Mosaic is a new statement of purpose for Ancient Sky and a record that defines the band as one of rock n’ roll’s heaviest and most dynamic units. With a collection of Brian Markham’s best songs yet, Ancient Sky headed into Future-Past Studios in Hudson, NY with the like-minded Ben Greenberg (Uniform, Mission Hubble, The Men) on board as producer and sound engineer.
Mosaic captures the massive scale of Ancient Sky’s live sound for the first time pivoting around such heavy themes as loss, hypnosis, escapism, poverty, the pressure to conform to terrifying new technologies and modern consumerism’s catalytic contribution to the growing disparity between the haves and the have-nots.
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Ancient Sky have been exploring the wide sonic boundaries of rock music for nearly a decade, drawing inspiration from artists as seminal and diverse as Delta bluesman Skip James, early Pink Floyd, the darker corners of modern ambient represented by Demdike Stare, Pye Corner Audio et al and the ubiquitous influence of heavy Brits such as Hawkwind and Black Sabbath. But to define them simply by their acclaimed progenitors-as impressively curated as the list may be-would be to rob the band members of their own incontrovertible creative drive and a southern-bred, city-tempered history that’s as much a celebration of devoted friendship and blue-collar dedication as it is an acknowledgment of the importance of diverse influences and open minds.
Ancient Sky Live Dates:
4/25: Baby’s All Right – Brooklyn, NY *w/ Holy Sons
6/6: Union Pool – Brooklyn, NY *Record Release Show
6/13: Northside Festival – Brooklyn, NY
Ancient Sky have been exploring the wide sonic boundaries of rock music for nearly a decade, drawing inspiration from artists as seminal and diverse as Delta bluesman Skip James, early Pink Floyd, the darker corners of modern ambient represented by Demdike Stare, Pye Corner Audio et al and the ubiquitous influence of heavy Brits such as Hawkwind and Black Sabbath. But to define them simply by their acclaimed progenitors-as impressively curated as the list may be-would be to rob the band members of their own incontrovertible creative drive and a southern-bred, city-tempered history that’s as much a celebration of devoted friendship and blue-collar dedication as it is an acknowledgment of the importance of diverse influences and open minds.
Initially formed in 2007 by Virginia natives Brian Markham and Pat Broderick, the Ancient Sky’s genesis in New York City served as both a new beginning and creative homecoming of sorts for Markham, who had just returned to the east coast after spending years in the majestic solemnity of Seattle and its fog-shrouded surrounding environs. Sharing an unquenchable thirst for discovering new sounds, as well as a variety of friends and acquaintances from both growing up in Virginia, the two began playing music together immediately. Over the course of four full-length records and a tireless touring schedule throughout both the United States and Europe, Markham and Broderick have remained the only two permanent members of this perpetually evolving unit, writing the majority of the material in the naturalistic comfort that only a true personal and creative symbiosis can provide.
The fourth album for the band and the second on Brooklyn’s Wharf Cat Records, “Mosaic” takes its name from Japanese author Kobo Abe’s novel “The Woman in the Dunes.” Markham’s lyrics and songwriting were equally inspired by Alan Lomax’s novel “The Land Where Blues Began,” an excavation of the birth of American blues music, as well as legendary Russian weirdo Andrei Tarkovsky’s films The Mirror and Stalker and the works of lesser-known iconoclastic Polish filmmaker Andrzej Zulawski, whose output maniacally embraces the poetic extremes of human emotion; misery, ecstasy, mystery, danger and melancholy all granted equal measure and respect as necessary journeys for the creative mind. Markham’s own journey reached a critical point on his birthday in late 2013, when the first new song “Garbage Brain” was conceived during an all-night jam session just after the dissolution of a long-term relationship; the solace of passing time and making noise with good friends seeming-as it often does-the only remaining option.
Perhaps this bastion of friendship is one of Ancient Sky’s most defining attributes. Markham and Broderick spent an entire winter season writing the majority of “Mosaic” and were fortunate enough to convince three of their closest friends to join them. Fellow Virginia natives Brandon Evans and Kevin Lamiell share resumés steeped in the roots of heavy southern music, having served time in such infamous dark hardcore bands as City of Caterpillar, pg.
99 and Majority Rule. Evans also currently spearheads the haunting and elaborate sounds of Ghastly City Sleep, while Portland, Oregon native and Ancient Sky newcomer Adam Bulgasem also plays with Markham in Holy Sons and Dommengang. These five friends have managed to live up to the band’s initial goals of constant evolution because they all share a uniform appreciation of the musical spectrum ranging from German innovators like Cluster and Brainticket to current labelmates Cottaging and Ukiah Drag and other heavy U.S. units including The Body and Wolvserpent, but also because they’ve all shared the burden of trying to feasibly craft art while toiling away the majority of their time at stressful, thankles
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