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anilah chrysalis
Artist: Anilah
Title: Chrysalis
Genre: Ritual Ambient / Shamanic / Healing / Ritual / Psychedelic
Release Date: 6th September 2021
Label: Self-released


Album Review

On the 9th of July and the 8th of August British Columbian shaman of the soundwave Drea Drury teased us with two tasty morsels (‘The Loom’ / ‘Ineffable’) from her new album ‘Chrysalis’. I stuck my face into these morsels like a starved wolf and the end result of my vigorous mastication can be read in the article I wrote with swift fingers not long after elsewhere on this website. So here I will not rehash old info, just go there. I’ll just dive straight in with the review, if you don’t mind? Great, right then, let’s get to it…

‘Sky Burial’ is short and sweet but sets the tone which is smooth. Not silky smooth but smooth enough so that a barely perceptible roughness remains. It’s as if this is to give traction to the journey, you’re on which is above all else, smooth. This comes across on ‘Serpentine’ which is threaded with a C# drone. Images of snakes morph into rope that climb in a snake-like way, up and up and up. ‘The Messenger’ starts with strings, cello drone, I think. This is dreamy, nocturnal voices catch your attention when your defenses are down. The voices also come from the trees, the water, the rock. The world spirits speak to me, do I have ears to hear their message?

‘Sanctuary’ makes me sleepy. Not because I’m bored, no! It stopped my busy mind with its bells and drones, this time a G note drone. Then ‘The Loom’ wove its disparate threads into a blanket of comforting sound. The vocal weaves itself in and out of the shaker that accents the meditational depth and grounding. The ever-present drone groans its moan in the background whilst the drum taps these threads down. A Volva weaves her magic with her words and actions. Skilled at the task she does not allow the threads of magic to wander astray, she knows what she’s doing, nothing is without purpose.

‘Ineffable’, shakers and a sound the replicates light shining through water, this time what sounds like a harp or dulcimer scatters its sound across the piece’s surface, the bass simply and effectively keeping the whole thing from sinking. If ANILAH was in the room with me and vocalizing into my ear I’m sure the hairs on my neck would stand to attention. For more musings on ‘The Loom’ and ‘Ineffable’ you can read my single review I did a few weeks ago.

‘Ouroboros’, the serpent eating its tail. The endless journey of life eating itself and being reborn. When I go to sleep, I die only to be reborn in the morning and throughout the day I experience successive rebirths as one moment dies and is replaced by another. The snake is always eating its tail. The drone is present again but we are back to C#, alternately in the foreground and then in the background. Many voices come in unison, some vocalizing and one humming. A fitting end to this album as once again the snake eats its tail.

There was once life. And then there was covid. A living death or a life lived in suspended animation. If we focus on suspended animation then we are the ‘Chrysalis’ cocooned in ourselves, building stamina and strengths, learning things about ourselves, morphing into a new version of ourselves, hopefully stronger, more resilient than the previous iteration. We are ‘Chrysalis’. And ‘Chrysalis’ is the tonic and fuel we all need. To borrow from one of my fellow writers at Reflections Of Darkness, I say this: Most Excellent!


Tracklist

01. Sky Burial
02. Serpentine
03. The Messenger
04. Sanctuary
05. The Loom
06. Ineffable
07. Ouroboros


Line-up

Drea Drury - Composition, Synths, Arrangements and Production
Pat Latrelle - Bass (The Messenger)
Noah Cebuliak - Production, composition, Mixing, Percussion and Drum Programming


Website

https://anilah.ca


Cover Picture

anilah chrysalis


Rating

Music: 9
Sound: 9
Total: 9 / 10

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