Every year around Halloween I teach a high school horror film class. I always pair Sunn O))) with clips from Nosferatu. Usually the phones go away and the students are pretty rapt.
To everyone claiming that this is not music and they can compose it as well: *please, do it!* If you succeed, we have more drone to listen to and you prove your point. Everybody wins. If you fail, who cares? In both cases we will keep enjoying Sunn O))).
to be fair, as a guitarist myself, tuning and playing these kind of sounds in synchrony for 20+ minutes takes a long inspiration and concentration about the sound you are making. this is not just about the "music", but also about a state of mind and creativity
Agreed. It is extremely difficult to sustain notes or a chord for just the right amount of time, before moving to the most perfect of all the choices you have . Patience, concentration, complete muscle memory doing this type of thing repeatedly. I’ve been playing guitar for 28 years now, and I think running scales for 2 hours straight is probably easier than this, ESPECIALLY with someone else. Playing some of the most rudimentary stuff can get frustrating and time consuming at times, with one than more guitarist. This is an exercise in incredible patience, and amazing dedication to a sound that they truly love playing.
And the fun thing is that this album was the thing that this album is a complete improvisation resulting from sessions they played during the recording of Life Metal. What I mostly love about this album is the fact that it's been recorded completely on analog tape
i couldnt agree more playing half my life, the greatest stuff was always in form of jam sessions with 20 minute interludes, completely high as kites. I never wanted to make money from music so i didnt even though i got the chance. i did a lot of shit but im still happy i didnt sac myself to nuclear blast and shit. friend of mine was going that route got a deal and then his band failed through intern problems. im happy i ever saw music as self expression and not as money generating device. Real music is about the emotions of the musicians imo.
This has to be one of the best Sunn O))) albums, easily. Sunn's music is the only thing, for me, that translates into sound the power you feel from looking at a mountain. I've found it's also the perfect music to pair with the vast, open desert. Man, I love this shit.
Pyroclasts is by far my favorite. I think for atmosphere I really appreciate White2 and Black One, but Pyroclasts, as well as Life Metal, really do it for me as pure Sunn. I gotta say though, their sleeper album for me is Domkirke, Cymatics and Maesk the Atmosphere are two of the creepiest songs in their catalo)))gue.
I have to agree as this being their best. It hits special. I would say 00 Void as the best 'mission statement ' in terms of general sound, but this album is just darn beautiful.
listening to this at 6:30 AM while drinking a cup of milk tea and looking out the window is giving me such good vibes to start the day. i'm feeling really serene today.
Wow. I never saw myself getting into these guys, but there's something ethereal and calming that has drawn me in. Makes me feel warm inside, almost like going camping as a kid and laying down on your dad's lap after he finally got the fire going, just listening to it crackle as you watch the sun dip below the trees. It just lets the mind wander...
"Today we're going to do a lovely little painting of magmatic mountains falling into the depths of a chasm. Now remember, everybody needs a friend, so let's give that chasm a friend here...just like that. Maybe we have an ocean down here at the bottom of this chasm...who knows, it's your world friend. You can do anything you want here, including psilocybin"
50yo brazilian metalhead here. Just discovered this band and now I'm obsessed. I really hope my neighbors become as obsessed as I am because they're going to listen to this band a lot whether they like it or not. Praise the Sunn O)))
I doubt Gira would be into that. He generally says that he doesn't really listen to heavy music - he's certainly not a metal fan. I also think he would be put off if they chatted any of the drivel that's written in the description above.
I thought this would be a good background music during working. It appears this is a no-go, as I feel like my brain is leaking out my ears and nose and I'm falling back into some mindless void.
Sunn O)))is an absolutely spiritual experience at its most basic. I love that the newer work has an innate understanding of this, and seeks to take the listener into an elevated realm.
Sunn O)) and Swans in the same day! What a sacred day it has been. "Ampliphædies (E) °" gives me some serious Godspeed You! Black Emperor vibes... for being a series of improvisational pieces, it's funny how Pyroclasts, at least for me, might even top Life Metal. Transcendence found in starvation here.
