BARDO POND - PEACE ON VENUS (10TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION)

Released: 27/10/23

Has a band or artist ever picked a more apt name to describe their project than Philadelphia’s mighty five-piece? Yes we have George the Poet, and Chance the Rapper for that matter, but they’re both descriptions of their metiers – whereas Bardo Pond – ‘bardo’ being a Buddhist term to describe the intermediate state between death and rebirth – perfectly encapsulates the transcendental, atemporal landscape conjured by the hypnagogic force of their music. Incidentally, about 10 years ago I took a girlfriend to see the band play live; she was not digging it, to say the least – and aptly, the state of our relationship too was best described as perpetually being in a liminal space between life and death. But, you know, not in a good way. 

Anyway, Bardo Pond are one of my all time favourite bands. A potent mix of coruscatingly heavy riff-and-drone guitars and bass, double-threat Isobel Sollenberger’s plangently ethereal voice and dulcet flute, and primaeval drums, their sound can be termed as, paradoxically, 'ecstatic doom-psych'; and while it is difficult to proclaim 2013’s Peace on Venus, now getting a much-deserved reissue, as the group’s ‘best’ record – for I really do love all of their LPs equally – it is the album that I would recommend as a first encounter for anyone interested in a music that might result in involuntary astral projection.