Spectral by Sum Of R

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Also available in WV Sorcerer's Big Cartel webshop and Sum Of R's Bandcamp
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▼WV117: Sum Of R - Spectral

幽魂光譜 浮沈深淵

Swiss-Finnish avant-garde trio’s new exorcism is a haunting swell of psychedelic doom and krautrock alchemy.

The sonic explorers Sum Of R return with Spectral, their most haunting and possessed work to date. This eight-track, shape-shifting journey delves deep into ritualistic psychedelia, experimental doom, and a surreal fusion of krautrock influences, using these elements as creative tools to explore the mutation of sound. Following the critical acclaim of 2022’s Lahbryce, which marked the band’s rise as a trio and saw them conquer stages from Roadburn to Desertfest, Spectral intensifies their hypnotic spell with a heavier, stranger, and more possessed sonic palette.

Formed in 2008 by Swiss musician Reto Mäder (Ural Umbo, JeGong, RM74), Sum Of R has undergone multiple sonic incarnations. In recent years, the band solidified into a menacing three-headed leviathan with the addition of two infamous Finnish artists: drummer Jukka Rämänen (Hexvessel, Waste of Space Orchestra, Ex-Dark Buddha Rising,Ural Umbo) and vocalist/noise-sculptor Marko Neuman (Convocation, Ex-Dark Buddha Rising, Ural Umbo). Together, Sum Of R is a band that channels cosmic vibration more than genre, summoning music that feels unearthed rather than written. The way Sum Of R creates their work, gives credence to the title of Spectral, where the album feels like a seance of channeled energies from beyond.


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● A record born between worlds

After debuting this lineup on Lahbryce, performed live in its entirety on the Roadburn Festival Main Stage in 2022, the trio embarked on extensive touring, sharing their evolving sound with audiences at prestigious festivals such as Desertfest London, A Colossal Weekend (Copenhagen), Astral Festival (Bristol) and Blow Up Festival & Sonic Rites Festival (Helsinki). Between tours in 2023 & 2024, they reconvened for sessions in Switzerland and Finland, crafting a new body of work that became Spectral, a music that shifts beyond worlds both physical and metaphysical. Spectral reflects the tension and harmony of its creation, music recorded in various locations and using a wide range of methods - from studio tracking to live sessions or to assembling specific fragments, across two seasons. Spectral is raw, but spacious; disciplined, but dreamlike.

● Visitors from the outer limits

On Spectral, Sum Of R also invited outside voices, three luminaries from the experimental and extreme scenes who share a deep affinity with the band’s ethereal universe:
- Juho Vanhanen (Oranssi Pazuzu, Grave Pleasures) lends his haunting vocal signature to the album opener “Solace”—a scorched-earth duet with Marko Neuman that draws the listener into a hazy, unsettling trance.
- Vicotnik (Dødheimsgard, Ved Buens Ende, Dold Vorde Ens Navn) delivers a harrowing performance on “Beer Cans in a Bottomless Pit”, one of the album’s most deranged and dramatic moments.
- G. Stuart Dahlquist (Burning Witch, Goatsnake, Asva) contributes low-end thunder on “Agglomeration”, his distinctive bass tone adding weight and decay to the song’s architecture.

● Sound and spirit

If Lahbryce was the moment Sum Of R found their voice, then Spectral is the moment that voice starts to fracture and echo into multiple dimensions. The band moves with confidence between sludge-like gravity, free-form improvisation, haunting melodies, and textural sound design. There is ritual here, but also impulse; structure, but also vertigo. The presence of vocals throughout, handled with disturbing finesse by Neuman and the album’s guests, feels like a transmission rather than performance. A séance. A fever dream on tape.


Spectral is a record for late nights and liminal spaces. Start the summoning and get spectral with Sum Of R now!

- Words by Mathew Kvohst McNerney (Hexvessel, Grave Pleasures)

Avant-garde esoteric music label.
Based in France & China.

noise
drone
ambient
free jazz
black metal
psychedelic
esoteric tribal
ritual industrial
traditional music
free improvisation

Human decadence & cosmic existence.

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