Eldritch Priest — Omphaloskepsis

Out: 4 March 2022 on Halocline Trance (2xLP/DL)
Genre(s): Modern Composition, Electronic
RIYL: Fennesz, Koeosaeme, Christian Wolff, Eric Chenaux, Bill Connors

Eldritch Priest : Website
Halocline Trance : Bandcamp

ABOUT: It might seem tongue-in-cheek on the surface, but the fact that the title of Eldritch Priest‘s sprawling debut vinyl release, Omphaloskepsis, is the Greek translation for “navel-gazing” unlocks something essential to the Vancouver-based composer and writer’s peculiar outlook.  

This 2LP set from Toronto’s Halocline Trance unfolds like attempting to meditate with a high fever. Any sense of tranquility is constantly derailed as one succumbs to queasy agitation. The piece’s foundation is a seemingly endless guitar melody; an organic meander that becomes tangled with snarls of dense digital processing and shadowed by stumbling virtual “band.”

Priest’s disorienting music has also been performed by top-tier interpreters such as the Arditti Quartet, Quatuor Bozzini, Philip Thomas, Anton Lukoszevieze, and Continuum. Other collaborators of his include the likes of Eric Chenaux, Doug Tielli, Eric KM Clark, Heather Roche, and Rob Clutton.

COVERAGE:
Year-End — Nick Ostrum, Contributor Chart, Free Jazz Blog
Review — Nick Ostrum, Free Jazz Blog
Review — Ian Crutchley, Musicworks
Review — Nitestylez.de
Review — Adam Scime, The WholeNote
Review — BlowUp (in Italian)
Review — Rigobert Dittmann, Bad Alchemy #113 (in German)
Review — Peter Thelen, Exposé
Roundup — Ben Harper, Strings (1), mostly plucked, Boring Like A Drill
Roundup — Ben Harper, Strings (1), mostly plucked, Xenharmonikon
Roundup — Ed Pinsent — Recent music from Canada, The Sound Projector
Roundup — Frank P. Eckert — Motherboard, Groove.de (in German)
Roundup — Kevin Press, The Moderns
Roundup — Staff Picks March 2022, The Attic
News — African Paper
News — Exposé
List — Best of Jazz New Releases 2022
Product Review — Norman Records
Podcast — The Moderns Ep. 201
Radio/ Feature — Notranje gorice, Radio Student FM 89.3 (October 17, 2024)
Radio — Parkdale Pirate Radio/ WGXC (April 20, 2022)
Radio — Human Radio, CFRU (April 19th, 2022)
Radio — Electric Sense, CIUT (Dec. 22, 2021)
Radio — Parkdale Pirate Radio/ WGXC (Dec. 9, 2021)
Instagram — Freeform Freakout