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“Six Organs of Admittance take their name from a Buddhist term referring to the five human senses and the soul”.

I’ve dismissed Six Organs of Admittance for a while, mostly due to the hippieish new age sounding vocals. In short, I’ve enjoyed the instrumental improv drone stuff but just felt awkward listening to the vocal parts.
When reading the Ben Chasny interview in The Wire #287 I got interested again. And yes, I really love the latest album, Shelter From The Ash. This is the kind of dark apocalyptic folk drone psychedelia I’d prefer to die to. It would be a great slow death.
In a way, Shelter From The Ash is a response to events in the Middle East, Chasny confirms. People are losing their faith and fighting for their religion. “It’s not specifically about war, but that’s the backdrop for a lot of it”, he says. To me, that makes his music even more exciting.

Chasny says that at the time he discovered acoustic guitar he also discovered artists like KK Null, so I guess what we hear in Chasny’s music is the combination of the folk soul, a spiritual darkness and minimalism. Chasny talks more about relationships between people than of spirituality, though.
Now listen to the two tracks below and then buy the album. It’s simply mesmerizing.

Shelter From The Ash
Final Wing

More info here.