After the collaborative EP Om -- bassist Al Cisneros and drummer Chris Haikus -- did with Current 93, with its rather bludgeoning sense of non-float space attack, "logic" perhaps dictates that Pilgrimage would follow that ragged pied piper into the ether. Not so. These four cuts offer four widely divergent takes on the bass, drum, sounds, and ambient space that this pair have made a trademark since the disbanding of the unholy stoner rock trio Sleep. These cuts, ranging from a little over four minutes to nearly twelve, may follow an instrumental formula, but the sheer amount of blissful and chaotic havoc they can wreak with the brain (especially at delightfully high volume) can't be boxed. While the title track that bookends the set (there is a shorter reprise of it at the end) is simply mantra-like in its long, slowly unwinding way that never leaves its center of gravity -- because it has no center and hovers between heaven (of some kind) and earth -- it's pure, spooky poetry. Cisneros' vocals are lower than his bass, which alternates around a four-note pattern with droning notes throughout its ten-and-a-half minute length. They are not entirely whispered, they are more like gently chanted. The lyrics are printed in the booklet, but they are thick, nearly impenetrable psychedelic reflections on the cosmos -- literally. But the voices becomes another instrument in this mix, a single pulse, underscored and prodded by tom toms, tambourines, played out as a tribal beat, but even they don't overcome the droning bassline that takes on subsonic proportions near the middle of the cut, which, if listened to loud enough, can move your spine around inside your body.

1		The Great Eastern Sun
2		Climbing Cold Mountain
3		Kyo Choshi (Trad.)
4		Yamato Choshi (Trad.)
5		Hisen
6		Fuke

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