Via Drag City
Six Organs of Admittance is is the music of one man
— Ben Chasny, along with whomever he ropes in for
recording sessions and shows. Sometimes nobody’s
there with him, depending on his mood. And that’s
alright too.
This one-man band started in 1998 when Ben self-released
his first LP in an edition of 400, little dreaming
that one day Six Organs of Admittance would sell 59
times that many. It was just something that happened.
Over the years, Six Organs of Admittance has been
released on a variety of labels, most notably Holy
Mountain. During this time, Six Organs of Admittance
became one of the most influential sounds in
the underworld with albums such as Dust and Chimes,
Dark Noontide and Compathia. The Six Organs method
paired acoustic sounds — guitar, voices, percussions
— with electric sounds — guitar and who knows?!?
— in a fashion that produced not quite songs, but not
quite jams, either. Further, it was vivid and hazy at the
same time. It made people think of roots and folk music
and psychedelia and noise all at once, and so people
were thrilled in a confused sort of way.
Nobody knew at the time that this was only the beginning.
In 2005, Ben found a home at Drag City and released
the landmark album, School of the Flower. Free jazz
ninja drum master Chris Corsano joined Ben for the
session and the results were a perfect blend of melody,
minimalism, out-folk groove and noise. This version
of Six Organs of Admittance toured, getting much applause
along the road. At year’s end, School of the Flower
landed on many critic’s best-of lists in magazines including
Mojo, Wire, Magnet and a shit-ton of others.
Ben has also played in and recorded with Comets on
Fire, Current 93, Badgerlore, and August Born.
2006 saw a new morning: the release of The Sun
Awakens, which featured the darkest, most feedbackdrenched,
cult-chanting, completely beautiful music
ever released by Six Organs of Admittance. Whether
or not people want twenty-four minutes of drone or
not, that doesn’t mean Six Organs isn’t going to give
it to them. Chasny also wrote music for Current 93’s
critically-endorsed album Black Ships Ate The Sky,
toured around the U.S. and Europe in the band of
Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy (and had a great time) and finally
took it to Russia (and played there!) as Six Organs of
Admittance. Squeezing one last band into the winter
of 2006, Ben formed the guitar-assault trio Basalt Fingers
with Brian Sullivan of Mouthus and Elisa Ambrogio
of Magik Markers.
2007: Ben’s taking a break from all his other projects
to concentrate fully on Six Organs of Admittance
and write the record he always wanted — Shelter From
the Ash. Beyond a culmination of the very best that
Six Organs of Admittance has ever offered, from
minimalist/surrealist sound incantations to pounding
twilight mountain-ascending guitar affirmations to
ruminations on love in the time of war and death and
the end of the world, this is the Six Organs record that
Ben has been wanting to release from the very beginning.
2009 Will see Ben Release Luminous Night
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