With an embedded concept about the desertification of our world, “A Mournful Kingdom of Sand” comes an unsettling travelogue torn between melancholy, glee, and the uncompromising socio-political critique. Its subversive aesthetic goes hand in hand with our constant urge to discover thought-provoking sonic experiments and Ak’chamel fits this criteria perfectly.
Just released independently via French label Akuphone, “A Mournful Kingdom of Sand” is a desert inspired, folk / psychedelic trip that channels the freeform experimentalism, cinematic sadness and vigor of old, traditional culture.
Following the very acclaimed “The Totemist” (2020), the cabalistic duo takes the listener on an esoteric journey which, according to the band, sounds as a perfect soundtrack to the aforementioned desertification of our world. Sonically, there is something shimmering, cold, gentleness and tender in their craft. It feels like a collection of secrets, a rich meditation on the many shades of the current state of the world.
Hidden behind their homemade costumes and masks, Ak’chamel, The Giver of Illness, aka Fourth World Post-Colonial Cultural Cannibalists Circumcising The Foreskin of Enlightenment, have played festivals in various cities around the U.S gaining international attention from Vice, The Wire, Tiny Mix Tapes, Consequence of Sound, and many more.
