Ukko (2019)

Alcohol is a hell of a drug, it can cause a person to do strange things. In addition to becoming an M.F.A. (that is, a "Mighty Fine American"), when you're an artist, it can make you think material you did for one project would be better off somewhere else.
So you start to move things around, creating 'sub-projects' on a whim just because you think it might be better represented in a different way.

 (Ukko - Kyllikki cover photo, taken in Sawyerville, QC)

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. It's really not that important, because out of the five people who've heard it, three said it sucked, one person liked it, and the last had no opinion.

What does make the music done with this project unique though, is that it is all basically a purge. It's literally a purging of bitterness, anger, love, regret, disillusion, dejection, and a thousand other descriptives ending in the same suffix.
It's all a mystery, wrapped up in an illusion, packaged in misdirection, and sent out to nowhere. I just had to get rid of it, and get the material off my hard-drive, and out of my system. How'd that work out, you ask? Meh... I guess it's better than it was beforehand.

(Ukko - Remembrance, cover photo taken in Sawyerville, QC)

The music was all created in a DAW. Originally, it was put under Wednes, or at least one or two albums were, each under different titles (one was called "Hate Synth," that much I remember). I threw some old vocal tracks over it, and made a 'new' project out of it: Ukko (named after the Finnish high god Ukko, equivalent of the Nordic Thor, and Sami Horagalles).

Don't let the fact that it was made in a DAW throw you off though, there's some soaring themes in this music, and it's pretty raw. Raw DAW. Eesh...  Whatever.

Only the Mediafire links available for these, and the files are in .wav, sorry about that.

Mediafire:

Ukko - Kyllikki (2019)

Ukko - Remembrance (2019)

Ukko - The True Path of Light (2019)

Horeb (2020)

 

This project was really the outcome of a test: I learned that I could use a cellphone to record with, and I wanted to see what I could do with it.

This album was released a month ago, but I'm going to talk about it like it's already old, okay? Because, to me, it kind of is, but that's just because I make so much material, it's easy for projects to get pushed to the back of my mind with every successive release.

This album is getting back into DSBM/Post-Black territory, with somewhat of a 'Stoner' edge. I was finally able to kick the alcohol habit by replacing it with cannabis. The glories of CBD, its medicinal value, and the very fact that it made smoking weed bearable (even pleasurable) again after so many years is nothing short of miraculous to me. I feel like it gave me my life back.

Because of it, I've rediscovered enjoyment in music. It made it fun again, and I'm really appreciative for it. That is a story of its own, but it's just to give some idea as to what went into these recent recordings.

I chose the name 'Horeb' for a few reasons. Recently I'd been studying Judaism, Kabbalah, Jewish Shamanism, and the like, so I wanted something that would reflect that.
A lot of Stoner bands are heavy on the Eastern Mysticism, so I thought it might be different to do something around Judaic concepts.
That, plus I was thinking of Sleep's "Holy Mountain."
Thus: Horeb.

 

(Horeb - s/t)

Guitars on this album are all acoustic. Vocals were recorded about 3 weeks earlier, in the wintry woods outside of Sawyerville, Quebec. Originally, the vocals were meant for a different project idea, but that didn't happen finally. Perhaps it's just as well, because I love the way the vox turned out on this offering.

For years I have been recording in my living-room (Ha! see? I'm not a 'bedroom' band, I record in my living room! Okay, I'll stop...), and I've had to devleop a different vocal style that wouldn't make my neighbors call the cops out of fear someone was being tortured in our home.
This means that my real vocals appear here on a recording, for the first time since this happened.

As stated before, vocals and guitar were recorded entirely with the cellphone 'voice recorder.' It's a painstaking process, but at least there is a process, and I'm thankful for that.

Download at 'Name Your Price' (free or donation): 
https://horeb.bandcamp.com