Album Reviews

Hukot Disc

Italian experimental musician and visual artist, Marco Bernacchia, under the pseudonym Above The Tree, has been evolving his idiosyncratic take on outsider music since 2007. Blurring folkloric elements with avant-garde experimentation, ancient blues, African tribal music, drone, noise and ambient textures, the project has consistently unearthed a bewilderingly expansive and uncategorisable sound. King Above is no exception, taking us on an ethereal and mystical journey into the deep extreme of our consciousness. Spacey synths seep through hazy guitar lines, emotive strings, warm pads, chiming melodies, manipulated ancient rhythms and layers of drone, to create a soundscape that is at once unfamiliar and enticing. Highly atmospheric, the entire record has a sense of tension and uneasiness, created by layers of psychedelic confusion opening up to vivid sounds and colours. It feels like suddenly coming around from sleep walking into a forest, where initial panic and fear makes way for a transcendental experience that awakens the senses that previously lay dormant. Eerie field records and futuristic FX add to the sense of being lost and untethered from reality. But it’s in that disconnection, and the subsequent exploration to reattach to what centres us, that this record finds its true worth and meaning. Once again pushing the boundaries of musical composition, Above The Tree delivers another example of how to make beautiful and innovative outsider music so beguiling. Tom Jones

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Window’s Soul, The Farm of Life, The Grey Cat Dinasty|

9/10