[update w/ feature track] Na-Koja-Abad - Deluvia

[cloudspine]

Movement in suspension best describes Deluvia, Na-Koja-Abad's fifth album, with its deep, meditative drones, dark ambient washes and effects, and ethereal soundscapes. These contemplative subterranean and submarine spaces are only occasionally intertwined with effective passages of down-tempo, organic, tribal grooves.
Although seemingly still and devoid of change, immersed in a moment, like the depths of oceans and primeval caverns, the images of which they evoke, the sounds of Deluvia slowly shift, morph, and evolve in a continuous, hypnotic ebb and flow.

Tracklist (right-click and save target/link as...):
1. Agitated from Deep Slumber 7:44
2. Primordial Reflections 8:04
3. Bending Spaces 9:12
4. Frozen Moments in Time 9:19
5. Lulled in Darkened Coils 7:38
6. Residual Quiet 13:52
7. The Womb of Meaning 11:11

[experimental.crow]

good to see you up , and running again ...
congrats on the new release , and the BWR affiliation ...

[runagate]

Looks interesting.
"Na-Koja-Abad" is an awfully familiar-looking name.
I've been awake for about 13 seconds but at a guess is that a sufi saying?

I'll have to check your songs out.

[Canned Heat]

"Na-Koja-Abad" is an awfully familiar-looking name.I've been awake for about 13 seconds but at a guess is that a sufi saying?

Yes , and it means "Land of nowhere" or something like this

[cloudspine]

That's true, the term was coined by Suhrawardi, a 12th century Sufi from Persia...

[cloudspine]

Thanks normal

[cloudspine]

Well, I've added a feature track from Deluvia to my Soundclick page, which you can find here:
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemus ... ndID=72684

Hope you enjoy listening to it, as much as I did composing it...

[vurt]

grabbin for laters

[cloudspine]

cool

[cloudspine]

Here's a review of Deluvia, by the prominent ambient reviewer and musician Ben Fleury-Steiner:

The ever productive Na-Koja-Abad returns with a painstakingly evolving 7-part 'Deluvia.' Na-Koja-Abad seems to be flowing in the same tidal waters as his previous opus, Black Serpent Dreaming: Rites of Passage - even the artwork follows aesthetically in its liquid, ghostly pastels and cryptography - only this time, the dark tribal hues are more fully developed, oxygenated even; seven clouds exhaling with primal life. 'Deluvia' marks impressively the artist's evolving craft.

[cloudspine]

And a review by Paul Jury of Morpheus Music, surely one of the finest ambient webzines, which also happened to pick Deluvia for one of its "Featured CDs"

STYLE - Submarine spaces, ambient drift and gentle tribal rhythm. Deluvia immerses the listener in deep water shade and slow motion current through careful layering of synthetic tone and well integrated 'organika' - frame-drums, dholak, djembe, shakers, rainstick, sand, pebbles, sea-shells and chimes. The drones that well up, morph and decay are in constant subtle movement, one layer washing its transparencies across another - sonic ephemera hanging in the mass of the tides. Ney flutes and whale-like strains pierce the loneliness, for a while forcing back the darkness, before once again sinking out of ear shot. Long, drawn-out pads and heaving assemblages of sound combine atonal turbulence and disturbances with brooding musical undulations and harmonious flow.

MOOD - Na-Koja-Abad has created a series of inky sound pools that are dark and murky, yet beautiful and appealing in their gloom - like the darkness of submerged caverns, the obscurity of the lowest of sea beds. There is the sense that you never quite know what might next emerge out of the shadows - percussive effects suggestive of ambiguous life forms or time-sculpted natural formations. Mystery, uncertainty - lost in the vastness of bewildering places, fascinating solitudes.

ARTWORK - Graphically enhanced and textured photography fills all panels - ultramarine, indigo, black. Aquatic vistas with emergent forms held in pools of light. Again Na-Koja-Abad produces his own distinctive imagery - rich in texture and luxuriating in background darkness. Rock structures, coral flutes and tubes, text subdued and dim - words working in harmony with imagery. The rear cover presents the track titles and times; credits are on the reverse of the inner booklet, the innermost panels given over entirely to an undersea twilight.

