The Pistil Cosmos / Aghori - Split (Existential Cloth Recordings CS)

Continuing onward, this time delving a bit deeper into that Existential Cloth batch that arrived at my doorstep to my surprise. This one is a split between Pistil Cosmos (whose release on Stunned I was all over) and another unit I've never heard of called Aghori. Beautiful to have one side from consistent French dude Vincent Caylet (Monks of the Balhill) and a little surprise on the latter half.

Caylet's side is called "A Broken Gamelan," but what with all the Serengeti cries, rain sticks and time lapse cloud movements it all seems a bit more African safari or even Australian outback to me. Almost reads like the soundtrack to some I-Max fly over picture, super hollow and spacious and actually pretty unapologetic in the clarity of its sound. But this ain't no Pure Moods disc, so when it glides right into some metallic shutter; more Bladerunner than Lion King if Bladerunner featured katanas instead of handguns. Some pretty steep shards here, empty and alien with flute mishaps for good measure. Moves right along too, sliding into a steady rhythm and hollow flute echoes while jostling dub patters trickle around nice and stoned like. Totally relaxing and spare, but not without its own depth.

It's always a little irritating to me when the tape side ends long before the tape runs out, especially on the first half of it as it means either an extended wait or a quick fast forward just to get to the beginning of the next side, but hey, that's knit-picking. And besides, it's only to make room for the Aghori side, whose three numbers need plenty of space to stretch their collective limbs and glide. Opens with "Nouwhit," an easy little number that slides along teal streams, waves and tender drones woven into summer sunbaths. Far as I can tell, Aghori's only put stuff out on Existential Cloth, leading me to believe that Matt McKeever is the soothsayer behind the label. "Opal Naree" is thicker than the latter track, but with the same sense of open space and trajectory, humming along in expanding, boundless drone worlds before a chorus of vocals, hushed and suggesting of continuation, pushes it into the closing "Wound," an empty expanse of warm lean-to catering. Nice split all around, definitely one for the laid back crowd and another promising outing from this label.