DARSOMBRA: Everything Is Noise Premieres Eighteen-Minute “Azimuth” Single From Baltimore Psychedelic Post-Rock Duo; Dumesday Book LP Sees Release Next Week Alongside North American Tour

“…this one both slows and speeds time in a wizardly weaving of Einstein‘s Theory Of Relativity.” – Everything Is Noise

In just over a week, Baltimore, Maryland-based psychedelic post-rock duo DARSOMBRA will release their engulfing Dumesday Book full-length. Today, Everything Is Noise is hosting the exclusive premiere of the album’s massive eighteen-minute song “Azimuth.”

Originally conceived as a surreal take on a pop album to contrast with their ominously prescient monolithic 2019 release, Transmission, Dumesday Book is a ten-song survey of sentiment and human experience in the pandemic, from initial lockdown to vaccinated re-emergence and beyond – which, in the DARSOMBRA microcosm, means from cancelled tours to returning to the road.

Fittingly, DARSOMBRA’s Brian Daniloski and Ann Everton wrote the framework for the album during the quarantine of Spring 2020, and then tirelessly refined it over the next three years. At times bizarre, intense, mollifying, sardonic, irreverent, overwhelming, and hopeful, Dumesday Book takes its name from the 11th century census book which served as the oldest public record in the English language, Domesday Book – so named because its decisions were unalterable, its sentence was law, and its survey of human activity so complete. The album’s sound follows the theme of survey as well, with glam-prog frivolity giving way to heavy psych doomscapes laden with music concrète field recordings. A bong rip takes you from a disconcerting chord progression to a goblin doggerel dirge, all to resolve into a space-shimmery synthcapade laced with heart-fueled guitar riffs worthy of any Krautrockian nod for a non-Teutonic band. Of course, there are serious moments of rock woven throughout this hour-plus-long musical journey, but to typify Dumesday Book as simply drone, or metal, or psych – or even prog – is missing the point.

Dumesday Book delivers seventy-five minutes of sonic revelry, to delight and confound both seasoned DARSOMBRA listeners and unwitting new ears alike. The album was recorded and mixed by Brian Daniloski at the band’s home studio, Whale Manor, and mastered by Jon Smulyan, while Ann Everton handled the cover art, photography, and videography. The record includes a twelve-page booklet illustrating each track, and all physical formats also include a sticker exclusive to the work and a Bandcamp download code with access to additional bonus material.

With the latest single, Everton reveals, “‘Azimuth’ is the most characteristically DARSOMBRA-sounding song on Dumesday Book: long format, leisurely stimulating build-up, interweaving guitar riffs and keyboard runs, and voice-as-instrument nonsensical vocals. We wrote this one around playing on the keyboard bender with the ‘Alex Lifeson chord’ (F# major with the added 4th and the flat 7th if you’re curious–made famous on Rush’s ‘Hemispheres’). Originally, we planned this to be a lazy six-or-seven-minute summertime joint, but it spiraled into an expansive meditation on the nature of staying in one place for a year and watching the angle of the sun (also known as the sun’s azimuth) change from our studio window. It’s a piece about the long haul, about the maintenance of the reality you build around yourself.”

Daniloski adds, “‘Azimuth’ starts with the sound of putting a cassette tape into a tape deck and pushing the ‘play’ button, followed by a direct recording of about a minute of the original lockdown jam that served as the foundation of the song. From there, it evolves into one of our slow burn pieces that keeps methodically building on itself layer by layer. ‘Azimuth’ is a mood. It’s a meditation. It’s a mini-odyssey. It goes all over the place without going very far at all–appropriate for inward or outward journeys.”

Within their detailed journalistic exploration of the lengthy track, Everything Is Noise writes in part, “‘Mini-odyssey‘ is probably one of the absolute best possible ways to put it, and many of the works of DARSOMBRA, at that. The track is a progression in form; Beginning with sound effects, electronics, vocal chanting, and a droned guitar notes that feel as if you’re being pulled slowly through the gates of psych rock heaven. Ambient and inviting, it builds more and more into a desert-like atmosphere as it builds with bass, drum elements, and synthesizers, until you reach a pinnacle of surround-sound almost cinematic in nature. You almost forget that you’re nine minutes into the song by the time you are – this one both slows and speeds time in a wizardly weaving of Einstein‘s Theory Of Relativity.”

Stream DARSOMBRA’s epic “Azimuth” first through Everything Is Noise RIGHT HERE.

