascribed to one and the other ever since. The eerie, otherworldly elements of the A-side are amplified here - not literally so much as figuratively, with creepy and climatic effects evoked by all concerned while once again the rhythm thumps forward toward the inescapable end.
August 21 street date. Ascent is the name of the forthcoming Six Organs of Admittance album. Ccasting his mind forward into the life of the record while writing it, Ben Chasny forsaw an epic of science-fantastic proportion - a trip involving humans in space, and the combination of fallibility and cold fate that our lives mean in the crushing all-jaws of the Universe. As soon as this idea had jelled, time-travel seemed to be the only way to realize it - for who better to help Ben launch the space-craft than his old CoF-mates? Especially since they all shared a bit of history that never happened? SO, they got together and made the record. Ascent is a fully electric, multi-headed rock and roll record born in space with one monocle'd eye cast toward the destruction of ....things. Men. Beliefs. Maybe even Earth? Sci-fi can be so hard to read, but it's great on the ears, especially with the sure hands of Ben Chasny at the controls. Recorded with Tim Green at his Louder Studios.
August 21 street date. Ascent is the name of the forthcoming Six Organs of Admittance album. Ccasting his mind forward into the life of the record while writing it, Ben Chasny forsaw an epic of science-fantastic proportion - a trip involving humans in space, and the combination of fallibility and cold fate that our lives mean in the crushing all-jaws of the Universe. As soon as this idea had jelled, time-travel seemed to be the only way to realize it - for who better to help Ben launch the space-craft than his old CoF-mates? Especially since they all shared a bit of history that never happened? SO, they got together and made the record. Ascent is a fully electric, multi-headed rock and roll record born in space with one monocle'd eye cast toward the destruction of ....things. Men. Beliefs. Maybe even Earth? Sci-fi can be so hard to read, but it's great on the ears, especially with the sure hands of Ben Chasny at the controls. Recorded with Tim Green at his Louder Studios.
February 17 street date. Six Organs of Admittance’s Ben Chasny’s has a restless intellect, which has regularly guided the progress of his creation. A lyrical mastery of acoustic finger-picking would be enough to build a body of work for most musicians; this is just the stepping-off point for Ben. From the earliest days of private-press psych home recordings, Six Organs of Admittance has sought out alternative spaces in which to make music and has challenged his audience to keep up with his rapid advances into new terrain. Over the last two years, Ben has assembled a comprehensive system of musical composition. Designed to free sound and language from rational order and replace calculation with indeterminacy, THE HEXADIC SYSTEM is a catalyst to extinguish patterns and generate new means of chord progressions and choices. Although it was not his intention upon creating THE SYSTEM, the structures it generated were so compelling, it soon became the bones of the next Six Organs record. This is the longest time between Six Organs records since Ben started making them in 1998. This is also why the Hexadic album sounds unlike anything else made this year, and generally unlike most other things made ever. THE SYSTEM builds all of the tonal fields, chord changes, scales, and lyrics on this record, creating the framework for the songs with which the musicians engage. Yet THE SYSTEM is open; within the framework, Chasny’s own personal aesthetics - such as the production mode of loud guitars, the order of songs, the editing of length - were all conscious decisions made to communicate the pieces. The first thing one notices when listening to Hexadic is how unhinged it all sounds. The album brews and boils with an ominously dark tone in a desolate space, somehow dense with energy, guitar overdriven past the point of sanity, slamming drum accents, vocals cutting through in what seems to be comprised of another, as yet unheard, language. Yet, inside the apparent wild abandon and destruction is a strict internal logic of construction that unveils itself upon listening. This is the majestic dialectic of Hexadic. The Sabbathian opening processional of 'The Ram' is a call to another way of believing, but not the tired old satanic one. Instead, this is a system that gives power back to the people. This was a goal: to make heavy music with as few "heavy" signifiers as possible. The ones that are left: Volume. Distortion. The dynamic pastoral pieces that conclude the album, 'Vestige', and 'Guild', reflect on the possibility of synergistic ecstasy while acting as live demonstrations of the chaotic logic of the combinatorial/stochastic method. Even the slashing hardcore/nihil-wave onslaught of 'Maximum Hexadic', takes a backseat to the system, here operated in its tightest, briefest structure. Employing playing cards with the sense of fun and automatism found in Breton’s surrealist games, THE HEXADIC SYSTEM was inspired by such disparate figures as Renaissance philosopher of the occult Heinrich Agrippa, 13th century monk Ramon Llull, and 20th century French phenomenologist Gaston Bachelard. Recording with Ben on Hexadic as Six Organs Of Admittance is his old compatriot from Comets on Fire, Noel Von Harmonson, on drums, as well as his partner in Badgerlore, Rob Fisk, on bass. San Francisco psych legend Charlie Saufley takes on bass duties as well. In addition to this album, THE HEXADIC SYSTEM will be available for practice via a deck of specially-created cards, as well as a book explaining the workings of THE SYSTEM, to be released in 2015.
