AHRKH - Bliss Waves (From the Heart Realm) (2021)

"Forget your worries, lie back, and rest your mind. Watch the sun gently set on this world as pink-tinged clouds drift by like thoughts in your mind and feel yourself letting go . . . nowhere to go . . .nowhere to be. Nothing matters, nothing exists outside of this moment . . . right here. . . right now."

ZamZamRec are ecstatic to announce the first vinyl release from AHRKH, the solo project of Gnod’s A P Macarte : BLISS WAVES (FROM THE HEART REALM).

Recorded during the first UK lockdown in 2020, BLISS WAVES brings us an hour of undulating, swirling, vaporous and transcendent waves of sonic bliss.

Macarte may be best known for blowing out our senses with his work in the experimental noise collective GNOD, however he returns this time to ZamZamRec under his solo moniker AHRKH with a triad of delicate, transcendental sound works, more closely aligned with the ambient sonic journeys he transports us on via his monthly NTS radio show, Golden Ratio Frequencies.

Following on Macarte’s 2015’s ZamZam release “Tone Mantra”, and from last year’s deeply meditative “Beams From A Spiritual Panorama” cassette (Golden Ratio Freq), BLISS WAVES (FROM THE HEART REALM) finds the Manchester-based artist and Sound Therapist delving into a more “Nu-Age” sound palette of mystikal aeriferous sound waves, cascading arpeggiators and bliss-out drone tones, resulting in something akin to Laraaji’s ecstatic zithers being dosed in psilocybin and modulated through LSD soaked synthesisers.

Though recorded during the first UK Lockdown in 2020, the music wasn’t initially intended to be a “lockdown” album. It was simply born out of a time of innocent play and deep rest, as the world outside seemingly slowed down and offered a collective moment of quiet repose.

Says Macarte:
“When the lockdown came into place, I had no real intention of making any creative music..at all. Whilst I saw many take the opportunity to create their ‘lockdown magnus opus or “pandemic tonics”, I found myself confronted with the sudden and unexpected cancellation of a quite gruelling schedule of touring, performing and recording with different projects, and so I was quite happy and grateful for the ‘great pause’, choosing instead to spend my time in deep relaxation, meditation, yoga, reading, and generally just ‘being;.

However, a piece of new equipment to play with was enough to spark some inspiration.

“A friend lent me a new synthesiser for a couple of weeks, and so that was enough of an impetus for me to do some sonic exploration, making sounds just for fun -- something I hadn’t really done in some time -- and so each each evening, I’d have my equipment set up at my window and play with no pressure, no aim, and no intention. Creating new sounds whilst watching the sky and clouds change from sunset melting into twilight and fading into night in a gradual, hypnotic, and psychedelic shift of colour and mood, amorphous clouds gently drifting from neon pink to a backdrop of watercolour gradients...I found myself entranced. I’d leave these recorded sounds looping in my studio all day and night, just immersing myself in these calming soundscapes, away from all the chaos and noise of the outside world whilst I’d putter around in my own little oasis of sonic bliss…”

As a result the three selections from these sessions presented in this album aptly reflect those feelings, colours and moods in 45 minutes of aural iridescence and heavenly sound.

Opener “Bliss Waves'' gently drifts into being with undulating cloud swirls that softly intoxicate the listener whilst sub bass binaural oscillations massage the mind into blissed out ecstasy. This is followed by the hypnotic arpeggiated tone clusters of “Haze Cascade,” spinning out in a swirling daze recalling Oneothrix Point Never’s earlier headier workouts. Closing the journey, and taking up the whole flip side, “Oceanic Boundlessness” (named after a term used in Macarte’s Sound Therapy work to describe a state of consciousness that Transcends time and space) does exactly that, in epic proportions. Prismatic harmonics ring out to infinity, vocal loops phase in and out of existence, whilst deep throbbing and all encompassing sub bass sine waves keep one afloat in a state of heavenly statis that at once feels celestial and timeless.

Released through french label ZamZamRec, physical copies are materialized on ltd translucent sunset pink 180g Vinyl cut by Mark Ernestus’ Dubplates & Mastering in Berlin, and with considered mastering by LA’s Leaving Records Matthew David “Mindflight” McQueen for heightened Psychoacoustic impact. BLISS WAVES (From The Heart Realm) is ecstatic music to transcend the earthly boundaries of body and mind.