Beaming in from Southern California comes The Glass Bead Game a new album of high sonic wyrdness from the monks at High Mountain Tempel. For this third release, full-time monks Ras Al H’nout and Eric Nielsen are joined via sentient satellite transmission on two long tracks by The Asterism. The album comes in a beautiful, numbered edition of 250, available now in very limited quantities from the Strange Attractor Shoppe.
“Cloaked in robes, floating in white clouds off the coast of California, High Mountain Tempel collide across oceans with eight beautiful cuts called The Glass Bead Game. This abstract homage merges cells of Father Yod, far fair Abion, as well meetings in shrouded rooms, hills and gardens of Mt. Washington, Ocean Beach San Diego, Vista East, and Topanga Canyon.
From darkness to light, these songs represent High Mountain Tempel’s version of Hesse’s novel, “The Glass Bead Game”, through sound. From node to node, the music shifts on a dark sea of layered sounds, vibrating in a resonant relationship of souls. Ripped, trapped, torn and connected, this shrouded duo lay out long inspired sounds of Terry Riley, Father Yod in the enlightened heightened time, dark SunnO))) Oracle blackness, and incantations of Pink Floyd synths, in these most spiritually darkened, yet thrilling times.”
From a review at Head Heritage
Beautiful and utterly terrifying… a truly tremendous effort from HMT. The main tracks are played with just the right amount of intensity giving the songs time to unfold, allowing them to twist and mutate into eerie landscsapes. There are not many musicians that can make this music and give it their own mark. THE GLASS BEAD GAME is a remarkable album of ambient music and one of the best albums of 2008.
A few copies available now from Strange Attractor Shoppe