New Album "ATLAN" Review by Thom Jones

A Review of "ATLAN" by Thomas Jones
A secret truth revealed: Beauty and the Beast are the same
thing. Soriah’s chimera fusion with Ashkelon Sain has
produced a sprawling entity, darkly cloaked in groaning
atmospheres, yet emanating an ascending light of inestimable
beauty. Atlan is a deeply organic experience. Crisp hand
percussion palpitates rising drones in a cellular blood-rush
of life. Long, open expanses of slowly shifting tones hang
like low clouds in a frosted mountain range. And when the
Quetzalcoatl Kundalini of Soriah’s lyrical throat singing
fires down the spine, everything goes astral. Quivering
strings and chimes offer allusions to Arabo-Andaleusian
textures which run rivulet alongside Tuvan strains
throughout the dreamscape. Dead CAN dance to such music,
because this is the music of the underworld; the music of
hidden places visited by beings beyond the corporeal. Both
artists have long pedigrees; some 40 years of live and
recorded musical experience between them. Soriah has existed
under that name for over a decade, having released several
albums and known for performing all places mystical,
including trees, churches, caves. He has also been
recognized, through international competition, as one of the
top 5 throat singers in the world. Ashkelon Sain’s Trance
To The Sun project is legendary. And his composition skills
have been honed razor sharp with his more recent Submarine
Fleet. The collaboration is a match made in Omeyocan (the
highest Aztec Heaven). Each of Atlan’s 11 tracks is a
unique, carefully carved sound-mosque. Like minded soul
miners Terry Riley, Huun Huur Tu, SPK’(Zamia Lehmanni)and
Robert Rich are good touchstones for what’s in store, but
trying to aptly describe the sonic majesty of Atlan may
require divine intervention.