A HYMN SUPREME is the second album by Todmorden based experimental group Slow Knife

An album consisting of two extended improvised works lyrically exploring the authenticity of spiritual transcendence and sonically exploring devotional music, spiritual jazz and noise electronics

Slow Knife recorded these improvised works live at the start or end of each day at Quarry Studios Liverpool, during the recording sessions for their upcoming album ‘Disobey Your King’ This working process of recording improvised works in the studio was inspired by the drone supergroup Sunn O))) and the recording methods used for their Pyroclasts album

Throughout the album the band employed the use of Gagaku chord structures traditional Japanese imperial music and Frippertronics ambient tape looping created by Brian Eno and Robert Fripp The results are discrete loops of organic acoustic instruments harmonium, saxophone, tanpura, drums, percussion and digital instruments synthesisers and samples

Pt1
HYMN SUPREME Pt1 is rooted in the spiritual Jazz sound world of John Coltrane and displays the bands clear reverence for jazz with the recognisable motif in homage to Coltrane, along with the album title Slow Knife escapes the tropes of traditional jazz by employing processing techniques from ambient music like frippertronics to create harmonic clouds enveloping the listener in unexplored horizons and unique sonic tapestries

Lyrically Pt1 utilises recent developments in AI software Chat GPT 4. Used as a tool, the AI was fed references and poetic boundaries to create the accompanying poem Through a conversation with the AI, a series of revisions were made until the poem was complete The AI was used to create a conversation between the seemingly authentic, being human, and the in-authentic, AI - exploring the dichotomy between authenticity and machine Where do the boundaries of authenticity lie? Will AI make better art than us? Can spiritual transcendence be achieved through inauthentic means?
Do androids dream of electric sheep?

Pt2
HYMN SUPREME Pt2 explores dreamscapes and nods to the bands fondness for the spiritual space music of Popul Vuh and the electronic experimentation of the Radiophonic Workshop The track opens with confronting distorted klangs created from the stomp of marching feet and includes an array of instruments including tanpura, harmonium and Korg MS10 Lyrically, the poem was created by an authentic human and reects on how psychedelic experience can conjure ideas of transcendence and connectivity to nature This poses the question, is the psychedelic experience authentic?

Artwork
Slow Knife have been researching global cults and the power and sway the cult leader can hold through certain persuasive language and images within their devotional practices The artwork visually and conceptually explores the continuum between authentic and inauthentic, between authentic spiritual transcendence and inauthentic exploitation from cult leaders, between authentic acoustic instruments and in-authentic electronic instruments, between authentic lyrics and in-authentic AI generated lyrics