Four Sacred Mountains, by Raising Holy Sparks

Four Sacred Mountains

by Raising Holy Sparks

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	1.	Blue Star Katsina 02:19
	2.	The Days As We Know Them, The World As We Imagine It To Be 17:38
	3.	Leaving Utah (For C.) 05:55
	4.	A Divine Migration 09:29
	5.	Canyonlands 04:59
	6.	Sipapu 01:55
	7.	At The Confluence Of The Colorado & Little Colorado 07:08
	8.	Cloud Houses (She Sleepwalks Constellations) 06:51
	9.	You Are In The Mountains While I Am In Your Dreams 04:45
	10.	A Sky, The Void Of Birds 20:05

about

Sold out at source. Will be reissued in the future...

'On Four Sacred Mountains, a double-cassette on the Awkward Formats label, Colohan expands these ideas to fill the grand landscape of the American west. Joined by regular collaborator Vicky Langan, Mike Gangloff of Pelt and his wife Cara Joyce Gangloff, Colohan moves between quiet, calm drones, expansive movements and string-led rasps over the course of 80 minutes. It's almost too much to take in during a single setting, its length and breadth forcing a certain wavering of attention. As one drifts in and out, the melodies and chord progressions become like ghosts, echoing themselves throughout the individual tracks, appearing once and reappearing an hour later in a different context, triggering memories already half-forgotten.

When the Gangloffs join in for 'At The Confluence Of The Colorado & Little Colorado', the laboured micro-tonal fiddle bowing so reminiscent of Pelt becomes central. Like with Pelt, as the techniques and patterns of traditional American music are picked apart, the sound breaks down into tiny movements, focussing the ear on each distinct figure while the whole pictures comes into being around it, vital yet almost imperceptible. Langan's approach to the fiddle on the final track is more European in nature with slow, soft, sustained notes blurring into each other and into Colohan's even softer drones underneath. The result is similar to Richard Skelton's explorations of the British moors and the coastlines on the west of Ireland, a breathless, tense atmosphere that switches at some indistinct point into the sound of calm acceptance of humanity in the face of an awesome nature.' The Quietus.

'Superb acoustic drones (using a mountain dulcimer among other unique sounding instruments [totally badass]) by Raising Holy Sparks. Released by Awkward Formats, it comes as a double tape boxed with inserts and all sorts of cool stuff. I absolutely dig that kind of effort. 80 minutes in length, very cinematic sounding, sometimes dark, other times beautiful. It's certainly a journey.' Repose Sound.

Being the second volume of pages from A Mendicant Hymnal, concerning The Four Sacred Mountains, The Four Migrations & The Four Corners...

I. Blanca Peak (1-2)
II. Mount Taylor (3-5)
III. The San Francisco Peaks (6-9)
IV. Mount Hesperus (10)

''All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration. We are the ones who we have been waiting for.''
The Hopi Nation of Oraibi, Arizona

credits

released October 4, 2013

David Colohan - Appalachian Dulcimer, Harmonium, Nefar & Trombone
Vicky Langan - Fiddle (10)
Mike Gangloff - Fiddle (7)
Cara Joyce Gangloff - Harmonium (7)

Recorded in Ballymahon, under Archie's Bridge on the Royal Canal (7) & in Mayfield, Cork (10)

"Four states here meet in freedom under God."
Inscription in granite at Four Corners Monument & Tribal Park

For Becky, at Summer's End.

vimeo.com/62808874

You Are In The Mountains While I Am In Your Dreams video.

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about

David Colohan Ireland

'An eerie loveliness that should really be soundtracking a Werner Herzog film; indeed Popol Vuh’s work provides a useful reference point as, similar to Vuh, the music herein is almost religious in its solemnity and grace.' The Active Listener

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