Field Recordings From The Sun: Om - Conference Of The Birds

Review from http://www.dustedmagazine.com/reviews/2858

In Hinduism, “om” is the single most important syllable of existence, representing the confluence of deep sleep, dreams, and consciousness, and their mystic separation from the idea of the absolute which is beyond everyday human comprehension. There are also connections with the life cycle - the sound “om” being made of “a” which represents creation and Brahma, “u” which is Vishnu or the middle period of life, and “m” represents Shiva, whose meditation frees us from the concrete world. Om is a trinity, the exact components of which depend on which interpretation you’re using. I won’t pretend to be an expert in Hindu myth or meaning, but these basic tidbits are enough on their own to at least partially explain the sounds contained on Conference of the Birds. And while it may be mere coincidence that Om formed out of two thirds of Sleep (you could probably debate which two parts of the “om” Al Cisneros and Chris Hakius represent, but it would only make any sense if you were either a huge metalhead, a giant stoner, a Hindu scholar, or some combination of the three), the symbolic connection between the two in this context is too much to ignore. To get perhaps a bit too literal here, om is the step beyond sleep towards some kind of transcendence. Which isn’t to say that music of Om is any “deeper” or “more advanced” than that of Sleep, just that it operates on a different level with a different set of tools.

Conference of the Birds is structurally and sonically similar to its predecessor, Variations on a Theme – repeated bass licks and drum patterns that gradually evolve over the course of about 15 minutes. The second song (each song spans about 20 tracks, presumably to thwart piracy), “Flight of the Eagle,” could very easily be the fourth track on Variations both in character and in sound. Cisneros’ bass sound is dense and fuzzy and his vocals are an imposing chant musing on some mythic journey or battle occurring in ancient Egypt, while Hakius keeps a solid beat centered around his bell-like cymbal.

“At Giza,” on the other hand, represents a very different side of the group, one much closer to the concept of om than anything else they’ve done. Simply put, the music is much tauter than before, with less overall weight. The bass tone is clean, devoid of any distracting distortion, the drums are slower, more hypnotic, the vocals more an incantation than a chant, returning to words like “sentient,” “aperture,” and other archaic multisyllabics. And while the imagery is more an opium-den vision than a meditative dream, the words are there more as sounds and rhythm and quickly lose their meaning.

Whether you view it as stoner wisdom, opium hallucination, or mystic journey, this album is about transcendence. The Conference of the Birds is, amongst other things, a 12th century Sufi metaphysical parable on discovering the true nature of God, mimicking the journey of the avatar protagonist of both of Om’s songs. Farid ud-Din Attar’s poem comes to the conclusion that God is not to be found in a single place but all around, in every aspect of life and the world. So despite the fact that Om comes from the Hindu, references the Sufi, and uses the language of the Egyptian, they draw from each the same idea: that the world beyond the tactile is not that far away.

By Dan Ruccia

Lyrics to "At Giza"

Rise aviator - sun will follow.
Aperture on door the wave form school.
Sentient ground of the light shrine shining.
Aperture on door the lind-hymn stone.

Sentient ground of the light shrine shining.
Aperture of door the lind-hymn stone.
The orbits arms oscillate to freedom.
Params the shore of celestial sea.

Rise aviator - sun will follow.
On aperture on door the wave form school.
Sentient ground of the light shrine shining.
Semblates the finite - to autumnate seen.

Electron sea - now set free - takes into the sky above on sentinel stream.
And grant to me - a light to see - and pilgrimage to mountain of the votaric form.
And lighten pon day - the solarics raise - falls upon the ziggurat electron school.
And reap upon field - the host moon fade away - glides the aeronaut toward the object form.

And lighten pon day - as scintillate rays - augurate arrival of a seraphic form.
From Lebanon reels - the obelisk seen - called now inverse upon the currenter-sign.
The matter form wanes - the host moon fades - takes into the sky ascends the freedomward dove.
The rite of fall sealed - descendant orb hails her - down to the ground of electron form.

And travel under twin suns rays - the host-moon fades - takes into the clesiast at oracle school.
An epison raise - the pole star fades - wakes into availed light of aurican form.
To reach a suns rays - through glowing bronze grace - leaves the lake and rises toward empyrean sun.
The swans array - the crane stands veiled grace - tunnement to the omen of the object form.

And travel on toward the lighten pon day - on through a spine's gates - climbs the silken thread to cross a silvering sun.
The Orphic glow seen - as aural sounds ring - climbant to throne within on spine's attuned prow.
Empyrean rays - engulf the nine gates - dove ascends to freedom through a lantern filled sky.
Awakens from field - availed light's salving grace heralds arrival of the solar-object form.

Reemerge to breathe - the outform seen - vivified by illumined glow through auric-clad sheath.
An epison raise - the pole star fades - wakes into availed light of aurican form.
To reach a suns rays - of glowing bronze grace - leaves the lake and rises toward empyrean sun.
The swans array - the crane stands veiled grace - tunnement to the omen of the object form.

And lighten pon day - as scintillate rays - augurate arrival of a seraphic form.
From Lebanon reels - the obelisk seen - called now inverse upon the currenter-sign.
The matter form wanes - the host moon fades - takes into the sky ascends the freedomward dove.
The of fall sealed - cremation now reclaims - bows toward the sun and sheds the object form.