OVERALL - Na-Koja-Abad's fifth album is perhaps his most tenebrous - beats are infrequent or very subtle and the ambient mass is dense and lightless. Imagine the steady sway of deep ocean current, the to and fro pull of an enormity of water - the surface far from sight, uncertain presences somewhere off in the gloom. The seven tracks fade into one another through brief silences softly maintaining a constant mood throughout.

WHO WILL LIKE THIS ALBUM - Ambient fans that enjoy smooth isolationist intensity will find this an absorbing composition. This album goes further, lower, deeper into the intriguing and lonely places Na-Koja-Abad has explored on previous CDs - if you enjoyed the weightier aspects of his earlier music you'll appreciate Deluvia.

[runagate]

Bump 4 you

[cloudspine]

Bump 4 you

I got another review last night, written by Bill Binkelman, director of the now archived Wind and Wire webzine, who is now reviewing for the New Age Reporter.

The Bosnian ethno-tribal/dark ambient artist known as Na-Koja-Abad once again takes the listener on a deep, textural, primal voyage on Deluvia. As on Fleeting Glimpses (which I also reviewed), he interweaves flowing haunting soundscapes with sensual tribal rhythms played on an assortment of ethnic percussion, including frame-drums, djembe, shakers, and rainstick. The drifting amorphous and sometimes spooky wafts of melody and drone (which dominate this CD to some degree) are fashioned from a wide variety of electronic devices, synths and samplers. Once again, Na-Koja-Abad reveals a keen ear for layering his sonic elements, be they drone-like in nature or warmer tone/wash-oriented (even these are often steeped in mystery and laced with a palpable sense of shadow). While comparisons can be made to other artists in this subgenre (Amir Bhagiri, Terra Ambient, Max Corbacho, Roach, vidnaObmana, Robert Rich), Na-Koja-Abad's approach is unique, sometimes incorporating not just the subterranean/cavern-ish world of the previously named artists, but also the deep space panoramas of Michael Stearns.

As with any recording where tracks vary from around seven to over ten minutes long, describing the music in detail is tricky. The burbling start of the album on "Agitated from Deep Slumber" with whistling drones, eerie noises at the periphery, and a disquieting sensation that hovers at the level of consciousness, morphs into grinding echoed metallic effects, forlorn chorales and slow tempo tribal drumbeats. "Primordial Reflections" is all drones and washes, conveying a feeling of great openness while still retaining a subterranean atmosphere (a huge underground lake perhaps?). Sadly, the artist blended in some intentional "static" at points during this track which undercuts the dramatic and evocative nature of the music. Thankfully, it's only present on the one cut.

"Bending Spaces" is one of the more dynamic pieces here, powered by percussion and some great drumming, along with plenty of spooky swirling washes and drones. The beats slowly fade from the track, replaced by lots of different electronic textures and noises, some of them disturbing and others more neutral in mood. The sound of viscous oozing liquid comes into play towards the end of the song set alongside some spacy synthesizers.

Throughout the remaining four selections, while some rhythms do occur, the music entertains more of a vast, spacious, and floating feel more than anything else. The primal/sensual aspect is still there to some degree, but it's subverted by a more mystical tint, through much deeply echoed and reverbed instrumentalities. The last track, "The Womb of Meaning," is a microcosm of the entire album, passing through weird spacy electronics, rustling-in-a-cave textures, forlorn flute, shaker and drum tribal landscapes, and sensuous passionate earthy gyrations before fading in a whirlpool of overtly alien electronics and warm drones.

While it's difficult to paint a literal accurate and detailed picture of what you'll hear on this CD, it's safe to state that this is not just a bunch of drones interlaced with occasional rhythms. There is much more going on here than a sustained/echoed synth drone or a spacy electronic wash. Na-Koja-Abad excels at telling musical "campfire ghost stories." While not oppressively dark or scary, per se (Stalker is more foreboding than anything here), the listener with an active imagination will still find plenty of moments where looking into a dark corner of the room at night while playing this album might not be advisable. On the other hand, there are also moments where the music takes on a sepia-toned beauty, laced with a deep sadness as if generations of elders are being remembered through ceremony. In the end, Deluvia comes highly recommended as an exemplary recording of "new" ethno-tribal music, which also pays tribute to the many fine albums which came before it as well.