X.Y.R. – Labyrinth LP

NNF340

St. Petersburg seeker Vladimir Karpov coaxes hushed auras of keys, metronomes, fog, and feeling to evoke hazed and isolated realms, traced in altered states. His latest collection – and vinyl debut – maps the maze at “the bottom of self,” subterranean consciousness manifested from decaying synthesizer and shadowed pulse: music for fading torchlight. Labyrinth leads through six misty, mystic chambers of dreams, drones, delirium, and phasered percussion, spiraling in slow, sacred arcs, in quest of “the inner world.” Tosya Chaikina’s ghost vocals on “False Angel Lullaby” and “Shadows Of Forgotten Ancestors” bring a whispered hymnal mood but otherwise the LP is ambient and abandoned, obscure meditations along corridors of candlelit runes, “to find the right path, to find the true answer.” Mastered by Alex Nagel. Art and design by Dieter Durinck.

LP is available solo or accompanied by an exclusive companion cassette EP, Reflections, limited to 100 copies. (The tape is not for sale separately). While supplies last. UPDATE: “REFLECTIONS” CASSETTE IS SOLD OUT

X.Y.R. Reflections (NNF341)
Adjacent assemblage to the Labyrinth LP, Reflections wanders six more forking paths of smeared Soviet synth, opiated percussion, and phaser fantasia across lost, liquid, looping landscapes. Here the X.Y.R. experience oozes illusion, the morass of memory, and spectral static, crescent tones glimmering against warm webs of echo and reverberated rhythm. The dark deepens; the flame flickers; continue. Mastered by Alex Nagel. Art and design by Dieter Durinck.