Luminous Night

What’s maybe most impressive and curious is how Ben Chasny finds time to record such intricate and exquisite music while also working with Comets On Fire, Badgerlore, Current 93, Magik Markers, August Born, Basalt Fingers and many others. One wonders if he could have discovered how to open a wormhole in the space-time continuum before learning to play the strings of time’s fabric like an instrument. “Bar-Nasha” sets the scene comfortably with open-tuned guitar drones, tabla drums, buzzing sitars and Chasny matching the monotones with lysergic inflections that barely flirt with melody. “Anesthesia” gets trippier, with woodwinds and undulating waves of guitar feedback and Chasny singing upfront until ghosts of shoegaze past come in, releasing the song from his grip. ”The Ballad Of Charley Harper” may or may not be about the American Modernist that this song took its name from – but that’s neither here nor there. What’s most important about this gorgeous gem is that it's so beautifully psychedelic from beginning to end.