A-Sun Amissa - For Burdened and Bright Light
INFO
Release date: September 2019
Catalogue #: GZH92
Formats: LP / CD / Digital
For Burdened and Bright Light is the fifth full-length album from A-Sun Amissa.
This new work builds on the foundations of previous record Ceremony in the Stillness (2018), incorporating some of the heavier, distorted, guitar oriented themes but this time fuses them with broken, crumbling electronic beats and primal drone movements. The result is two long-form pieces of work that take time to unfold and multiple listens to truly digest what is on offer.
The music of A-Sun Amissa has evolved some-what naturally over the years, drawing from elements of dark-ambient, post-rock and minimal doom but always with a leading experimental edge and a huge amount of room to push the boundaries back as far as possible. For Burdened and Bright Light feels like the next logical chapter in the journey.
On a sonic level For Burdened and Bright Light is the furthest Knox has gone in terms of production, depth and working with a more diverse palette of sounds. A-Sun Amissa’s distinct atmosphere remains intact however and the result is a more immersive, ambitious, adventurous record of conflicting emotions as the theme of the work tackles the contradictions of being human and explores the duality of light and dark, hope and despair.
The two compositions found here are underpinned by vast ambient passages that are drenched in distortion and reverb, slowly unfurling before more industrial, kinetic sounds are introduced and heaving guitars come to the fore. As ever, there’s a melancholic dissonance that resonates throughout, repetition is key and moments of dread are paired with shafts of light as these two monolithic pieces unravel themselves over the course of forty minutes. The clarinet work of Claire Knox features prominently and ranges from huge, droning, orchestral overtones in the opening section of Breath by Breath to a wild, free-jazz explosion in the middle of Seagraves. The addition of David Armes’ lap-steel for the first time brings a discordant and haunting element to the sound and builds on the recent live work this trio have done together.
A-Sun Amissa has never been a project to repeat itself and with For Burdened and Bright Light they continue their long and patient journey into the abyss.
PRESSING NOTES
10 - White Vinyl - Deluxe edition. Numbered with additional insert and silkscreened front/back outer sleeve. Hand-cut front insert and a signed/numbered one of a kind monotype print by Richard Knox. Heavyweight card sleeve and poly-lined inner. Gizeh Store exclusive. Download code included.
100 - White Vinyl - Numbered with additional insert and silkscreened front/back outer sleeve. Heavyweight card sleeve and poly-lined inner. Exclusive edition for Gizeh / Consouling Sounds (50 copies each). Download code included.
75 - White Vinyl - Numbered with additional insert and silkscreened front/back outer sleeve. Heavyweight card sleeve and poly-lined inner. Exclusive tour only edition. Download code included.
300 - White Vinyl - Standard edition. Heavyweight card sleeve and poly-lined inner. Download code included.
300 - CD - Silkscreened sleeves on black recycled stock. Download code included.
Silkscreened sleeves by Dark Peak Press
LISTEN
Available to stream at slowsecret.bandcamp.com