SUBSCRIBER ARCHIVE / STREAMING PREMIERE #2:

Endless Caverns - Magi Hymnal [L'animaux Tryst, 2010]

A fascinating genesis moment for my solo kosmische music path, the Magi Hymnal cassette—a debut for my brand-new Endless Caverns solo project—was released June 15, 2010 on L'animaux Tryst in an edition of 75. The music was recorded and released in perfect tandem with the debut Herbcraft album — two brand-new (then-) solo projects birthed in the span of five days, whose debuts saw the light within a week of each other later that spring. The tracks on side one were recorded during bandmates' smoke breaks while preparing for Planets Around the Sun's grand solstice happening at Hogfarm Studios in Biddeford, which was going on the next evening; standing alone with my guitar and arsenal of effects pedals in the shimmering hall, I began looping tones into a drone bed, then allowed my guitar to wander freely atop. The sound was inspired by Fripp & Eno most notably, but also influenced by the fall 2009 Cursillistas tour, which saw us open for groups like Barn Owl and Expo '70 — drone-heavy, experimental, mystical, cosmically psychedelic electric-guitar-based instrumental bands, who united my loves for drone/doom and melodically experimental expansiveness.

As I began to hit a peak on "Throne Scope", I heard a clattering of bells and percussion join me from aways off: my bandmates, returning, joining in the process of the music creating itself, in perfect attention and awareness. I wasn't cognizant that tape (or, rather, the DAW) was running throughout my extended solo guitar improvisation that night, but when Planetman Ian Paige shared the files with me a few days later, it was clear a new project had been birthed. I took a break to envision and channel the Herbcraft "Agartha" album in a 24-hour period, then, finding myself alone in a huge house on Christmas Eve, recently dumped and with no friends or family around for the night, I poured all of my emotions about the holiday's effect on me in that moment into "Magi Hymnal". Overall darker and heavier, yet with some of the lightest moments on the entire album, the improvisation was recorded directly to a previously used 1/4" tape reel, and the age and decay of the tape is baked into the fabric of the sound. Dissolving, finding the courage within the void to forge ahead, to find connection beyond your own walls by creative expression and divine orientation; I hear and feel all these things that guide my present work (see Forged In the Crucible for a direct descendant) clearly articulated in Magi Hymnal. It's a joy to finally make this album available for full streaming for the first time, a drop in the ocean that has rippled out into Flower Room's full bloom more than a decade later.

- ML