DARSOMBRA will release Dumesday Book on CD, 2xLP, and all digital platforms through their own Pnictogen Records on August 25th. Find preorders for all formats/bundles HERE and Bandcamp where several songs are streaming HERE, and watch the “Gibbet Lore” video HERE.

Having recently completed several weeks of touring around the Great Lakes, and a performance at the off-the-grid Voice Of The Valley Festival in Fairview, West Virginia, DARSOMBRA will embark on the Dumesday Book Tour across North America on August 25th, the day Dumesday Book sees release, with a hometown record release show. Nearly three-dozen performances later, the tour will come to a finale at the Shadow Woods Reunion in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania with Panopticon and more on October 21st. See the current itinerary below and stand by as the band continues to book new excursions into the Fall and Winter months.

DARSOMBRA Dumesday Book Tour:
8/05/2023 Voice Of The Valley – Fairview, WV
8/25/2023 Current Space – Baltimore, MD * Record Release Show w/ Moth Broth, Quattracenta
8/31/2023 Melody Inn – Indianapolis, IN w/ Stuporwaffles, Mycota
9/01/2023 Village Theatre – Davenport, IA w/ The House Flies
9/02/2023 Gabe’s – Iowa City, IA w/ Aseethe, Louisiana Drifter, OSO
9/03/2023 White Squirrel – St. Paul, MN w/ Beach Mountain, Loser Magnet
9/04/2023 The Aquarium – Fargo, ND w/ Scum Rag, Yam Lynn, DEATHKREW, Dakota Magick, dreamhouse.
9/06/2023 Handsome Daughter – Winnipeg, MB w/ Mahogany Frog, Cantor Dust
9/07/2023 The Exchange – Regina, SK w/ Psst Shh, Dig.it.all
9/08/2023 Amigo’s – Saskatoon, SK
9/09/2023 Palomino – Calgary, AB w/ Hair Control, Harem Sol
9/10/2023 Kaffa – Edmonton, AB w/ Juice, Electric Bench Hoop
9/14/2023 Red Gate – Vancouver, BC w/ Organoizes, New Age Doom
9/15/2023 Crace Mountain – Nanaimo, BC w/ Eye of Gorgon
9/16/2023 Beacon House – Protection Island, BC w/ The Roses
9/19/2023 Cryptatropa – Olympia, WA w/ Humming Amps, Hearse Mechanic, Avola
9/21/2023 Clock–Out – Seattle, WA w/ Fungal Abyss, Authentic Luxury
9/22/2023 High Water Mark – Portland, OR w/ Thrones, Mnemonic Pulse, Breath
9/23/2023 BAD Space – Salem, OR w/ Andromeda, Chimes
9/26/2023 The Shredder – Boise, ID w/ Rodeo Screams, Shadow and Claw, Scram Signal
9/28/2023 ZACC – Missoula, MT w/ Swamp Ritual, Nightwitch
9/29/2023 Filling Station – Bozeman, MT w/ The Dean Wakerlin Sonic Bliss Bath
9/30/2023 Black Hills Psych Fest @ Aby’s – Rapid City, SD w/ The Savage Blush, Diaphane, Thought Patrol, more
10/02/2023 Vinyl–ly Alive – Soldier Creek, SD
10/03/2023 2SMOO – Lincoln, NE w/ Our Last Atlas
10/04/2023 TBA – Peoria, IL w/ Sanddance
10/05/2023 Blind Bob’s – Dayton, OH w/ Into Pandemonium
10/06/2023 Art Party – Morgantown, WV w/ Grey Harbinger, The Long Hunt
10/07/2023 Mushroom City Art Fest – Baltimore, MD w/ Miles Gannett, Dave Heumann, Marian McLaughlin, more
10/11/2023 Mama Tried – Brooklyn, NY w/ Sally Gates/Zoh Amba/Brian Chase Trio, Ala Muerte
10/12/2023 Cold Spring Hollow – Belchertown, MA w/ Junk Orbit, Knobclaw
10/13/2023 Geno’s – Portland, ME w/ MoMe, This World Has Bees
10/14/2023 Loading Dock – Littleton, NH w/ Ari Bopp
10/19/2023 O’Brien’s – Boston, MA w/ Dyr Faser, The O–Zones, FEEP
10/20/2023 The Century – Philadelphia, PA w/ Stinking Lizaveta, Rope Trick
10/21/2023 Shadow Woods Reunion @ Lovedraft’s Brewing – Mechanicsburg, PA w/ Panopticon, A Sound Of Thunder, IATT, more

photo by Chris Bubinas

https://www.darsombra.com
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