This one, Askesis, by PRYPJAT PILGRIMS may end up being a placeholder. Yet another really as I find myself with less time to write and less to say anyway. The music will always speak for itself, even when words fail me. It’s strange to me that despite an ebb and flow of film, art and music over the last thirty years, the Chernobyl disaster mythos is only really gaining momentum in the last couple years. There have been more documentaries, movies and otherwise artistic endeavors related to it in the last couple years than in all the decades since it actually happened. It’s like before we were kind of afraid to talk about it. Like we’ve been holding our breath and waiting to see what became of it.

Ukraine is giving serious attention to the idea of opening up the Exclusion Zone to industry and farming. Despite a desire for a brief visit, moving in for any amount of time? No, I’d give that one a hard pass. Even at my age when cancer may just be an inevitability of passing years, that would be a no from me.

Prypjat Pilgrims though… neo-folk in that German doom tradition. It is as dark as dark gets. What is it they say in the art world? Blacker blacks… Nobody does it better than the Germans, even as the Ukrainians themselves are no slouch when it comes to the eerie and morose. This is kind of crazy though. It’s entirely out of touch with the vibe today too, but I’m going with it.