Hosianna Mantra

I always love learning about and hearing new (for me) guitar-like instruments, as in this case there is the tambura, a Mesopotamian long-necked string instrument. Also, the fact that they decided to go with piano as the mainstay of their space rock sound is just brilliant. Definitely prefer the piano to the synthesizer. I had no idea the vocalist was Korean. This music is a stream upon which one may, if one wishes, float, watercourse-way style.

For the longest time, I've been looking for an album to play whilst I'm out and about and grogging throughout my apartment, trying to make tea and eventually wake up. I went through ambient albums by Eno and Harold Budd, Steve Roach, and his space mooginess, but found them all too slow and they make me even more sleepy. Then I went on a slowcore phase, and I realized my life became even more miserable if I put on Jason Molina. Then came post-rock, including solo Mark Hollis and Talk Talk, but found the whole post-rock idea too hard to digest in the morning. Then I put on slower indie emo a la Karate but felt too icky listening to it in the morning.

Then came Ash-Ra Tempel's debut, and I felt it suited me a lot, but wasn't quite there. Looking through the lens of ambient krautrock, I stumbled upon this, and it absolutely fits the bill! Just the perfect amount of ambient and classical in the morning, plus the female vocals guide me slowly throughout the morning. An amazing feat of music!