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Sunn O))), "Kannon"
The length of time elapsed between Kannon and the last Sunn O))) album proper, Monoliths and Dimensions, is over six years and the longest gap in the band’s career. This pause is unsurprising given the grandiose stylistic decisions the last album reached as far as production goes: choruses, strings, and horns made for an artistic peak that stopped just short of crossing that fine threshold between epic drama and self-absorbed pretentiousness. Kannon in some ways is a reboot of the project, returning back to the foundational sound of Greg Anderson and Steven O'Malley and their massive wall of amps. But rather than a cliché "back to basics" move, it is a record informed by their legacy, as well as their recent collaborations with Ulver and Scott Walker, that displays strong and significant artistic growth and development.
The most striking aspect of the album is its (relative) brevity:three songs, with a total running time of a bit longer than a half hour.Considering the sprawling nature of their previous work, it almost seems oddly succinct.Even though there is a sense of returning to their more simple records, conceptually at least, the record features a number of guests and collaborators, with familiar names showing up on the roster. "Kannon 1," besides the core of Anderson, O'Malley, and Attlia Csihar, sees Oren Ambarchi on oscillators and Randall Dunn adding synths.From its shimmering, albeit noisy opening, the opening moments make for a first impression of a sound less dark and dismal than their other work.
The overall sound on this piece is stripped back to emphasize the droning riffs, with the electronic elements kept to a tasteful accent.Csihar’s guttural, throaty vocals add an additional dissonant component that, like much of their work, acts as a recontextualized trope of heavy metal, deconstructed and used to a very different effect.But within the decimating chords and demonic growls, there is an additional layer of nuance that can be heard.Rather than just coming across as a big sludgy riff, the guitars create dense tonal clusters that rapidly vacillate between noise and clean tone.
"Kannon 2" has sharper, more forceful guitar throughout it, with considerably massive amounts of sustain and feedback lingering after each hit of the strings.Compared to the piece before, the sound is harsher, more serrated and abrasive.The vocals here have a more monastic, chant-like quality that balances out the harsher approach of the guitar.The droning, hypnotic sense of repetition is also expanded upon, and the trio of synth players here (Dunn plus Steve Moore and Rex Ritter) especially shines through in the song’s closing moments.
The final composition comes together as a brilliant culmination of what preceded it on the album.Squalling guitar is offset by a pleasant counter-melody, as simple chord progressions and sustained tones result a powerful and complex atmosphere.Csihar’s vocal approach bridges that chasm between metallic growl and near religious chant, and get to just the right level of drama and bombast without becoming too over the top and pompous.As the trio soldier on, the vocals and guitar hit a pure and melodic peak, before loosening up to conclude the album.Even amidst the bleak, metallic guitars and blackened noise, the parallels with sacred music by the likes of Arvo Pärt are not at all hard to hear.
Kannon is not quite the sound of Sunn O))) hitting the reset button, but instead an intentional step back as an album and arrangement, emphasizing the core sound Stephen O'Malley and Greg Anderson began with on The Grimmrobe Demos.This is a record that strips down the band to their essentials, but one that is informed by a decade and a half of recording and performance.For a band that honed their identity with anything but understated sub bass and simple, caveman like riffing, Kannon is an powerful work that is a complex, and at times extremely beautiful album.It has its own consistent feel and sound within their discography, but stands out with its terseness and depth, two things that are not always associated with their work, but apply perfectly here.
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