h.u.m.: trinity way

H.U.M. marks the convergence of a triad of kindred spirits with a common goal of expanding consciousness. On Trinity Way, their debut release for Rocket Recordings, the cosmic/terrestrial musician/magician triumvirate of Heloise Zamzam, Olmo Uiutna, and Mark Wagner delves into ritualistic audial travelogues that unite mantric repetition, concrete noise, and kosmische explorations, the better to transform and enrich the soul. All three acolytes of H.U.M. arrive at this destination from a rich history of experimental music and art; Heloise Zamzam and Olmo Uiutna run the formerly Bristolian and now France-based Zamzamrec, which, besides being a record label specializing in tape releases by artists working in psychedelic realms and beyond, they characterize as "a superfuture network, a community of musicians, storytellers, scientists, writers, poets and dreamers." Mark Wagner, meanwhile, has involved himself in a diverse and vibrant litany of projects, including time touring as a member of Gnod and Ahrkh Wagner, and is an active practitioner of music as a spiritual medium. Following the limited-edition 2015 We Are One cassette on the Bumtapes label, Trinity Way marks the most expansive and intrepid ascension yet for these psychic travelers, using primal rhythm, earthly resonances, and devotional oratory as pathways to uncharted dimensions and higher metaphysical realms. These trance-like meditations and illuminating visions draw on a plethora of earthly parallels, from the iconoclastic writing of Rimbaud or Artaud to the occultist sound-world of Coil; from the invigorating DIY ethos of the Not Not Fun label to the anarchic sprawl of The Faust Tapes -- and with Wagner's stream-of-consciousness incantations inviting comparisons to both Robert Calvert and Genesis P-Orridge. Yet influences come also for further afield, as testified by "L'Ame Agit" -- a mysterious rework and ode to Françoise Hardy's 1968 classic "Comment te dire adieu" -- and "Cat-Man-Do" which uses Heloise Zamzam's recordings of a shamanic initiation in the Colombian jungle to help conjure an overwhelming air of hypnotic momentum. Altogether on another wavelength from most of what is dubbed psychedelic music in the 21st century, Trinity Way is a free-flowing odyssey of vivid, hallucinatory intensity. Through a marriage of simple ingredients, these three have created an off-the-map album which nonetheless places its feet on the ground and its gaze on the cosmos. As Heloise Zamzam herself says, "Trinity Way is a magic door, a sonic portal. Trinity Way is not an escape of the everyday realm but an entrance, a mode, an invitation. . . ."