Hands In The Dark / UK / 2021
Razen are back with a second album on HITD, follow up to last year's release 'Robot Brujo'.
On 'Blue Rot', the band introduces a softer palette and a new quartet, as the core duo of multi-instrumentalists Brecht Ameel and Kim Delcour is augmented with new band member Berlinde Deman on Serpent and guest Thomas Bloch on Glassharmonica and crystal Baschet.
Drawing inspiration from late 19th-Century Symbolist art, 'Blue Rot' summons heartbreak and the perils of isolation in languid, hypnotic modes, laying bare the beauty of stillness, the solitary gaze at drifting clouds.
Notwithstanding its hushed and melancholy tone colours, the album provides the listener with the customary disorientation, instrument clashes and tension between stasis and slow-moving development so firmly entrenched in the sound world of Razen.
These five improvised pieces offer another testimony to the uniqueness of this outfit, their esoteric ancient-modern approach and to their dedication to explore new ground on each release while managing to sound only like themselves.