MONO
Epic return.
Crescendo of Hymn ascends from the depths… as Japan’s instrumental epic MONO draw forth universal rapture with recent album Hymn to the Immortal Wind. After their mesmerizing monument of a debut visit in 2007, they return to Australia on the back of Hymn… and this time include New Zealand in their sonic blossom.
Screw ‘Music For The People’, this is music for the gods. Japan’s Mono have been tugging the heartstrings of the faithful for almost 10 years with their, y’know, grand post-rock symphonies, and their fifth album is as ambitious as ever, teeming as it is with crashing guitars and cinematic strings. ‘Pure As Snow (Trails Of The Winter Storm)’ soars above a maelstrom of melody and noise, the 13-minute ‘The Battle To Heaven’ conjures angels and demons clashing with flaming swords and ‘Everlasting Light’ burns and builds and dies with staggering grace. Pretentious, yes, but defiantly so. ‘Hymn…’ feels like the imaginary soundtrack to the film inside your head and is an outstanding work of epic beauty. NME 8/10
Hymn to the Immortal Wind 2009 Australia/NZ tour
Tickets on sale Wednesday 2 September
THURSDAY 3rd DECEMBER
TRANSMISSION ROOM
AUCKLAND
plus guests
tickets Under the Radar, Real Groovy and the venue
FRIDAY 4th DECEMBER
THE HI-FI
MELBOURNE
plus guests LAURA
tickets from The Hi-Fi, www.thehifi.com.au , phone 1300THEHIFI, Greville Records, Polyester Records
and www.consume.com.au
SATURDAY 5th DECEMBER
MANNING BAR
SYDNEY
plus guests LAURA
tickets from www.manningbar.com (ph 1300 762 545) and www.moshtix.com.au (ph 1300 GET TIX)
and www.consume.com.au’
SUNDAY 6th DECEMBER
THE HI-FI
BRISBANE
plus guests LAURA and DEL TORO
tickets from The Hi-Fi, www.thehifi.com.au , phone 1300THEHIFI, Rocking Horse, Butter Beats, Kill The Music, Sunflower Pacific Fair, Disasterpiece, Most Pit Music, Gooble Warming, Rockaway Records
and www.consume.com.au
MONO’s Hymn to the immortal Wind out on Valve through MGM/Westbound
Celebrating their 10-year anniversary, MONO returned with their fifth studio album earlier this year, the absolutely massive Hymn To The Immortal Wind.
After touring almost non-stop for five years, the band hibernated for over a year to focus solely on writing Hymn. The result is their most thoughtful and eclectic album to date. Written and arranged with a hopeful, romantic narrative in mind, the songs string together like chapters in an epic love story. The music is naturally majestic, with MONO’s trademark wall of noise crashing beautifully against the largest chamber orchestra the band has ever enlisted. The instrumentation is vast, incorporating strings, flutes, organ, piano, glockenspiel and tympani into their standard face-melting set-up.
Recorded to analog tape with long-time friend and producer Steve Albini, there is an intimacy captured here that is at once beautiful and a little terrifying. The creaking of old wooden chairs as the orchestra rocks in their seats (both literally and figuratively), puckered lips rolling along flutes, and even the conductor’s opening cue can be heard during the hauntingly quiet opening moments
While Hymn continues to mine the cinematic drama inherent in all of MONO’s music, the dynamic shifts now come more from dark-to-light instead of quiet-to-loud. The maturity to balance these elements so masterfully has become MONO’s strongest virtue – - save for perhaps their uncanny ability to sound every bit like a plane crashing into a Beethoven concert.
FOLLOW THE MAP music video is available here.
http://www.mono-jpn.com
…something so sublime that this bramble of words can’t possibly convey.
Trust me.