K-Space – “Going Up ” – [Ad Hoc]

Rushing water, crackling fire, ritual drumming, string, reed, and percussion sounds, lovely (but still so peculiar to my ears) throat singing, the thump of high wind on microphone; all lovingly stitched together at the mixing board. K-Space represents a crack in space and time, a coming-together somewhere of raw, remote-location shamanistic music, evocative pure-sound field recordings, and material created in the controlled near-perfection of the recording studio, into an experiential whole. Percussionist Ken Hyder and multi-instrumentalist Tim Hodgkinson (both of the UK) and Tuvan singer/drummer/shaman Gendos Chamzyryn show us that there is larger listening to be had by those who make the effort to find it. Using a deep collage approach to mixing, these sonic explorers invoke the types of worlds that can exist when one’s level of awareness is heightened and no sounds are carelessly tuned out. Tracks 3 & 5 are the most insistent rhythmically; the former featuring a multitude of dungur drums, the latter with its trap drums and (I think) prepared guitar. Put on a comfortable pair of headphones, close your eyes, and enter a place where every single thing that you hear matters.