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PREORDER
Ships When IN STOCK.
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ARTIST
TITLE
Akvoturo
FORMAT
LP
LABEL
CATALOG #
FTR 820LP
FTR 820LP
GENRE
RELEASE DATE
7/3/2026
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Since 2003, Philadelphia-based improv ensemble Kohoutek -- founded and directed by percussionist Scott Verrastro -- has forged a dynamic, visceral range of sound, consisting of textural drone, atmospheric rock, abstract harsh noise freak-outs, clattering percussion, guitar heroics and alien electronics, all congealing to form a multihued psychedelic extravaganza. Inspired by such varied musical entities as Can, Amon Duul 2, Trad Gras Och Stenar, Dead C, Sun City Girls, Hawkwind, This Heat, Sun Ra, Art Ensemble of Chicago, and King Crimson, they inhabit a world of murky terrain where drone, musique concrete, and noise coalesce with cosmic folk, where doom and sludge metal merge with fiery jazzoid polyrhythms. All Kohoutek performances are rituals channeling untapped energy transmogrified through pure expression and response to the immediate environment. Akvoturo was recorded in April 2022 at Strange and New Sounds in Richmond VA with JK Kassalow (Cough/Caves Caverns), and unveils the band as a sextet featuring longtime core members Verrastro (Bitter Wish/Heavy Lidders/Henbane), bassist Craig Garrett, guitarists John Stanton (The Redeemers/Kuschty Rye Ergot), and Jeff Barsky (Insect Factory/Time Is Fire/Bed Maker) and electronics wizard John Simler (Cash Slave Clique). Kassalow augmented the ensemble with violin and analog electronics and edited and mixed the album with Verrastro. The unparalleled James Plotkin did the mastering. With Akvoturo, Kohoutek is delving into a more experimental form of their brand of US psych/space jams, a loose concept album sonically examining the consequential role that water has played in nascent civilizations, starting from our ancestral habitats. The title is in Esperanto, in theory a language as universal to humanity as water is to its diet, as well as an homage to the label ESP which is a substantial inspiration on the Kohoutek ethos, informed by revolutionary free jazz and outsider psychedelia. This release consists of four tracks. Side A starts out with "Pluvobaro," a combination of Eastern inspired components, including repetitive gamelan-esque marimba and other rhythmic work, with an insect-like drone. The side continues with "Inundo," a more traditional sounding American psych jammer. "Disfalo" starts side B, sparse and loose, like rain drops falling on various ephemera in a scrap yard, while the hum of machinery drones and squeals in the background. "Irigacio" returns to classic Kohoutek form, starting from a spacey/slide guitar based, mid-tempo head- nodding jam. It eventually builds into an ecstatic and faster single-note (almost surf) melodic guitar journey, before finally returning to the slow-head-nod tempo from the start of the song.
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