Society has a tendency of revisiting history. Hauntology excites this fact whilst wearing the mask of a newfound philosophy, rooted in the circular tides of politics and cultural expressions over eras and decades. Then, there are stories of yurei—ghosts—that have been detailed in Japan since the development of its earliest folklore. Talking about a titillating shift from the norm, Eric Anders & Mark O’Bitz’s latest tune, ‘Matterbloomlight (Revisited)’, takes its cues from both angles. A beautiful expression of the cyclical nature of life and death, the synth-washed folk of ‘Matterbloomlight (Revisited)’ offers listeners a profound sample of their forthcoming album, American Bardo, due out 31 July.
Anders states, “The main characters of the George Saunders novel, Lincoln in the Bardo, are ghosts inhabiting what Tibetan Buddhists call a ‘bardo’, an in-between place and state of existence, between death and whatever comes after the bardo. As these ghosts exit the bardo, there is an indescribable flash and crackling the ghosts call the ‘matterlightblooming’ effect or phenomenon.”
“These ghosts see this phenomenon as a type of dying, and they believe this while they are in denial of the fact that they are in the bardo because they have already died. My character in the song ‘Matterbloomlight’ uses the wrong name for this phenomenon, but he is a rare ghost of the bardo because he knows he is dead. My character knows he ‘says it wrong’ but he also knows he ‘gets it right’; he knows he has already died and that no matter what they call the effect it is not death but a passing on to whatever is next.”
Words by: Jonathan Frahm