February 17 street date. Six Organs of Admittance’s Ben Chasny’s has a restless intellect, which has regularly guided the progress of his creation. A lyrical mastery of acoustic finger-picking would be enough to build a body of work for most musicians; this is just the stepping-off point for Ben. From the earliest days of private-press psych home recordings, Six Organs of Admittance has sought out alternative spaces in which to make music and has challenged his audience to keep up with his rapid advances into new terrain. Over the last two years, Ben has assembled a comprehensive system of musical composition. Designed to free sound and language from rational order and replace calculation with indeterminacy, THE HEXADIC SYSTEM is a catalyst to extinguish patterns and generate new means of chord progressions and choices. Although it was not his intention upon creating THE SYSTEM, the structures it generated were so compelling, it soon became the bones of the next Six Organs record. This is the longest time between Six Organs records since Ben started making them in 1998. This is also why the Hexadic album sounds unlike anything else made this year, and generally unlike most other things made ever. THE SYSTEM builds all of the tonal fields, chord changes, scales, and lyrics on this record, creating the framework for the songs with which the musicians engage. Yet THE SYSTEM is open; within the framework, Chasny’s own personal aesthetics - such as the production mode of loud guitars, the order of songs, the editing of length - were all conscious decisions made to communicate the pieces. The first thing one notices when listening to Hexadic is how unhinged it all sounds. The album brews and boils with an ominously dark tone in a desolate space, somehow dense with energy, guitar overdriven past the point of sanity, slamming drum accents, vocals cutting through in what seems to be comprised of another, as yet unheard, language. Yet, inside the apparent wild abandon and destruction is a strict internal logic of construction that unveils itself upon listening. This is the majestic dialectic of Hexadic. The Sabbathian opening processional of 'The Ram' is a call to another way of believing, but not the tired old satanic one. Instead, this is a system that gives power back to the people. This was a goal: to make heavy music with as few "heavy" signifiers as possible. The ones that are left: Volume. Distortion. The dynamic pastoral pieces that conclude the album, 'Vestige', and 'Guild', reflect on the possibility of synergistic ecstasy while acting as live demonstrations of the chaotic logic of the combinatorial/stochastic method. Even the slashing hardcore/nihil-wave onslaught of 'Maximum Hexadic', takes a backseat to the system, here operated in its tightest, briefest structure. Employing playing cards with the sense of fun and automatism found in Breton’s surrealist games, THE HEXADIC SYSTEM was inspired by such disparate figures as Renaissance philosopher of the occult Heinrich Agrippa, 13th century monk Ramon Llull, and 20th century French phenomenologist Gaston Bachelard. Recording with Ben on Hexadic as Six Organs Of Admittance is his old compatriot from Comets on Fire, Noel Von Harmonson, on drums, as well as his partner in Badgerlore, Rob Fisk, on bass. San Francisco psych legend Charlie Saufley takes on bass duties as well. In addition to this album, THE HEXADIC SYSTEM will be available for practice via a deck of specially-created cards, as well as a book explaining the workings of THE SYSTEM, to be released in 2015.
