The Third Eye

Toronto’s Kevin Cahill has long been exploring the outer caverns of sound, alone as Family Ravine, alongside his brother in East of the Valley Blues, and as the mastermind behind his own label, Power Moves Library. Now, with Horizonites, Cahill’s Family Ravine cracks open an hourglass of elastic time, spilling over with extended-tone hallucinations and stringed rituals.

This is a heavy offering: no singles, hooks, or clean exits. Just longform incantations for mandolin, electric guitar, melodica, accordion, kalimba, and whatever else was within reach during the trance. Think six-string spirals and kalimba spells cast into the wind tunnel.

The opening track, “Circle Over A Line Moving Skyward,” doesn’t begin so much as hover like an alien craft blocking out the sun, humming in disharmony. The drones are thick, and the psychedelia is gelatinous.

By the time you reach “Line Under A Circle Staying Put,” the mood shifts. It is still lysergic, but now slower and more inward, like staring at your hands for thirty minutes and realizing they aren’t yours. 

Then comes “Circle Over A Line Moving Underground,” a track that crawls through subterranean tunnels of rust and reverb. Finally, the closer: “Line Under A Circle Moving Together.” It’s twenty-one minutes of mounting dread and bliss, equal parts baptism and breakdown. The drone here ascends until it evaporates.

Horizonites isn’t for your morning jog or polite dinner party. It’s a record for 3 a.m. couch voyages that cross no borders but leave you forever changed. Eiderdown Records has once again delivered a dispatch from the outer edge of the audible map. Proceed with open ears and zero expectations.

Check out Horizonites by Family Ravine on Bandcamp here.