Shorter review on an older release, yet written in dedication to the Noctivagant Collective; this one is for you, Phillip!
Kerval is a project by Mister Edgar Kerval indeed, whom we know from the likes of The Red Path, NOX 210, Lux Astralis and, especially, Emme Ya (amongst several others). This Colombian artist (or does he come from Sirius?) is known from these musical projects, but as writer / author as well, for books about mysticism, magic and occultism especially (cf. the content of his current outfits). He is, and I will quote, ‘a Visionary and Eclectic Psychonaut, Sorcerer and Techno Shaman’.
As being a ‘Techno Shaman’, he does refer to the first effort by this self-named project. Techno-Shamans Of Saturn actually is the first release under the name Kerval (there was at least one before as Edgar Kerval too). First a word about the physical album. It is an extremely limited one, pressed in an edition of only 100 copies, in a ‘wallet-lite’ package. It includes obscure, ritualistic artwork (cover + inside) (a shame that I do not know who is behind the visuals), with a black-and-white cover painting (charcoal-like) that visually translates the sonic content and context of this album.
Carefully separated into ten epics, Techno-Shamans Of Saturn clocks almost fifty-eight minutes. Aghori From B Universe initially starts energetic, somewhat Dub-like, yet soon it transfers into an aural ceremony, when hypnotic synths and percussions (bells? chimes? singing bowl?) enter. Energy unleashed, serenity too. This setting, i.e. mesmeric drones, additional percussions, kinetic ‘dub-beats’, expand, eventually joined by sermonizing voices. The manifestation develops. It is a demonstration of ‘Visionary Sacred Technology’ in sonic shape.
It sets the tone for the whole Techno-Shamans Of Saturn experiment. The use of different samples, the introduction of different percussion elements, the injection of doomed drones and industrial effects, the addition of future-mechanical pulses and technological textures; the whole journey into esoteric dimensions still unexplored mixes Astral Ambient, Post-Industrial, Ritual, Dark Electronics, Dark Drone Ambient, Shaman Invocation, Ambient Noise Wall (cf. Necronauts Of Tellurian Space) and Ceremonial Drone, nagging consciousness and defying focus. It’s not an easy quest, yet a(nother) remarkable one.
The carefully inserted use of transcendental or mantric chants (like in the anesthetic piece Procession To Saturnian Monolith) veils the whole in a solemn, chimerical nebula; the subtle addendum of different forms of percussion, sometimes energetic, then again intensively mesmerizing, covers some excerpts in an alienated scope; the adjuvant industrial sequences (take Saturni Fungi Corporeum, for example) reflect a visionary advent of a prospection unbeknownst.
Every mysterious soundscape on this album accompanies a metaphysical reality about evolution and transcendence, beyond our physical being, beyond our notice of physical space and measurable time. Techno-Shamans Of Saturn is a narrative of existence, of transformation, of movement and, let’s be honest, the arduous relationship in between knowledge and insignificance.
https://noctivagantcollective.bandcamp.com/album/techno-shamans-of-saturn