fakejazz.com

Hidden away in a the American North East, Matt Valentine and Erika Elder have been quietly penetrating the spirit world and making burnt offerings to the gods of the Popol Vuh. These three disks are more ritual than music, and tuning in is a chance to offer incense to the alter of suchness. The first track on Vol 1, "The Golden Cocola" is a personal favorite, its prickly 6 string downpour gently kept afloat by warm synth waves. Elsewhere on these disks tracks such as "Morning Raga" and "Zuma's Mandana" shiver with dark tremolo waves and reverberations that float into the full moon night. "Mother Cosmos"/"The Tree Of Outerspace" leaves more space to be sparingly colored in by the metallic wails of a harmonica and a dreamy guitar chant. "Magnatone", the last track on Vol. 3 is dripping with a nice earth tone ooze, its dream state drones and longing melody slowly unfolding over seventeen minutes. Like all the tracks on these disks, it's mesmerizing and full of wonder, a backwards step into a cosmic mystery. These guys have tapped into some ancient energy, and these CDs are the liturgy. Fantastic stuff.

Matt Valentine Erika Elder at Amazon & Insound