KAMI-NO-MITI

After a short spatial interlude Senmuth returns to the fusion of ethnic/world elements with his industrial metal. This time his oniric destination is Japan. The adjective "oniric" came to my mind while I was listening to this album for the first time. I'm realizeng that what I have found appealing in his use of distortion and noise is that it gives a sense of "irreality" to his music also when the melodic line could be easy to follow.

Japan I was saying. A Japanese woman's vocalisms replaces his usual distorted screaming. This makes me think to the athmospheres of Blade Runner. Not that the Vangelis masterpiece has anything to do with Senmuth, I'm just thinking that this album could have been a good sountrack for that movie as well.

"Kami no Miti" appears to be a wrong transcription of "Kami no Mich" that means "The way of Kami". Its also the title of a book about the life of a shintoist priest, so the album "MAY" be inspired to the book.

"Tsukiyomi" (not Tsukiyosi, again a probable wrong transcription from Japanese to Cyrillic to European) is a shintoist deity, the God of the Moon, as well as "Amaterasu" is the Goddess of Sun. It's interesting how the male/female roles of Sun and Moon are inverted in shintoism, but this is another story. The music is very intriguing and gives more room to percussions than on the previous albums. There's also a nice guitar part in Amaterasu. The athmosphere is far from being religious, indeed. The typical background noise makes it very dark.

"Izanami and Izanagi" other than two short tracks, are two demons, brother and syster. Here Senmuth tries to give to the music a touch of grotesque. The two tracks are quite simnilar.

"no-Mikoto" is a minor God who built a sanctuary to her grandma Amaterasu. The less dark track of the album with an electronic part in the middle taht's pure electronic music.

Now the Buddah comes. Bodhisattva is one of the names of the Buddah and literally means "Illumination". Is it a canon? I cant say, but I assume that Kannon is meaning canon, not cannon. The shukiyaki sound is overwhelmed by the slow percussions and the usual noise but it's enough to place the environment in a Japanes temple. This is not the usual Senmuth. I think this track is close to some Krautrock. Still dark, anyway.

Effectively Shakyamuni is the founder of Buddhism as religion (The Gautama Buddah). This track is not dark as the previous ones and should be cathartic. As the album title suggests we have followed a path starting from the world of Shinto to the Buddhism. The end of this album is a beginning. Let's see if a follow-up will come.