Hailing from Austin, TX, a city whose current kaleidoscope of music scenes still pulsates with the tremors of experimental sixties rock and roll, is the band Suspirians. They take the modern state of psychedelic rock and send it hurtling someplace far away, beyond our atmosphere, and into the stars. The three-piece female band, comprised of Marisa Pool, Lisa Cameron and Stephanie Demopulos, describe their own sound as “avant garage psych punk,” a statement that may sound a bit difficult to pinpoint until you’ve actually listened to their recent mind-bending, genre-blurring sophomore album Ti Bon Ange, released June 2017.
The album itself is a droning, guitar-driven auditory trip for both the ears and the mind. Many of the song titles — for instance, “Moonwave,” “Black Holes” or “Nocturne” — conjure images of shimmering starlight and constellations that hang pristine amidst darkness. Haunting vocals weave in and out at varying degrees of distinction and remain shrouded in mystery, as if wanting to reveal a mystic truth if you listen close enough. Although only six songs in length, the sound spirals up and down enough for you to lose sense of time while listening, perhaps leaving you to feel a bit lost and disoriented — right where the album wants you to be.
Overall, Ti Bon Ange is a hectic, adrenaline-fueled dive into garage-y psychedelic with a definite punch that will make you feel as though you’ve travelled somewhere distant and otherworldly. The album name derives from a voodoo term, “tittle good angel,” in a book two of the band members had read: Divine Horsemen by Maya Derek. Singer/Guitarist Marisa Pool has stated that, as inspiration from the book, she wanted to incorporate similar ideas concerning creative energy and consciousness — “a space for a listener to be possessed by imagination and allow themselves to emerge as something else for a while.”
Ti Bon Ange can be downloaded or purchased as a physical album via bandcamp, or on the Super Secret Records website. Suspirians will be playing at Rake’s End in Cincinnati on Monday, July 31st, with local artists Sarn Helen and Lovae.
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