October 23 street date. Ben Chasny was on a holy roll when he laid down the eleven tracks on Dust and Chimes. It was 1998 and y’all were floating on that Bill Clinton peace-and-prosperity bubble. Meanwhile, Chasny had dropped his self-titled debut LP earlier that year, and the cognoscenti and illuminati were pricking up their ears. Dust and Chimes announced the arrival of a brow-furrowed troubadour whose complex, morosely beautiful guitar playing didn’t Basho you over the head with Fahey-isms. The three solo guitar tracks here contain quicksilver skeins of glinting acoustic work, recorded over a decade before the American Primitive style of playing would be of any interest to the indie world. Brilliant darkness and somber ecstasy abound, as Chasny ragas against the machine with a bold inventiveness. Elsewhere one may hear hints of Tyrannosaurus Rex’s impish arboreal-folk charm and feathery Donovan-esque incantations—reverent but not lightweight in the least. Now newly remastered, Dust and Chimes sounds like the work of a young sage wise beyond his tears.
November 20th street date. Sounding forth from a resonating body, the music of Six Organs of Admittance seems to reach us from an ancient remove. Ben Chasny’s 6OOA vehicle is a wide-ranging craft, spanning over a dozen albums whose gaze is always shifting, but whose focus never wavers, descending through a labyrinth of contrasting lexicons (both linguistic and musical) in an attempt to resolve existential codes while engaging the listener and the musician in shared pursuit.
With Hexadic II, Ben Chasny’s unique touch on acoustic guitar is brought back to our ears after what feels like a kind of forever. What may signify to some ears as folk music is caught in an equally compelling undertow of powerful subterranean energy. Ghostly vocals of divergent timbres sing over the fluid interplay of guitars, harmonium, violin - and pure space, as the reverberant room around the sounds plays as much a part in the experience as the music.
Hexadic II is ultimately what the listener hears it to be - a darkly spiritual listen, filtered through their ears, perceptions, and choices. It may be primarily about time: how perspectives change and choices vary over time, as if a separate yet parallel existence, with shared meaning, is being undertaken. As ever, Chasny has a head-full of ideas that are driving him; Hexadic II simultaneously explores the same charts and paths that gave birth to its predecessor, while creating music of a totally different order. The Hexadic II songs have direct correlates to the Hexadic songs, yet are much more than mere acoustic versions. Think of them as distant cousins to the songs on Hexadic, obsessed with greek choir, the desert, and the sea.
Simultaneously more inviting and challenging than Hexadic, Hexadic II is a powerful musical journey into the enigma of interpretation and inspiration - at once a technical work and a deeply personal emission from a seasoned musical traveler.
November 20th street date. Sounding forth from a resonating body, the music of Six Organs of Admittance seems to reach us from an ancient remove. Ben Chasny’s 6OOA vehicle is a wide-ranging craft, spanning over a dozen albums whose gaze is always shifting, but whose focus never wavers, descending through a labyrinth of contrasting lexicons (both linguistic and musical) in an attempt to resolve existential codes while engaging the listener and the musician in shared pursuit. With Hexadic II, Ben Chasny’s unique touch on acoustic guitar is brought back to our ears after what feels like a kind of forever. What may signify to some ears as folk music is caught in an equally compelling undertow of powerful subterranean energy. Ghostly vocals of divergent timbres sing over the fluid interplay of guitars, harmonium, violin - and pure space, as the reverberant room around the sounds plays as much a part in the experience as the music. Hexadic II is ultimately what the listener hears it to be - a darkly spiritual listen, filtered through their ears, perceptions, and choices. It may be primarily about time: how perspectives change and choices vary over time, as if a separate yet parallel existence, with shared meaning, is being undertaken. As ever, Chasny has a head-full of ideas that are driving him; Hexadic II simultaneously explores the same charts and paths that gave birth to its predecessor, while creating music of a totally different order. The Hexadic II songs have direct correlates to the Hexadic songs, yet are much more than mere acoustic versions. Think of them as distant cousins to the songs on Hexadic, obsessed with greek choir, the desert, and the sea. Simultaneously more inviting and challenging than Hexadic, Hexadic II is a powerful musical journey into the enigma of interpretation and inspiration - at once a technical work and a deeply personal emission from a seasoned musical traveler.
