If the new full-length from Uncertain is any indication, Florian-Ayala Fauna understands exactly what Balance is getting at, and it is perhaps no coincidence that The Descending Spirals of Time shares something in common aesthetically with Coil and early Current 93. (Fauna in fact has collaborated with Coil member Stephen Thrower.) Of course this isn’t only about electric lighting, and if the world is operating at a kind of deficit of productive darkness, it may be through the work of people like Florian-Ayala Fauna that we can recover some of those lost shadows.“

@Bandcamp

“Pacific Walker finds the Odawas duo, Michael Tapscott and Isaac Edwards, once again weaving their mysteries into an esoteric tapestry of mycelial folk borne under cosmic whispers. Joining forces with percussionist and classical guitarist Raphi Gottesman, the trio embark on their first journey, an initiation stretching from the furthest outer reaches of Creation to the innermost Temple of the Eye Am. Channeling scorched church spaghetti westerns, warped tapes transmitted from abandoned spaceships, the murmured seances of a watery grave, our three stoned apes can be found strumming barely tuned nylon guitars beneath a monolith of blaspheming synths, their midnight hymns inviting you to the table. Eat your veggies. Strap on your cans. Keep calm and party on.” (Bluesanct / Orphanology)

“If you saw Pillars and Tongues perform anytime during 2008 – 2010, the set you heard was likely comprised of two long songs. They are called “Great / Most Secret” and “The Miracle.” Recorded in 2009 upon returning to Chicago from a lengthy tour with Bonnie “Prince” Billy, these two songs were meant to follow-up their 2010 album, “Lay of Pilgrim Park” (Empty Cellar). But, as fate would have it, for various reasons the tracks were shelved. In a certain sense, almost nothing Pillars and Tongues made together other than these songs matters nearly as much as these songs. They called them, at various times, “the balm songs” and “the blood songs.” They now have no certain memory of how the songs came together.

They just played and played until they came, singing and playing together many hours a week in living rooms and community centers in New Mexico and in the old wire factory in Chicago and big, old theaters in western Canada, and art galleries and coffee shops and bars in the plains and along both coasts. They played them in French theaters and in Spanish bars and Portuguese castles. And then they played them in a big room with big windows in Chicago, during a thunderstorm, and producer Mike Usrey captured it. These two songs drove for a long time. Then they laid low for a long while. And now they are here. Why now? We have no idea. This coincides with nothing in particular, proceeds from nothing in particular. These songs come now. It is just time.” (Bluesanct)

@ Bluesanct

“Built from a simple palette of exchanged raw materials, minimal drones, and field recordings from Mkl’s and Adam’s individual wanderings and past travels together, “Prairie spells, a ribbon wove” towers like a structure of unknown origin in a frosty plane, looming and beautiful and committing to neither threat nor its counterpart. [...] At this point in Drekka’s quarter century career, it would make sense to acknowledge his own hearty catalogue as an antecedent to this work. But like many of the most engaging collaborations, it’s difficult to decipher where one’s vision ends and another begins. And this can be said of the aesthetic of these recordings as well. Sight and site and sound and memory seem to all play a significant role. The result is rich and haunted.” (Orphanology)

“Been keeping an ear on the lush melted soundworlds that Drekka has been conjuring up, waiting for an entry point. Holy shit this collaboration with Lightning White Bison has me feeling all sorts of strange, gnarled, and sedated vibes. Haunting piano, tepid drones, far off choirs, twisted chatter, all smothered in a rich cavernous, voyeuristic molasses. For fans of Several Wives, Arrowounds, Janushoved.” (Lost Tribe Sonds)