Kuunatic - Wheels of Omon [CD]

Cat. no: GBCD169
Format: CD
Barcode: 4030433616925
Release Date: 11 Apr 2025
Genre: Rock

Kuunatic's hotly anticipated second album takes us deeper into their self-made fantasy mythology, proposing whole new worlds of psychedelic drama and ritual.First the facts

Kuunatic are the Tokyo-based trio of Fumi Kikuchi on keyboards, Shoko Yoshida on bass and Yuko Araki on drums. All three of them also sing. They formed in 2016 and released an EP and 7" single before, in 2021, dropping their debut album, Gate of Kluna, on an unsuspecting public.

Here's where things get unusual. Gate of Kluna was no ordinary album. Following on from their Kuurandia EP, it developed a mix of psychedelic garage and prog rock, ritual drumming, chanting female vocals, lush keyboard textures and traditional Japanese folk instruments to tell the mythic tale of the planet Kuurandia - a bold saga of magic, volcanoes and battle.

Now, with the release of their second album, Wheels of Omon Kuunatic have come to take us further down the rabbit hole. Wheels of Omon builds on the story of Kuurandia, its moon Kluna and its sun Omon with more tales of prophecy, mysterious powers and magical healing lakes. Each of its eight songs pinpoints a specifc moment from one 45- hour orbit of Omon with atmospheric evocations of feeting seasons and the rituals that accompany them.

Kuunatic's imaginative fights of visionary fancy achieve the same kind of epic, science-fction world-building as legendary French jazz-prog heroes, Magma. But their inspirations come from further afeld. "The three of us listen to completely different  types of music so our ideas and infuences come from all different places," they say.

CD Tracks: Yew's Path / Mavya at The Lacus Yom / Disembodied Ternion / Myth of Kluna / Yellow Serpent / Kuuminyo / Halu Shanta / Syzygy and a Counter Truth