Loop Guru
Duniya: The Intrinsic Passion of Mysterious Joy

Loop guru or Guru loop? Damn, I never remember. But it doesn't matter, because in either case, the name is cool.

And anyway, this little loop thing, this little guru thing, is a kind of collage business, those little cut-and-paste things...

Oh great!!! Always loved collages, especially sonic ones. And, in our case, what we have are fabulous hybrids between dub and ambient... and trance... and jungle... and dance...

And the more, the merrier.

To all these magical little words, add the concepts of world music and hypnosis, and we're all set.

Even though, to be even more set, it wouldn't be bad to turn back in memory to the little grove of the ghosts of the two collage masters par excellence, namely Mr. Eno and Mr. Byrne.

Enough to give you an idea?

In any case, know that at the little club of young samurais in my small town, this stuff is strong, very strong. And it's mostly listened to in the decantation room, also known as the chamber of psychophysical rebalancing. You listen to the whole album, or a single track until exhaustion. And the choice of a specific track is dictated, of course, by a specific symptom. I often ended up with track 3, track 9, and track 10, but I won't tell you why. What I can tell you is that the results were excellent, and I presume they have to do with that hypnosis thing.

Anyway, think about it: eleven tracks, all potential themes for an imaginary radio, eleven psychowonders displayed at the flea and sound market. Here you breathe a bazaar air: where there's a bit of sun, a bit of looking at the world, and a bit of minding your own business happy and dreamy.

Then I don't know, try to throw the Popol Vuh into a blender, the Popol Vuh or other mysticism/mix. Oh, I know, anything could happen. But in our case, what comes out is a jumble of modernity infused with the world's oldest voices.

Oh, "Duniya" is a perfect album and even achieves eminently practical purposes (as ambient should always do).

I use it in moments of great creative effort, for example when I write. I put it on, and it's like randomly picking from the tree of the universal energy grab bag: because you listen and don't listen, but when you do, what comes is absurdly magical. And if "moments of great creative effort" seems pompous to you, remember that this music works very well (and maybe even better) for making the bed or washing the dishes, always assuming that, sooner or later, you decide to do it.

Then, can you imagine sitar and tablas submerged by the western thumps and sweeps of electronics. That's this "Dunijia", ancient heart and technology, fabulous instruments of another time and little games for the kids of 2000.

At first, it might seem like nonsense, but give it a few more listens. You won't regret it.

See you...

Ps: I talked about eleven tracks, but they are actually twelve... because the last one is a monstre track of about twenty minutes... and it is pure meditation...

Ps(2): I forgot to tell you that this could almost be disco music, suitable for places frequented by Bacchante interns and explorers of other psychic dimensions...

This is an album full of joy...