The xvoto reels, by Razen

The xvoto reels

by Razen

supported by

more...

	/

Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

10 CHF or more
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Black vinyl, inside out print.

Includes unlimited streaming of The xvoto reels via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 7 days

18 CHF or more

1.	Ray of Halflight Prayer 01:52		buy track
2.	Dunes Spell Runes on the Edge of Town 07:31		buy track
3.	Ash Reversal 03:17		buy track
4.	Rover Fortunes 08:29		buy track
5.	Reversal Dub 12:20	info	buy track
6.	Death Reel 10:01		buy track

about

The Xvoto Reels provides additional proof (if necessary) that Razen is an audacious group. If the Belgian band led by the duo Brecht Ameel and Kim Delcour has explored different musical worlds with changing formations, the involuntary irruption of a sixth “member” has upset the content of this new album. Through these brutal and unpredictable interventions, it made an ambitious album - recording live improvisations in a church with an organ and a tabla - unique.

“When we listened to the tape reels months after the recording sessions at the St Martin’s Church, we were forced into noticing that a presence had placed itself on all of the recordings. A presence playing tricks with the dynamics and the church acoustics, leaving inexplainable sound prints and cuts on the reels, turning our music into stray phantoms, as if what was left on the tapes was only a vague recollection of the sessions, reducing the slowed down ragas we had had in mind into a version so different and frayed yet at the same time so layered and eternal, that at first we had a hard time recognizing our original ideas,
let alone deciding whether this was not too personal, intimate and obscure at all to let it out into the world, because what we had in our hands now, was the sound of a deeply private dream, a message from the subconscious, rather than a collection of tracks by five improvising musicians.

It did not take us long before we observed that what was lost in terms of our original expectations of these recordings (the precision of our tunings and interplay, proper endings and beginnings, clearer definition of sound) we had suddenly gained on other and far more worthier levels; the levels of randomness, unexpectedness and irrationality, precisely the sort of qualities our improvised music had always embraced, which were now put to the fore in a manner we had not yet encountered.

So here it is. More than the sum of tabla + hurdy gurdy + recorders + double bass + church organ. More than the sum of 5 musicians + tape engineer + church acoustics.
The Xvoto Reels – a prayer in the halflight, a comforting sermon out of St Martin’s Church - is a version of Razen where the music played itself, and chance dictated what essence of this was allowed to be captured. We look back on those days in August as a moment in time where in fact, we ourselves and all those involved had become the instruments, in a way such as described by Inayat Khan: “I played the vina until my heart had changed into the same instrument. Ever since I have become His instrument, and whenever He wishes, He plays me with His music”.

Brecht Ameel & Kim Delcour
/
Razen

credits

released September 15, 2017

church organ: Brecht Ameel
shawm & recorders: Kim Delcour
hurdy gurdy: Paul Garriau
5string bass & sarangi: Pieter Lenaerts
tabla: Suchet Malhotra

Captured: by Niels Latomme

At the St. Martinuskerk Asse, August 2015

Mastering: Julien Grandjean at Jetlag, February 2017
Artwork: Chloé Schuiten/Darryl Norsen
Keepers of keys: Leentje Van Dijck, Henri Van Haute.

license

about

three:four records Lausanne, Switzerland

focus : avant-folk, ambient and noise projects, improvisation, songwriting, modern composition, experimental music, avant- rock, electronic and folk music, soundtracks, etc. from Switzerland, Portugal, Canada, France, United States, Great Britain, Italy, Belgium, etc.) ... more

contact / help

Contact three:four records

Streaming and
Download help

Shipping and returns

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like The xvoto reels, you may also like:

Robot Brujo
by Razen

supported by 34 fans who also own “The xvoto reels”
go to album
Ayîk Adhîsta, Adhîsta Ayîk
by Razen

supported by 29 fans who also own “The xvoto reels”

Ridiculously good. Strange slow-moving creaking performances on string and wind instruments and accordion of some kind, acoustic drone and acoustic doom... Beautiful discords, patient, ugly-beautiful melodies. Weirdly it's mixed almost mono, but clearly not quite. This makes the atmosphere creepier and more oppressive, so I guess... fair enough? Peter Hollo
go to album
Blue Rot
by Razen

supported by 23 fans who also own “The xvoto reels”
go to album
Out on the line
by The Blue Highways

The slashing roots rock on “Out On the Line” always makes its way to the kind of triumphant chorus that quickens the pulse. Bandcamp New & Notable Apr 2, 2023
go to album
Nightmare Folk Art
by boycalledcrow

A mind-melter of a record, writes hallucinogenic songs that are harrowing one moment, breathtakingly beautiful the next. Bandcamp New & Notable Apr 2, 2023
go to album
Waiting for the Sky to Speak
by Oropendola

Chamber pop with lyrics that are alternately wry and confessional, Oropendola creates whole worlds built on purposeful keyboard melodies. Bandcamp New & Notable Apr 2, 2023
go to album
Endrhymes
by Razen

supported by 20 fans who also own “The xvoto reels”

A hypnotic mix of modular synth and folk instrumentation. Robbe VP
go to album