Halo Manash — Caickuwi Cauwas Walkeus
The release conists of five tracks in all, and theses last between eight & ten mintues a piece. Sound wise all of the tracks are built around a brooding & eerier mixture of purely acoustic instrumentation & percussion- taking in a fairly sparse & stripped brew of: ritual like drums, gongs & other percussive matter. Brooding bone horn, sinister flute swirls, bells, and low down vocal chants.
The label are selling this album as forest music, and I think that’s a fairly apt description, but this is forest music that’s dark, occult tinged, ritually primal, nocturnal focused, and with a vibe as ancient/time-less as the trees themselves.
The release opens up with “Yli Corpein Huocawat”, and this track has a real tangible feeling of great ancient sadness & loneliness, say akin to Herzog’s Nosferatu the Vampyre, actually I could almost see this track playing over the opening credits of that movie when we see the footage of the mummified bodies. The track opens up with a slow yet steady mix of gong and rustle/scraping bone like textures, but fairly soon this slow yawning horn element drifts into sonic view along with low down chanted moans. Truly this track is spell binding & goose bump educing opener.
From here onwards the collective really pull you into another time & place, as first one track then another unfolds in all their brooding, eerier & moody wonder. Each track uses a fairly similar sonic pallet, yet each mangers to have it’s own distinct facet- I wont go into any more detail here, as I think this album it’s best to experience fresh with out a preconception.
The Cd comes in a white gatefold sleeve, which features on it’s front a bell shaped symbol lined with various occult like shapes. Also in the set comes an eight page booklet that takes in single & minimal ritual symbols on each of it’s inside pages, and on it’s inner cover pages texts about the piece.
All told this is another most rewarding & moodily satisfying release from Halo Manash, and for those who enjoy stipped & acoustic ritual ambience this truly is a must have item. To find out more & pick-up a copy pop along the labels site here