Anahita - Arcana en Cantos CDr (2006)

The two women behind Anahita should be familiar to those reading this. Tara Burke and Helena Espvall-Santoleri work seamlessly together here, both of their voices mixing and swelling in a loose field populated by cello, accordion, guitar (both forward and gleefully reversed), and other accents of warm noise. This kind of an album is just pure comfort for me. It conjures up a special mood that I simply want to stay in for as long as possible. It feels like the freshness of spring, or the meditative space of plants. At times, the whole thing seems to be breathing, which is a wonderful treat. The lo-fidelity sound of the album effectively makes "Arcana en Cantos" seem even more like a dug up artifact that we are fortunate to be hearing.

This disc is divided up into three tracks of slow-motion psych-dirge that somehow reminds me of a more raw Dead Can Dance. The central piece is the massively long second track, which is moved along by some lovely clean electric guitar playing and not much else. The minimalism and slow organic growth of this track left the biggest impact on me, as I hardly noticed the 35 minutes that apparently passed as it played.

This might not be the most mindblowing thing that either of these artists has done, and I know it won't surprise any Fursaxa fans. Nevertheless, I don't want to stop listening to this disc. Its strangely comforting and introspective atmosphere leaves me feeling refreshed over and over again. 9/10 Review from Digitalis Industries.

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