Listening to Amenra has long been a quasi-religious experience, but with latest solo project CHVE, frontman Colin H Van Eeckhout has taken things a step further, stripping away the familiar, human touch of a band to tap into something altogether more removed.
Rasa, a single 30-minute piece, is a minimalist mantra designed to achieve altered states of perception. It demands your surrender, opening a gateway for a journey inwards that, through sparse instrumentation, unfurls itself extremely slowly.
The deep exhalations of hurdy gurdy are the sound of the universe itself taking fathomless breaths, a solitary vocal your only company. Eventually ritualistic drums form a robust core, an apex from which we gradually withdraw.
It’s an experience of potential profundity but no specific meaning. Eeckhout has said that he is religious without conforming to religion, that he believes there is ‘something’. CHVE humbly acknowledges that we do not know all, but in seeking, there is worth.
