Caligo by Siavash Amini

When you read about wars in your history class, did you feel the weight of each act of violence totaled into those alienating, mind-boggling statistics? The new experimental ambient album Caligo by Siavash Amini retells history in all of its unsightly truth, baking self-destruction and tragedy into every sound. Starting with recordings of classic Iranian folk melodies, Amini proceeds to take the same unforgiving razorblade to the music which has been pressed against the people of Iran in many moments across its history. Disorienting sounds in untraceable tempos match a chaotic moment when both conventional wisdom and contemporary authority feel inadequate to solve a crisis, leaving people at the whim of random chance and an unseen editor slashing away at the world. In rare moments of coherence, however, the beauty of the source material shines through like never before, enduring the punishing strain of the moment to deliver its song of hope across space and time.