Trial Of The Bow
Rite Of Passage
Release/Relapse, 1997

Trial Of The Bow is Renato Gallina and Matthew Skarajew, former members of Australian doom/death act Disembowelment. Together, the two musicians share and explore a fascination and appreciation for traditional Middle Eastern music through the use of equally traditional instrumentation. Through thoroughly studied and sincerely understood concepts of North African and Far Eastern music and culture, Gallina and Skarajew, with the assistance of a few session musicians, have crafted a work which entirely captures the essence, the spirit, of this mysterious and enchanting region, and its acculturation.

Through the album’s duration, the music flows from ambient passages such as "Muezzin", "As Night Falls", and "Alizee", setting a trance-inducing atmosphere which engineers a mesmerizing array of thought and imagery, to more standard compositions that are constructed by taking elements of various Eastern origins, resulting in interesting interpretations in the form of "The Court Of The Servant", "Ubar" and "The Promise". The accents of this style of music are recreated here in astounding ways, such as the smoothly played, stretched melodies, and the delivery proficiencies in accompaniment with stringed instruments, in combination with the inebriating polyrhythmic percussion implemented by the snappy darabukha, and the indelicate tones of the bendir, djembe and frame drum and enjoyable sounds of the tabla and miridangam. These foreign instruments establish an atmosphere of sensual delight, as well as setting an appropriate mood for inner-self discovery and reflection. This music removes one from the pollution of the mind, soul and heart abundant in these modern times of spirit-crushing materialism and meaninglessness. Perhaps most importantly however, the music encourages one to rest the complexity of chaotic thought patterns resulting from the combination of modern conditional existence and the natural mysteriousness that comes with being human. It inspires the appreciation of easy and small delights, and to revel in the wonder of just simply being alive.

It should not come as much of a surprise that these particular musicians serve as the creative nucleus of such music. On Disembowelment’s lone full-length recording, Transcendence Into The Peripheral (1993), the influence of Mediterranean music could be heard in the ethnic ambience of "Your Prophetic Throne Of Ivory" and "Cerulean Transience Of All My Imagined Shores", as well as scattered throughout other moments of the album. Indeed, it was the incorporation of these ideas that functioned in large part in raising that particular work above their death/doom contemporaries. Here, these inspirations have formed the foundation for Trial Of The Bow’s concept, and they are expressed in wholly honest and captivating fashion.

The lone obstacle to certain listeners appreciating music of this nature is its non-Western origin, which will most assuredly result in the often misguided and ignorant response from typical Western-based audiences who will perceive this work as "pretentious" or too "intellectualized", or even worse, too "boring", for their tastes. But for those who value art of a highly spiritual variety that moves the very soul and takes one’s imagination far away from immediate surroundings, Rite Of Passage has much to offer. This is music of a wondrous, mysterious and beautiful nature, harboring numerous possibilities of affect and reward for those who can connect with its depth and welcome it within, even, if just for a moment.

12/26/04

Tracklisting:

1. Father Of The Flower
2. Ubar
3. The Promise
4. Serpent
5. The Eyre Of Awakening
6. Ceilidh For The Sallow Ground
7. Muezzin
8. The Court Of The Servant
9. As Night Falls
10. Alizee

Ornamentation (Release/Relapse, 1995)
Rite Of Passage (Release/Relapse, 1997)