Za Frûmi — Legends Act 3- Cults
Though Za Frûmi are only a two piece they manager to create an epic, muilt-layered and often strangely organic sound that sits between: odd ritual/ world music, sound track music and atmospheric experiential music. I don’t think I can recall in a long time an album that mangers to capture invented ethnic music in such an creative, off kilter, epic and often very bizarre manner. The last thing I can recall that managed to create authentic strange world music would be someone like The Residents on either Eskimo or some of the tracks on the Mole trilogy album.
The tracks key element is the often strange choir, chanting and vocalising elements that are spoken in bizarre invented tongues, then cleverly layered and weaved through the tracks tribal rhythmic, cinematic and at times very weird backdrops. The pair seems to be utilizing a mix of rich synth elements, bizarre and fantasy like field recordings, guitar elements and textures, string elements that are either synthetic or real(it’s often difficult to tell),ethic percussion and weird rhythmic elements and of course the choir elements which go from tribal male, to haunting guttural and alien, to epic and harmonic and various places in-between.
Though-out Cult’s mangers to create these richly detailed and strange fantasy worlds in such a convincing, compelling, weird and other worldly manner. It really is like stepping into another sonic reality and if you close your eyes you could almost be in the strange and muil- limbed clutches of one of the eleven cults sonically painted with-in.