February 24 street date. In preparing for the first album of non-Hexadic Six Organs of Admittance music since 2012’s Ascent, Ben Chasny had a think about what he’d be saying in his own tongue for the first time in a half-decade. As ever, a head-full of ideas were driving him to think and speak music as a spirituality superimposed onto a reality, with the ghosts of both whispering at each other. In the end, what sits in our listening ears is the sound of communion. Burning the Threshold brings a wealth of Six Organs-styled lightness into one of his sweetest musical meditations yet. Ben is in a particularly expansive mood this time around, singing and playing while thinking of birds in the morning, anarchy, Third Ear Band, Gaston Bachelard, The Gnostics, Ronnie Lane and/or The Faces, Deleuze, Aaron Cheak, Odysseus, This Heat, Takoma Records, St Eustace, Dark Noontide and a HELL of a lot more than that, with all the thoughts affixed to a quiver of potent melodies launching forth and arcing out through dimensions, seeking infinite space. Like so many other Six Organs records, Burning the Threshold was created mostly solo, but features the singing talents of Alex Nielsen, Haley Fohr and Damon and Naomi; the drumming of Chris Corsano; a guitar duet with Ryley Walker, and keys and mixing from Cooper Crain. With this new music, Ben Chasny has created a potent tonic for our times. The gentleness found here, balanced on top of his classical asceticism, provides much of what we need in 2017 and beyond: love, forgiveness, reality and an ever-wider view, with the understanding of our circular path in this lifetime. Looking at the world through clear eyes beneath a knitted brow, but with a laugh rising up from its heart, Burning the Threshold brings us a powerful draught of essence.
February 24 street date. In preparing for the first album of non-Hexadic Six Organs of Admittance music since 2012’s Ascent, Ben Chasny had a think about what he’d be saying in his own tongue for the first time in a half-decade. As ever, a head-full of ideas were driving him to think and speak music as a spirituality superimposed onto a reality, with the ghosts of both whispering at each other. In the end, what sits in our listening ears is the sound of communion. Burning the Threshold brings a wealth of Six Organs-styled lightness into one of his sweetest musical meditations yet. Ben is in a particularly expansive mood this time around, singing and playing while thinking of birds in the morning, anarchy, Third Ear Band, Gaston Bachelard, The Gnostics, Ronnie Lane and/or The Faces, Deleuze, Aaron Cheak, Odysseus, This Heat, Takoma Records, St Eustace, Dark Noontide and a HELL of a lot more than that, with all the thoughts affixed to a quiver of potent melodies launching forth and arcing out through dimensions, seeking infinite space. Like so many other Six Organs records, Burning the Threshold was created mostly solo, but features the singing talents of Alex Nielsen, Haley Fohr and Damon and Naomi; the drumming of Chris Corsano; a guitar duet with Ryley Walker, and keys and mixing from Cooper Crain. With this new music, Ben Chasny has created a potent tonic for our times. The gentleness found here, balanced on top of his classical asceticism, provides much of what we need in 2017 and beyond: love, forgiveness, reality and an ever-wider view, with the understanding of our circular path in this lifetime. Looking at the world through clear eyes beneath a knitted brow, but with a laugh rising up from its heart, Burning the Threshold brings us a powerful draught of essence.
