Kandodo – Kandodo

Home-recorded instrumental music isn’t exactly thin on the ground these days but Simon Price (guitarist with psych-rock veterans The Heads) has created an album of real beauty for his first outing under the Kandodo moniker. Employing hypnotic mid-rangey drones and spare, repetitious guitar figures, his work most readily bears comparison to that of Barn Owl and the solo work of Jon Porras, whose excellent Black Mesa LP was also released on Thrill Jockey earlier this year.

But whilst Porras’ work is touched by an unmistakably human melancholy, Price has created something altogether more primal. Inspired by his childhood in Zambia and Malawi, his sound is not so much a celebration as an invocation of that landscape, and his music resonates with a deep stillness and appreciation. It’s an unusual, pleasingly nourishing quality for this kind of music to convey but Price maintains it expertly for the album’s duration. Outstanding.