Sky Burial - The Forcing Season: Further Acts Of Severance [Opa Loka Records]

Released via Opa Loka Records on September 14th, 2k19 is "The Forcing Season: Further Acts Of Severance" - the sixteenth full length album created by Michael Page under the artistic nom de guerre of Sky Burial which he introduced to the world back in 2006 with the projects self-titled debut album on the Housepig label. With his most recent album we see Sky Burial, who has borrowed its name from a Tibetan ritual, present an array of ten tracks subsequently named by Roman numerals, all stretched out over roughly 70 minutes total with the last track, "X", clocking in at 27+ minutes runtime alone. But it is the opener "I" which presents a progression from soft, organic Ambient tones to alarming, threatening and dystopian sirens and buzzing electric pulses of Industrial Ambient within less than 5 minutes time, paving the way for things to come with the swampy, fever'ish and primordial ritualistic vibe of "II", the yearning, thundering and desolate war music of "III" as well as the Psychedelia-infused Synth / (Neo)Cosmic of "IV". With "V" we see Sky Burial present more intense, danger heralding tribalisms for dark rituals, "VI" returns to a more classic, naturalistic, yet spaced out and score'esque take on Ambient / (Neo)Cosmic somewhat reminiscent of both Jean-Michel Jarre ca. "Zoolook" and Tangerine Dream / Klaus Schulze at their most experimental whereas "VII" provides various layers of deep percussion structures as a foundation for slightly uneasy droning and a general feel of deeply rooted unrest. Furthermore "VIII" weighs in a certain yearning and desolation despite being as beautiful as the rising sun on a crisp early spring morning, "IX" is on a cold sci-fi space vibe in terms of Ambient production and in the albums main piece "X" everything heard on the album so far culminates and the ever shifting composition defo could function as a score for an entire short film in its own right, meandering through several phases and moods, all somehow related to space, sci-fi and echoes of dystopia, yet with a distinct Sky Burial touch and variation. One of our favorite Opa Loka Records releases, this is.

Album artwork on Instagram!