Introducing Bakusui Heaven
Bakusui Heaven, the solo project of Richie Troughton, recorded the album A Passport To The Forest over a two-year period at Sublime Studio in Aotearoa/New Zealand with Tom Havard and Steve Harrop at the helm.
The name Bakusui Heaven comes from a Japanese term for oblivion. The music comes from psychedelic portals of sound and visual influence – spaghetti western soundtracks, literary meditations, zoned out feelings, an urgent call from time and space.
Richie said: “Travelling in Aotearoa/ New Zealand, I came to visit Sublime Studio to lay down the embryonic guitars and vocals of several works in progress.
“Half-formed ideas were presented in the studio in skeletal form – with aim to preserve as a demo. I soon realised that the idyllic studio environment offered more potential than my earlier modest ambition.”
At Sublime, Bakusui Heaven found a range of FX available that could only found in NZ. The distortion of choice firmly became the Hot Cake pedal (designed by Split Enz drummer Paul Crowther – for example of its potency hear how The Datsuns immortalised another of his creations with their track ‘Harmonic Generator’).
Richie added: “Set in rural farmland between rolling mountain ranges and surrounded by nearby huge lakes and dams, Sublime Studio proved to be a sanctuary for intense recording sessions, with mix engineer Tom Havard ably manning the controls, and studio boss Steve Harrop in production role lending his expertise to the fevered work going on. Steve also added his distinctive Midas touch with a guest appearance on Rhodes piano.
“With long gaps between sessions – the days booked in the studio we barely stopped for breath. As our shared understanding of the material grew, so did our clarity for the direction of this work.
“As the project developed, time included lessons to learn drums and several more studio visits to mould the material into the songs as they appear now.”
A Passport To The Forest is the 10-track album that represents the fruits of these labours. A trip in full, from straight-ahead rock to instrumental experimentations, taking in a range of diverse influence, and maintaining an energy of positive uninhibited sound boiling over into feedback excess.
A Passport To The Forest will be released as a limited ‘NZ Edition’ LP on Crooket Spielings pressed on 180gm BioVinyl at Holiday Records, Auckland.
