Aranos

Wonderfully living by himself in a shack and self-contained studio in the middle of the Irish countryside, the Czech-born multi-instrumentalist Aranos seems to be just on the clever side of crazy. There’s only the one titular track to this record, around an hour long, and, except for the last ten minutes or so, it will try the patience of even the most open of listeners. Aranos writes on the handmade cover art about the training in becoming an Inuit shaman, and that it’s "designed to weaken one’s certainty of the description of reality shared by (non-shaman) humans”. Indeed, this CD is the musical approximation of such a journey, done through a scraping, low drone with some didgeridoo-like elements and some harsh electronics thrown in for good measure. Only in the last ten minutes do we hear the elusive Aranos and some light banjo being looped backwards. But after that our training is apparently over and we have achieved our reward of melody and vocals, which are actually quite affecting. A man of singular, eccentric vision, Bering Sea is truly original, but buyer beware, as the journey is rough and only recommended for the most sea-faring of adventurous listeners.