Their trilogy of Totem albums explored Eastern drones, and now this Seattle collective ask ‘What happens when you travel so far East looking for enlightenment that you end up headed west again?’
The answer seems to be, you end up making a prog-folk album that draws inspiration from The Wicker Man soundtrack. Unlike Paul Giovanni’s pioneering score, MMOB are less influenced by British pagan mythology and more by the drizzle-flecked mountainous north-west US, and modern technology.
Closer Circular Ruins may be a haunting choral piece, but there are few sinister maypole jigs or fertility rituals here. Instead the Master Musicians look as much to the future as the past, summoning shamanistic vibes from instruments old and new, Western and Eastern: Mellotrons, flugelhorns, the Persian tef drum and, apparently, divining rods. It all works to equally stifling, anxiety-inducing effect.
On The Cave Of Light – Prima Materia they resemble Goblin’s Giallo soundtracks adopted for Twin Peaks. You Are A Dream Like Your Dreamer – The Dark Peace is like Ennio Morricone crafting prog-drones for another dimension. Heady stuff.
