Monoliths & Dimensions | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | May 18, 2009 | |||
Recorded | 2007–2009 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 53:39 | |||
Label | Southern Lord (SUNN100) | |||
Producer | Mell Dettmer, Randall Dunn | |||
Sunn O))) chronology | ||||
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Monoliths & Dimensions is the sixth studio album by American drone metal band Sunn O))). The album was created and recorded over a period of two years and features the collaborations of composer Eyvind Kang, Australian guitar player Oren Ambarchi, Hungarian vocalist Attila Csihar, Dylan Carlson from the drone band Earth, and trombonists Julian Priester and Stuart Dempster. Also present is an upright bass trio; French and English horns; harp and flute duo; piano, brass, reed, and string ensembles; and a Viennese woman's choir led by composer and vocalist Jessika Kenney. [1]
However, the band said, "The album is not Sunn O))) with strings or metal-meets-orchestra material." The band took an approach concentrating on more of allusion toward the timbre of feedback and the instruments involved, so the piece is really illusory, beautiful and not entirely linear, stating, "[The end product is] the most musical piece we’ve done, and also the heaviest, [most] powerful, and most abstract set of chords we’ve laid to tape." [2]
When speaking at the launch of Monoliths & Dimensions, Stephen O'Malley told Alex Templeton-Ward that the album was "like a prism... our music is the white light going in, a lot of the colour comes out the other side through the amazing arrangements and personalities of the guest performers and core collaborators… I think the main topic of this album is elaboration, expansion and prismatic detail. The source of that detail is inherent in the sounds of the guitars and the notes of those arrangements." [3]
The final song, titled "Alice", is a dedication to the jazz harpist Alice Coltrane who died in 2007. [4]
Aggregate scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
Metacritic | 88/100 [5] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [6] |
Drowned in Sound | [7] |
Mojo | [8] |
musicOMH | [9] |
Pitchfork | 8.5/10 [10] |
Rock-A-Rolla | (favorable) [11] |
Rock Sound | [12] |
Spin | [13] |
Terrorizer | (favorable) [14] |
Tiny Mix Tapes | [15] |
Initial critical response to Monoliths & Dimensions was very positive. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 88, based on 16 reviews. [5]
All tracks are written by Anderson and O'Malley, with lyrics on tracks 1 to 3 by Csihar
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Aghartha" | 17:34 |
2. | "Big Church [megszentségteleníthetetlenségeskedéseitekért] [16] " | 9:43 |
3. | "Hunting & Gathering (Cydonia)" | 10:02 |
4. | "Alice" | 16:20 |
Total length: | 53:39 |
Region | Date | Label |
---|---|---|
Europe | May 18, 2009 | Southern Lord |
North America | May 26, 2009 | Southern Lord |
Asia and Australia | TBA | Southern Lord |
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Oracle is an EP by American drone metal band Sunn O))). The track "Orakalum" was recorded as part of a collaboration between the band and sculptor/installation artist Banks Violette for an exhibit at London's Maureen Paley gallery. The exhibit took place in two rooms: one with a black stage where the band recorded "Orakulum" with Attila Csihar locked inside a white coffin, and one with a white replica of the band's stage set up cast out of salt and resin with a destroyed black coffin. The audience was locked outside for the performance and let inside after the band left "to generate a feeling of absence, loss and a phantom of what was."
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