Album Details

• Artist: Sujo
• Album: Eilat
• Label: Quiet World
• Year of Release: 2011
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: patchen on 2011-11-22

With an almost pathological lack of promotion, Sujo have quietly released some mini-masterpieces. Their latest, "Eilat," is on a relatively larger label, so though only fifty copies are available, this brilliant set of raw but wise drones ought to make more of the rounds in the marketplace.

Ryan Huber is the genius behind Sujo, and also, in a more noisy incarnation, behind Olekranon. Sujo seems to inspire the meditative and epic in Huber, and there is enough inspiration in these four songs that at least one will give you the itch to aim for the mystic.

The title tracks begins as a kind of noisy raga, a piercing tone leading to a muddy but oddly melodic minimalism, albeit one that grow progressively more harsh. Though the rest of the set follows more or less the same progression, Huber's colors and the emotional content of this swirling stew make for riveting listening. The sober coda to "Jakarta" extends into the first few minutes of the closing "Yatom," which slowly develops from a simple drone to an icy, majestic ambient ending reminiscent of Aun.

"Eilat" deliberately states its case and moves on. With simple but rich drones and bursts of power and quiet, Sujo once again shares  its echoing and memorable sonic space with us.

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