February 24 street date. In preparing for the first album of non-Hexadic Six Organs of Admittance music since 2012’s Ascent, Ben Chasny had a think about what he’d be saying in his own tongue for the first time in a half-decade. As ever, a head-full of ideas were driving him to think and speak music as a spirituality superimposed onto a reality, with the ghosts of both whispering at each other. In the end, what sits in our listening ears is the sound of communion. Burning the Threshold brings a wealth of Six Organs-styled lightness into one of his sweetest musical meditations yet. Ben is in a particularly expansive mood this time around, singing and playing while thinking of birds in the morning, anarchy, Third Ear Band, Gaston Bachelard, The Gnostics, Ronnie Lane and/or The Faces, Deleuze, Aaron Cheak, Odysseus, This Heat, Takoma Records, St Eustace, Dark Noontide and a HELL of a lot more than that, with all the thoughts affixed to a quiver of potent melodies launching forth and arcing out through dimensions, seeking infinite space. Like so many other Six Organs records, Burning the Threshold was created mostly solo, but features the singing talents of Alex Nielsen, Haley Fohr and Damon and Naomi; the drumming of Chris Corsano; a guitar duet with Ryley Walker, and keys and mixing from Cooper Crain. With this new music, Ben Chasny has created a potent tonic for our times. The gentleness found here, balanced on top of his classical asceticism, provides much of what we need in 2017 and beyond: love, forgiveness, reality and an ever-wider view, with the understanding of our circular path in this lifetime. Looking at the world through clear eyes beneath a knitted brow, but with a laugh rising up from its heart, Burning the Threshold brings us a powerful draught of essence.
July 5 street date. Hermit Hut is pleased to announce their first Six Organs Of Admittance release with remastered For Octavio Paz, on vinyl for the first time since it’s original pressing of 500 on Time-Lag records in 2003 (which sold out in 24 hours). This new edition has been re-mixed and remastered from the original four-track cassettes to bring out the resonant tones of the acoustic guitars that were lost in the original transfer (2019 analog-to-digital technology has come a long way since early 2000 16-bit DAT machines, remember those?). For Octavio Paz is considered by many to be a high point in the early Six Organs of Admittance catalog. Almost wholly instrumental, it is the only Six Organs record that sounds fully dedicated to touching the edges of an acoustic finger-style world that was still quite underground back in the first few years of the new century. The songs here utilize a variety of approaches to the acoustic guitar, both steel string and nylon, solo and overdubbed, but always in the service of atmosphere. The record ends with a side long solo steel string piece that sounds equally at home next to modern guitar players like Tashi Dorji (who released his first LP on Hermit Hut) as classic American Primitive players such as Robbie Basho. When released on CD in 2004, For Octavio Paz earned an 8.0 from Pitchfork who said, “Though they vary from melancholy to warm memory in between notes, the emotions that Chasny creates on For Octavio Paz are always stark and imagistic.”
February 21 street date. Six Organs of Admittance is back after 3 years with a new record, new techniques in sound generation, and a new attitude. "Companion Rises" has a driving force only hinted at with previous releases. Manipulating the rhythmic DNA from songs such as the bass-dominated "Taken By Ascent" (on his last record, "Burning The Threshold"), Ben Chasny has grown a new sound creature in his lab that is as welcoming as it is terrifying and as fun to listen to as it provocative and intriguing. Sonically, Ben's songs are bursting with ideas, harmonically rich, gorgeously arranged; often presenting two versions at once, overlaying electric and acoustic treatments that interlock like two shards that form a single key. "Companion Rises" plays like a mutant joining of avant and good-time forces, as if Faust produced The Revolution instead of Prince, or This Heat recorded on top of Amon DüüI's classic "Paramechanical World", but left a few of the original tracks to bleed through.
February 21 street date. Six Organs of Admittance is back after 3 years with a new record, new techniques in sound generation, and a new attitude. "Companion Rises" has a driving force only hinted at with previous releases. Manipulating the rhythmic DNA from songs such as the bass-dominated "Taken By Ascent" (on his last record, "Burning The Threshold"), Ben Chasny has grown a new sound creature in his lab that is as welcoming as it is terrifying and as fun to listen to as it provocative and intriguing. Sonically, Ben's songs are bursting with ideas, harmonically rich, gorgeously arranged; often presenting two versions at once, overlaying electric and acoustic treatments that interlock like two shards that form a single key. "Companion Rises" plays like a mutant joining of avant and good-time forces, as if Faust produced The Revolution instead of Prince, or This Heat recorded on top of Amon DüüI's classic "Paramechanical World", but left a few of the original tracks to bleed through.