NADJA - The Stone Is Not Hit By The Sun, Nor Carved With A Knife (CD)

Nadja return on November 4th with The Stone Is Not Hit By The Sun, Nor Carved With a Knife - their first release for Gizeh Records. The Canadian/Berlin-based ambient doom duo of Aidan Baker and Leah Buckareff continue their ultra-prolific output with a monolithic record which explores the depths of heavy noisescape-related music. Encompassing distorted riffs and hypnotic rhythms the album sonically attempts to continue on from the more structured elements of the duos recent Queller album, coupling that approach with Nadjas more traditional sprawling, dense and challenging sounds. The relentless fuzzed-out textures repeat and build into a blissful and cathartic whole - a place to be completely immersed. In the deep, glacial and all-consuming world that Baker and Buckareff provide us with here, there is a will to dissolve, to let the record wash right over you or perhaps even through you. At times crushingly beautiful, Stone, Sun, Knife is brought to life by its clever restraints with quieter interludes serving a perfect purpose against its more intense, heavier moments. The albums intriguing title comes from a runic inscription on an Icelandic burial stone but the phrase also appears on the Eggja Stone which provided some of the lyrical content on the record. Nadja have a habit of transcending genres and indeed throughout their career they have been incredibly difficult to pin down. The Stone Is Not Hit By The Sun, Nor Carved With A Knife is a welcome addition to that hefty catalogue and stands up tall against their most impressive work.