Los Angeles-based psych rockers Magna Zero have returned with Infinite Sky, an unconventional new record with track lengths ranging from 14 to 32 minutes. The band captured live performances precisely as they unfolded, creating a raw space/heavy psych-rock album untouched by edits.
The group is composed of lifelong friends David Aubrey (drums), Jason Moore (vocals/bass/keys), and Chris DiCesare (guitar). Their sound blends elements of progressive rock, desert rock, and post-punk into a dynamic whirlwind of guitar-driven grooves.
The band emerged during the height of the pandemic, forging their identity in the seclusion of a deserted LA studio. There, they created over one hundred compositions, each born from spontaneous ‘free jams’—improvisational sessions captured by Aubrey on his phone.
Over the following year, these raw ideas were sculpted into fully formed songs, culminating in the release of their debut EP, All Must Go, in late 2022.
Their debut LP, The Great Nothing, came last year and encapsulates the band’s live energy, with most tracks recorded in live takes and minimal overdubs. Conceptually, Aubrey likens the album to a black hole, a metaphor for the creative and destructive forces that drive the cycles of life, death, and rebirth.
While working on their follow-up to The Great Nothing, Magna Zero captured three extended jam sessions as a warm-up exercise. These raw, unedited, and unrehearsed improvisations became the foundation of Infinite Sky.
This new, unorthodox project showcases the band’s most authentic form, channeling a collective creative experience straight from the ether.
Infinite Sky is a raw and honest work of art that invites listeners to break from convention and experience a different kind of rock album that embraces experimentation and defies the rules.
The three tracks fill just over an hour of unrelenting heavy psych that carries listeners deep into Magna Zero’s cosmology. Philosophically—and perhaps musically, too—the trio creates music that could be called ‘existential rock.’ They are fascinated with deep space, and on Infinite Sky, the soaring guitar and dynamic rhythmic section are pushed into overdrive.
“Captured Chasms” blares deep into the galaxy over fourteen minutes as the trio channels their biggest influences like Rush and Mars Red Sky. We eventually get vocals, but not until later in the song. For most of the track, Magna Zero simply rocks hard and lets the jamming do the talking.
“Magna Zero” is another epically long track, and it may function as the group’s anthem or mission statement. Obviously named after the band itself, it reminded me of how the name came to be.
Translated from Latin, Magna Zero means ‘Great Nothing.’ It refers to a state of peace beyond the ego, where one experiences harmony and unity with the universe. The band says this is how they feel when they play together.
While ‘Great Nothing’ conjures some images of nihilism in the Western mind, the Eastern mind knows this is different. The void doesn’t always have to be such a dreadful thing, and I’ve often read how the Buddhists believe how conceptualizing ‘nothing’ and ‘no-self’ is the beginning of enlightenment.
Magna Zero tries to capture this feeling on the track, pouring so much of their souls into the extended jam that they perhaps float blissfully. During the music-making process, the mind is emptied of worries—a moment of true Zen.
Infinite Sky ends with the most epic jam, “Atemporal.” Stretching and flexing its muscles over thirty minutes long, this is a track to simply hit play and get lost in.
Magna Zero has crafted an excellent experimental heavy psych record in Infinite Sky that functions as one long, heavy jam sequenced into three tracks. It’s perfect for star-gazing or contemplating the mysteries of the universe, but you’re better off letting those ideas go, surrender to the music, and just be.
Check out Infinite Sky by Magna Zero on Bandcamp here.
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