SAFIYYA - Shareek Hayaat

"2013 release. Shareek Hayaat is the second album by Safiyya, the duo formed by Brad Rose and Pat Murano. Brad Rose is the head of the Digitalis label, and he is also well known for his work as The North Sea, Charlatan, and Altar Eagle. Pat Murano, head of Kelippah Records, has also worked under the name Decimus, and as a member of the venerable No Neck Blues Band. When Max Ernst said that the forest was a supernatural insect and a drawing board, Pat Murano and Brad Rose hadn't been born yet, but this odd couple of fine woodcutters would one day grow up to prove his point with sounds. What kind of sounds? Electronic and organic, the sounds derived from the intricate and layered process one can expect from wizards like Brad Rose and Pat Murano. Do you need to speak Arabic to decode their stuff? Maybe... The title of each track seems to allude to some kind of archetype and to describe a stage in some sort of ritual. Maybe there's a specific meaning tied to the words, but feel free to project your own. The important thing to keep in mind is that there is some kind of black rite happening in the deepest part of the woods (or the desert), and Murano and Rose are the ones in charge of setting the mood and deranging the senses. Hacky mediums need not apply. This is how you conjure the spirits and direct them through sound; this here indeterminate musical object is the real deal. Let's say music is a walled country and noise is the barbarous wasteland where cartographers fear to tread. In between, there's a wild and dark forest, a forest of terror and wonder: that's Safiyya, that's Shareek Hayaat. You can picture it as a shape-shifting image of the forest as a supernatural bug, doodled on a drawing board with the alchemy of musical and non-musical instruments. If you like brilliance with your weirdness, and you'd like to take a trip down to the land between music and noise, this one's for you. Includes download coupon; edition of 300." - Umor Rex .