FADER PREMIERE
Formed out of Redhook, Brooklyn in 2011, Raajmahal is the duo of Carla Baker, formerly of Flower Orgy, and Pat Murano, long-time member of legendary freak improv collective No Neck Blues Band. Along with original member Santa Wolanczyk, they've put out a small handful of synthy, hazy, charmingly rambling free-form folk missives on labels like Digitalis Recordings and Murano's Kelippah imprint over the past few years. Their latest release, Charybdis/Scylla, sees them going "back to the land" in a literal way—recording "outdoors, on the beaches and in the forests of New York City and State," and stripping things back to a palette of acoustic instruments, minimal effects and the occasional wind and insect noise. Here's an excerpt from the first of the tape's two side-long tracks, which bookends a passage of wandering ambience with this hushed, elementally melodic incantation. Charybdis/Scylla is out January 14th via New Camp Records, with a release party to follow at Sunny's in Redhook on Thursday, the 16th.
Stream: Raajmahal, "Charybdis"