Eiyn Sof is the project of visual artist and musician Melissa Boraski. Her latest offering, Acid Ribbon Wreath, is an introspective collection of folk-tinged Canadian released in September 2024.
Boraski studies her origins, pulling at far-reaching roots embedded deep under ancient black soil. Each song on this album is an audial breadcrumb, strewn in a jagged pattern through the Carpathian Mountains.
Acid Ribbon Wreath is a spirited installment, cementing itself as the culmination of a past musical era spilling into the here-and-now.
Alongside Boraski, collaborators Chad Ross, Joel Banks and Roan Bateman wrangle multiplespectral noises to make up this meticulous effort. This record is comprised of seven tracks; one for each hour that it takes to travel from Boraski’s paternal home to her maternal home.
The pervading aura of Acid Ribbon Wreath blends traditional folk elements with Boraski’s hallmark psychedelic mystique. Though a familiar sonic cloud looms over this record, it opens with an experiment in percussion that moves the Eiyn Sof sound in a new direction. What I interpret as wind chimes take me to a dew-kissed patch of untouched wilderness.
The sporadic pattern of dulcet tones evokes the presence of chaos in a beautiful world as if to imply that nature’s music is equal to our own as it draws us in without being bound to convention.
The guitars on this record spare no lonesome wails as they cascade over reverb-drenched soundscapes.
Twanging notes dissipate into finger-plucked dirges, tempering the glassy percussion with high frequencies. Notes are enveloped by grumbling bass, bowed long and low with the weight of a sinking rock.
A penchant for storytelling emerges as Boraski breathes perennial truths into the soul of this record.
The vocals float over thoughtfully arranged music like a thick shroud of fog in which the amplifier’s hiss cleverly hides.
The production on this record is in equal measures raw and polished, highlighting the distinctly human quality that nuance lends to sound design.
FFO: Mazzy Star, The Sadie’s, Drudkh, Marissa Nadler, Jim Henson
ASSOCIATED ACTS: Rick White, Eric’s Trip, Dark Bird
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