This album is about as “alternative” as it can get!
This music was produced during a 2-night performance recorded inside of The Tank, an empty steel water tank in Rangely, Colorado. It was first used for a recording in 1976 and is now a concert facility. The Tank produces extremely strange echo-reverb effects that the group, Mysteries of the Night, explore to the fullest.
The live performances feature various flutes, vocalization, and percussion improvisations. James Marienthal performs on Native American flutes, Mama Quena on dual chamber flute, silver flute and percussion, and Sarah Gibbons provides the vocals and percussion.
There’s a lot of solo work that demonstrates the way sound bounces around inside of the facility. There are 15 tracks and each explores various dimensions and effects of The Tank. Big discovery - flutes aren’t just for buttercups or snowflakes! This flute work is about evoking spirits. When vocalizations are added, it pushes the envelope into the unexplored reaches of the cosmos. I wondered if whales would like listening to these songs and would sing back. Probably!
The spooky and otherworldly qualities make this album truly perfect for vision-questing, spell-casting, initiations, and other kinds of rituals. This music engenders reality shifts, so it could also be helpful for dream-questing and for raising cones of power. Some may also wish to try using it with various forms of divination and scrying.
The beauty of this music is that it’s so unexpected and unlike anything else. There’s immense power in its haunting, mind-shifting quality. Very much recommended for specific applications in pagan power work, as well as for solitary explorations into other realms. This album gets a Great Big
WOW!
~review by Elizabeth Hazel
Artist: Mysteries of the Night featuring James Marienthal and Sarah Gibbons
2018, Silver Wave Records
15 tracks, 58:47 minutes
CD $12.99, mp3 - $9.49
