Montibus Communitas: Hacia Aquellos Bosques de Inmensidad

Trouble in Mind Records (TIM055)

 

Montibus Communitas is a collective of psychedelic freaks who record their ritualistic, spiritual jam sessions live at a studio in Lima, Peru. They have been devoting their improvised music to Mother Nature since 2010 and have several recordings available, but this album recorded late in 2011 is the second one to be released on vinyl following the self-titled album in 2012 on Cosmic Eye. It’s quite hard to describe the music of Montibus Communitas, but the band mostly uses just acoustic instruments (guitar, percussion, cymbals, violin, exotic sounding flutes etc.) so I guess it could be labeled as psych folk, but it’s quite different to anything I’ve heard before. There is also some electric guitar to give a bit more rock-like feel to it at times. The music definitely has an “out-of-this-world” vibe to it, or maybe this is how they experience the world out there. The music takes the listener on a journey that is very beautiful, hypnotic and mysterious but sometimes also quite hard and demanding. Not that the very repetitive music in itself is that hard to digest, but the vibes can get very powerful at times if you totally dive into their aural prayers and invocations. There’s a certain South American element in the music (especially on the flutes and percussion), but the band has also taken in some influences for example from the late 60s/early 70s communal kraut rock freak-outs of Amon Düül, Amon Düül II, Popol Vuh, Kalacra etc. There are just four, long instrumental tracks on this album and I just simply love them all. Warmly recommended!

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