Kaula self-titled debut is less an actual album than a spiritual quest. It also can be seen as the vision of one Pietro Riparbelli, an Italian artist who not only composed and recorded the whole thing throughout most of 2009 and 2010 but also designed its cryptic booklet and contributed with organs, medianic chants, field recordings and radio signals.

Defining himself as a “philosopher, composer and sound-multimedia artists based in Livorno, Italy”, Riparbelli may have made for himself in the noise/experimental spheres with his main act K11 – with whom he put out a bunch of lo-fi mind-boggling through multiple respectable imprint like Old Europa Café, 20 Buck Spin, Actual Noise or Aurora Borealis – but Kaula is a whole different beast that eludes any firm categorization and whose desire to strip the listener down of any preconceived notions and take him somewhere he’s never been before is the backbone of one-a-kind project. Musically wise, what could be seen at first glance at some kind of weird black-metal outburst – including rasping vocals courtesy of Rosy from old-school death-metal warriors Profanal and buzzsaw guitars – soon makes sure all rules go out the windows by using various metal (doom, thrash) and non-metal (noise industrial) elements and create a sonic black hole.

But it’s really on the spiritual level – or, say, on the conceptual level if you will - that Kaula really treads on uncharted territories. Keen to explore the Hindu culture and the cult of Kali in particular, all the lyrics are based here on ancient text called ‘Avadhuta Gita’, said to have been originally written in the IXth century. As a result, all seven tracks have been named after it and are basically about attaining a spiritual state “equivalent to the existence of god”.

Suffice to say that mastered by Mell Dettmer, who’ve worked with SunnO))) and Earth among (many) others, Kaula debut is a beast on its own.

released 16 April 2012