The Ascent is another high point in Zen Mothers career.
The Ascent is another high point in Zen Mother's career. Lauren Rodriguez

Zen Mother, "Lumache" (self-released)

In 2017, recently departed Seattle avant-rock band Zen Mother won a Puget Soundtrack competition whose prize was scoring Alejandro Jodorowsky's 1973 cult occult film The Holy Mountain. Finally, on May 17, the public can hear the fruits of that experiment; The Ascent will be released digitally and on 100 cassettes (don't sleep).

Its 31 tracks capture as many esoteric moods as the movie that inspired the recording, while fruitfully departing from Don Cherry, Ron Frangipane, and Jodorowsky's original score. Zen Mother—whose core members Monika Khot and Wolcott Smith just moved to the East Coast, with an ultimate destination of New York City—could easily use The Ascent as a calling card to land more soundtrack work. It's a profound summation of the group's tenebrous instrumental sorcery.

In a press release, Khot said, “The creation of The Ascent brought up a real conflict of musical identity. We tried to eschew ourselves and make these musical personalities exist on their own. In doing this, our own identities got mangled a bit... it made Wolcott want to break a chair, and me to feel rather confused—like meeting a person you don’t understand and feeling that sense of isolation of the unknown.”

You can tell from one listen to The Ascent that Zen Mother pushed themselves into rewarding new territory. "Lumache" might be the zenith of the album's celestial ambitions. Khot's voice has never sounded more angelic and ethereal while the music glimmers and shimmers in a sterling void of chamber-orchestral strings. It's a gorgeous two-minute space hymn that I wish lasted five times longer.