KANO Runes LP/Rare 1986 US Cassette Release/Minimal Synth/Dark Cave Electronics

$

35

KANO 'Runes' LP (Sweden, Subliminal Sounds, Catalogue #SUB-126-LP) Brand new/unplayed copy of limited year 2018 Subliminal Sounds label first-time LP edition of rare 1986 US cassette release of droning atmospheric minimal synth and dark cave electronics by Kano.

(NOTE: LIMITED BLACK VINYL EDITION OF 700 COPIES ONLY!)

Subliminal Sounds present the first ever vinyl release Kano's Runes, originally released in 1986. A unique, dark and sparse, tribal, minimal synth, drone, trance, new age recording from the mysterious Kano. Previously only issued as an obscure cassette back in 1986 which is now much sought after. Runes is much darker and brooding compared to its new age peers of the era. Drums, metallophone, synths, and more leads you on a deep inwards trip via damp, cold and foggy caves to the ancients. Runes are reminders of our ancient future. They reveal messages of wisdom that are held deep within our hearts and consciousness. Runes remind you of the forgotten past, opening your minds into the Universal Mind. Archetypal runic symbols appear throughout the earth as relics of many ancient cultures including Hindu and Native American, but their primary origin as tools of divination is most often given as Nordic and Germanic. Their true source is perhaps, too ancient and arcane to ever know with historical certainty. The music of Runes is of such power and beauty, that it can be effective for inducing states of consciousness that allow deep meditation, channeling and trance. Runes is an extraordinary musical experience. Kano, who described it as "a trance musician from Colorado" on the original release, was Don Campbell in real life and the Runes cassette was eventually issued under his name too. Born in 1946 in San Antonio, Texas, Don Campbell spent his high school years in Europe, studying classical music with the legendary Nadia Boulanger and Jean Casadesus at the Fountainebleu Conservatory in France. A graduate of the University of North Texas, he began his professional career as a music critic and teacher for seven years at St. Mary's International School in Tokyo. Campbell's interest in sound, healing and education have taken him to over forty countries through the years. He has researched and documented the role and uses of music in therapeutic settings, psychology, and imagery applications, educational programs and the contemporary and indigenous spiritual traditions. In 1988, Campbell founded the Institute of Music, Health and Education, serving as its director until 1995. He is also the author of 23 books, some of which have been translated in to 24 languages. Additionally, he served as Acoustic and Musical Director of Aesthetics Audio Systems, an innovative company that provides quality music to healthcare facilities, until his passing.

If Brian Eno’s defining ambient work is Music for Airports, music critic and teacher Don Campbell’s contribution to the subgenre might as well be called Music for Caves. Campbell has an impressive C.V., studying under composer Nadia Boulanger and publishing nearly two dozen books, many of which addressed the healing power of music. But his most intriguing claim to fame was under the pseudonym Kano (an aspirational hybrid of Campbell-Eno?), which he took for Runes, a cassette-only release that fell in the general category of new age but conveyed a murkier atmosphere. The Swedish label Subliminal Sounds has reissued that 1986 album on vinyl, and if tape hiss compromises its sound quality, it’s still a haunting document.

To further the Airports comparison, “Rune Dance” opens the album with a simple figure that suggests a minor key variation of “1/1.” The eerie, minimal melody, played on what sounds like a marimba, is gradually augmented with subtle drones, and over 14 minutes the piece becomes a gently mournful dirge that at times seems to look forward to Aphex Twin. If much of Campbell’s academic work was devoted to the therapeutic quality of music, his own compositions, while perhaps not actively damaging to the psyche, convey a low-level melancholy or even anxiety, which isn’t allayed at all by the swampy recording.

“Voice of the Runes” is eight minutes of synth wash, the cassette source again adding a level of creepy distance, in this case evoking a sonorous whale whose cries doppler through a stretch of ocean as it laments its fate. On the original release, Campbell describes himself as “a trance musician from Colorado,” but the trance he evokes doesn’t take you to a particularly happy place.

As suits the ancient mythology and long-forgotten languages suggested by its title, the album has the muddy and reverberating sound of a spelunker’s journey. The closing track is in fact called “The Cave of the Runes,” which is exactly what it sounds like. Clocking in at nearly 22 minutes, it begins with ritualistic drum beats and a droning flute. Percolating synths suggest water droplets, and the drones evoke a portal to some lost civilization—or perhaps something more sinister. The cover art spells out such scenery quite plainly, depicting the end of a dark journey: A cave wall carved with mysterious symbols. The piece at times recalls Eno’s work with Jon Hassell, without the richer textures and better production values.

Campbell, who died in 2012, may be best known for he book The Mozart Effect, (1997), which claimed that listening to Mozart for just 10 minutes a day could improve mental acuity. The theory proved controversial, as the studies behind it were hard to replicate. With three tracks in 44 minutes, Runes doesn’t promise it will cure what ails you or make you smarter. It is a useful tool in the mood music arsenal, but it perhaps has more in common with Subliminal Sounds’ other recent reissue from Paul Page and his Paradise Music: An exotica for the ‘80s. - Pat Padua/Spectrum Culture

- Subliminal Sounds present the first ever vinyl release Kano's Runes, originally released in 1986.
- A unique, dark and sparse, tribal, minimal synth, drone, trance, new age recording from the mysterious Kano.
- Drums, metallophone, synths, and more leads you on a deep inwards trip via damp, cold and foggy caves to the ancients.
- Don Campbell, aka Kano, described his alias, as "a trance musician from Colorado" on the original release.

Tracks on this LP are as follows:

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