Abdul-Rauf, Leila

Abdul-Rauf, Leila

Andros Insidium

20 Buck Spin

Through her work across five Vastum albums, Leila Abdul-Rauf has been a sonorous contributor to 20 Buck Spin’s discography for more than fifteen years now. Concurrent to that she’s also amassed an impressive body of solo work whereby she could showcase the full range of her multi-instrumental artistic and vocal talents. We now bring that part of Leila’s output to 20 Buck Spin showcasing her darkest and most confrontational material to date with new album Andros Insidium.On Andros Insidium Leila draws us into a ceremonial descent, through the architecture of shadow itself. Unfolding like a ritual text etched in obsidian, each movement traces the violent and sacred geometry of transformation. The presence and wisdom of the feminine divine looms throughout, as an ancient and uncompromising force, in conflict with everything buried, exiled and made monstrous by the machinery of societal pressures and unrealistic expectations. The album delves deep into the dark vastness of the psyche of woman: wild, ugly, vulnerable and powerful.Sonically Andros Insidium is a mutation of the cinematic dark-ambient, industrial and ritual folk expressed in prior releases, now sharpened into something far darker, more narrative and intimate. Leila’s vocal work becomes a new focus with a wider variety of styles and characters, exorcising the demons of patriarchal fragmentation and revenge fantasy as lived myth. In its most potent moments, Andros Insidium suggests that wholeness is not purity or light, but the terrifying act of reclaiming everything that was discarded, and learning to speak with its voice.

Abdul-Rauf, Leila

Diminution

Black Horizons

***The follow up to LEILA ABDUL-RAUF's (VASTUM, CARDINAL WYRM, HAMMERS OF MISFORTUNE) 2015 highly acclaimed debut Insomnia, Diminution sees the Bay Area based, multi-instrumentalist take a more stripped-down approach to her uniquely haunting and shadowy soundscapes. While retaining a firm grasp on the feeling of urban loneliness and early morning solitude, Diminution’s tracks are generally longer than previous works and feel more spacious and open, where sparse melodies and gentle textural flow meet ethereal choral vocals, distant trumpet, delicate guitar, and luminous, yet melancholy drones and warm tonal drift. Another spellbinding work from Leila for those seeking solace in quiet and introspective music residing just on edge of consciousness. Edition of 150 copies on black vinyl. Co-release with Cloister Recordings. CD on Malignant.

Abdul-Rauf, Leila

Cold And Cloud

Saadi Saati

***Cold and Cloud is the self-produced solo debut of LEILA ABDUL-RAUF. A temporary escape from the worlds of her current and former projects (VASTUM, HAMMERS OF MISFORTUNE, SAROS, AMBER ASYLUM, and more recently, IONOPHORE), Abdul-Rauf enters a world all of her own weaving brass and piano passages into filmic soundscapes inspired by the cold, dreary summers of San Francisco. Cold and Cloud tells an introspective story of loss from the haunting lyrical sections of tracks like "Tears in White Fluids" and "Questions" to the solemn drones of "Will I Be Sane?" and the funereal finality of "Separation." This vinyl edition also features distinctive artwork by TOR LUNDVALL, visually embodying the ghostly ethereal sounds that lie within.