I said this elsewhere already, but "Clean Hands Go Foul" is one of the most interesting Khanate albums and it was also improv sessions, Dubin just wrote the vocals after...these guys shine when they're off the leash
@@TheKeefmaster Obviously you're not their target audience, and yet you took time out of your obviously busy schedule to point out something I'd already stated. Back to your Jamie Cullum CDs with you! ;)
Last summer I grew and ate a ton of mushrooms. I put on Sunn O one night, and I had incense and a hooded bathrobe, and lights that matched the stage. It was like the TV was flowing into the room. Well, I am laughing and having a grand old psychedelic time just hamming it up and not being serious but genuinely getting into it, and the fucking camera pans over to the left, and dressed in the same robes as everyone doing the same moves is a guy with a fucking TROMBONE! I couldn't stop laughing, in a good way! It was one hell of a night to remember, and these guys sent me to another world. I couldn't wrap my head around that dramatic robed guy with the trombone!!! So awesome.
At this stage SunnO))) have proven they can do a movie soundtrack. The production and mixing on Life Metal and Pyroclasts has really got me wanting these guys doing a movie score. Edit: That being said I also think this a criminally underrated album because features the most immersive, meditative and gigantic guitar drones the duo has ever put on tape. It's some of their best work without question.
Everyone likes to make fun of Sunn O))) for being the band of galactic refrigerator sounds. However, I think they miss the point. I use to hate Sunn O))) for being boring but I have a new found appreciation for them after looking at them from a different perspective. First off, they're tone is phenomenal. Model Ts Are the most monstrous amp ever. I think people look at them too much like a metal band and not enough as an ambient/experimental project. I would say Sunn O))) is more akin to dark ambient then to say a band like Sabbath or Sleep. Except instead of synths and pads they use guitars and feedback. Its actually cool the monstrous sound they end up getting. I hope someday I can go experience them live. I've heard their shows are something to experience
This is the perfect music to sleep to. It's a great way to put you to sleep, and I mean that in the nicest way possible. It's so hypnotizing that you can literally fall asleep to this, like people do at the live shows!
Hmmm... Perhaps I wouldn't listen to it when I would want to listen to music, but this kind of stuff really fits the ambiance of my very dark D&D campaign and I love it for it. Also... Somehow I find this drone stuff really, really soothing, especially when I work on school stuff.
To everyone complaining about the people claiming that this isn't music....fuck all that. This wasn't made for them. It was made for us. Why do people feel the constant need to defend this band? Who gives a rats ass if someone else doesn't like it?
This is beyond amazing. Still I have a question: aren't the letters in brackets supposed to be the tune of each song? It works for 1st, 2nd and 4th track, but not the third: it's written E, and the song is in F... Does anybody have the explanation for this please? This said, I would like to state that I'm currently enjoying this album while reading Gou Tanabe's adaptation of At The Mountains of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft, which means I'm in heaven.
@@ahorrell "The brightness and vividity of that glorious session glares through these four tracks, the precision and radiance, prismatic lustrousness of the saturation, the elemental sculptural shapes, the abstract renderings." "To be immersed will reveal great detail and color, clarify image, encourage a depth of focus and stillness which may lead to a quite profound experience. Sitting inside the space of time. A deep form of elementalism, even atomism, and connection with presence moment, time and reality."
Spoken as someone who likes Sunn O))), Sunn O))) are a ridiculous band. It's not like Earth 2, where the textures are presented in an almost academic manner, with dry surrounding info and theme-less pieces. Wordy avant-garde transcendental shit is the Sunn aesthetic, it flavors the music. It's simply a part of them, just as Satanism is in Black Metal. You can have good Black Metal without Satanism, but you can't really knock a Black Metal band for leaning on The Prince of Darkness for inspiration.
It seems that pyroclast is a collection of warmup and chill down that occurred between the recording of Life Metal along the involved musicians. So yes, this is jammed
What really bothers me about this album is that Frost (C) is mostly a C note, Kingdoms (G) is mostly a G, Ascension (A) is mostly on an A, and ampliphædies (E) is a fucking F
