From out of the backwoods of Wisconsin comes the weirdelic sounds and drones of a “Folk” collective known as Kinit Her, originally a threesome, but since a couple of years revolving around the twosome of Nathaniel Allen Ritter and Troy Allen Schafer. Founded in 2005, the outfit set out playing gigs since 2006, and celebrated a first release in 2010. Since then, their output has been, quite simply put, impressive!
Count along with me, if you will: following that debut release, entitled Vedic Hymns (a split LP with Burial Hex issued through the Alt. Vinyl label), came the two-track Living Midnight At The Harvest Abbey, released later that same month of September 2010, and on January 2011 the band unleashed the 4-track, 14:34 EP The Lord Of Power. August of the same year saw the release of the full-length Gratitudes. A year later, Pesante Folk (double LP) and Brave Mysteries (CD) joined forces to release Storm Of Radiance, and this in turn was followed up by the 2-track (yet 30-minute long) The Cavern Stanzas, in February 2013. In June Avant! Records (LP) and Brave Mysteries (CD) collaborated to release the 8-track (yet only 33:21 long) The Poet & The Blue Planet...and already in September the band offered Hyperion for download. In other words, that's 8 releases in less than 4 years. Another thing learned, is that KH alternates shorter songs with longer ones. Oh...I'd almost forgot to mention (the comforts of working on a PC when reviewing stuff, include being capable of inserting info afterward, and making it look like one actually had one's mind composed from the beginning...I will not deceive you that way!)...Ritter and Schafer have not only been active with KH over the years, also occupying their time and skills with Burial Hex (hence the split debut records, eh!), Rain Drinkers, Compass Hour, Circulation Of Light, Devotion, Wormsblood, Spiral Joy Band, and The Second Family Band! Quite frankly, I am impressed!
On Hyperion, we get some of the longer tracks, the title song occupying the complete A-side of the album (this is, after all, vinyl!) with a playing time of 12 minutes (and 6 seconds), while the two songs on side B (the almost equal-length “Lullaby” and “Reverberation”) last 12 seconds longer. What can you expect from Hyperion? Well, according to those in the know (I mean, this is my novice acquaintance with the project, you know!) the album sees KH strive even further away from the modern world than they did on their previous release. It is (I cite) “...a 'celebration' of sorts, churning forth Olde World drones that know neither time nor locale, tone-mantras from shofar horns, bending sweetened notes on beaten 12-string guitars, intoning a harmonized enumeration of spells and dreams...”! Wha's that mean? Well...first of all, I have to admit I can hardly recognize any guitars in the music at all, although there might be something in the frey which sounds like guitar being played under a rug, and recorded from the other side of the room. What I dó hear clearly, are strings in the form of cello. No idea what else the guys put into the music. The vocal side of things however, is quite clear indeed. I mean, they work with mantras, don't they...the main mantric voice being a low depressed one, upon which the second voice either harmonizes by using either a resembling low tone, of a contrasting higher one. There's even passages where there's an additional voice (from Dani Schafer?).
In essence, this is music for those among us seeking a resting point in the day-to-day busy-busy atmospheres. Almost ideal music to do some meditation on, actually! Pity the album's so short though! Anyway, you can listen to the complete album, in fact to the band's complete output, because both the band's own website (www.) kinither.com and the “Music” section at (www.) facebook.com/kinither redirect to the band's Bandcamp space! Now I didn't have the time to check that out, due to lack of time (still so many reviews waiting to be done...and more coming along as we speak!), but I wish you a happy browsing indeed! Just in case you're not able to listen to the music posted there (it happens, you know, especially when you're using a network PC), the band also has a MySpace and Last.fm page, and while I have no idea what's on the first, I can tell you that the second displays some videos. Hey, since the rating is a personal thing anyway, I'll give Hyperion enough points to allow it being integrated into my 2013 year-lists!