October By Name is the latest solo album by musical polymath Kavus Torabi who has been involved in The Cardiacs and Gong along with many guest appearances with other bands and artists including The Utopia Strong and Ginger Wildheart. The album is a real solo project with Kavus playing and recording and mixing everything himself using the instruments at hand.
The album opens with Signals Shine that is slow keyboards led love song with rather gauzy vocals and an autumnal edge, to the ennui that he hopes to tenderly wipe away, the keyboard flourishes sound like they have been taken from a 15th century folk song. In Her Radiance Kavus basks and reflects on the desire she inculcates in him, over spectral keyboards, chimed notes in raptures of delight for her influence on his heart.
Water Into Wine is a psychedelic English folk song that has echoes of The Incredible String Band, while extolling the virtues of being able to change Water Into Wine and all the sophistry you may be capable of, while the keyboards fracture and shimmer delightfully.
From the Storm opens slowly with gentle pump organ and ethereal vocals making Kavus sound and feel like a male Nico, getting close to the Frozen Borderline while he dreams of seeing your long hair in the wind.
The albums main single is My Shameful Namesake is a rather subtle psychedelic prog song of enlightenment and bafflement for all the things his namesake did to become infamous, slowly evolving and intoxicating. The guitar fandango outro is truly bewitching.
The album closes with the 8 minutes of Ancestors Song that opens with shimmering sustaining strings with a subtle comedown feeling, deeply exploring Kavus ancestry, like they are buried in the deepest part of some ancient woodland, voices echoing down the centuries from deep within the ancient trees.
Find out more at https://hypeddit.com/kavustorabi/waterintowine https://kavustorabi.bandcamp.com/album/october-by-name https://www.facebook.com/KavusTorabi
