Corum

***"Black or White Orpheus is a sprawling 34 minute slow burning spell infused sonic dream and totally psychedelic jam, murky and lo-fi, ZURNA’s guitar unfurls in sheets of blurred sound that slowly coalesce into soaring wail melding with plenty of distant chant motifs in the mesmerizing blur creating a medieval space jam. To those familiar with the trance grooves and tropical ceremonial mythology that have riddled CORUM’s recordings for the past few years, this album is a surprisingly dark brooding composition, but one that doesn't detour from his manifestations of free-will. For this album, Corum and Zurna have drawn a parallel from the ancient theologic texts of Orpheus and modern tragic tale of a ghost of doom past, Michael Jackson, creating a an evolving, choral requiem prefaced by a reflection on MJ'S rise, and decline, symbolizing a sacrificial child for vice worship culture. The set runs from thin, metallic tones forming into detailed helix patterns in a way that evokes the more minimal sides through starry keyboard patterns which in turn parts to reveal the kinda hallucinatory weave you might associate with Corum's work. Opening with tinkling bells, long drawn out tones on some sort of horn, all very meditative and spiritual, with monk like chants woven into the fluttering field of shimmer and tinkle. It is affectingly reprised in the album's final track morphing into ascendant celebratory sonic sprawl of looped vocal drone mesmer, and an utterly absorbing one. Overall BOWO is a patient, edgy, atmospheric use of interwoven voice, guitar, and electronics creating a hypnotic work with woozy textures of bells, harp, Viking horns and haunting vocals feeling that somewhere in the distance the silhouettes of mysterious hooded worshipers make a thunderous accent from the glowing underworld and into the skies. The result is a broody, eclectic and at times minimalistic fusion that alternately drone menacingly and truly pulse like heartbeats through the magickal ceremony. Highly Recommended!”