Darsombra is a cinematic conceptual rock band from Baltimore, Maryland, USA. Featuring composer Brian Daniloski on guitar, bass, and vocals, and filmmaker Ann Everton on synth, vocals, percussion, and projections, Darsombra is internationally known for walking the line between glam-prog-psych-stoner metal and site-specific installation performance art. Live, their carefully crafted songs and videos create a hallucinogenic synesthesia for the audience, as Everton and Daniloski build a temporary reality from sound, sight, and movement.
But beyond their notoriously psychedelic stage shows, they have a strikingly distinctive and unique sound, which runs the gamut from minimal pulsating drone soundscapes, to intricately layered album-length psych/metal opuses, to glam/prog Krautrock-esque tracks drenched with field recordings. Expect cosmic guitar solos and interweaving riffs, blissed-out synth sequences and bass lines, and emotive whacks of a gong or tolls of bells peppered throughout
their work, in addition to vocal stylings that range from wordless choral harmonies to percussive chants, grunts, and word-salad lyrics. These sonic elements combine to conjure seamless, evocative music, communicating a sense of emotion, narrative, or ideas that are all entirely subjective for the listener—this is music for the imagination. Darsombra calls their sound "trans-apocalyptic galaxy rock": dynamic, kaleidoscopic music for people transitioning through endtimes and dreaming of space.
In 1998, Darsombra was initially conceived as SUCKPiG, Daniloski’s solo side project to his renowned sludge metal band, Meatjack. In 2005, he began touring under the new name Darsombra. In 2010, he started collaborating and touring with video artist Ann Everton. By 2013, Ann had joined Brian as a musician, performer, and composer, as well as continuing to produce and project her mind-bending video tracks composed exclusively for each song.
Prolifically touring for well over a decade, Darsombra has performed in 48 states and 20 countries throughout North America, Asia, and Europe, at music venues, festivals, DIY spaces, house shows, galleries, city ruins, dive bars, cultural centers, record stores, coffee shops, and parks—not to mention their legendary pop-up generator shows at national monuments and forests, or just by the side of the road. No matter where they perform, the most common responses a Darsombra show elicits are, “I didn’t know what to expect, but that was awesome”, “I’ve never seen anything like that before”, and “it was like an acid trip, but without the acid."
Following releases on labels in the US, Europe, and Asia, such as At A Loss (US), Public Guilt (US), Exile On Mainstream (Germany), Translation Loss (US), Dogma Artistic Guerrilla (Malaysia), and Noise Bombing (Indonesia), Darsombra self-released their last full-length album, Transmission, in 2019. Since then, they’ve also self-released a cassette single, 2022’s Call the Doctor/Nightgarden EP, which features tracks from their upcoming unnamed double album. Darsombra also manages a robust YouTube channel, complete with videos of their shows, their live projections, music videos, livestreamed shows, and episodes of Darsombra TV—the ongoing chronicles of their adventures at large. A true cottage industry DIY band, self producing their music and videos and booking their own tours globally, Darsombra brings a stadium show in a cargo van or a handful of suitcases.
“Darsombra navigates multiple sonic vistas, from drone-fueled doom and twisty progressive rock to lush, ambient psych-pop.”
- James Christopher Monger - AllMusic
“…while their music has the horizontal heft of the heaviest drone metal, it is refreshingly free of the grimness. Instead their music exudes a stoned wonder at the immensity of the universe and, of course, the majesty of rock. Without a doubt one of the most joyous experiences I’ve had during lockdown.”
- Joseph Standard - WIRE
"If you’re of the belief that sonic resonance can affect those who experience it on a spiritual level, I can only recommend you open your mind as wide as (possible) and go see Darsombra. There are few live acts who so clearly revel in the process of what they’re creating on stage and presenting what they have created. . . it’s hard not to be swept up in that joy as it hits in swells and waves of experimentalist guitar, keys, percussion, vocals, and visuals.”
“. . . to call it drone would be underselling its complexity and psychedelic nuance.”
- JJ Koczan - The Obelisk
". . . the perfect soundtrack to being transported either bodily or mentally to another world, to be immersed into another culture, another civilization . . . sounds and experiences that could be described as beyond this world."
- Luke Hayhurst - Destructive Music
". . . the sound of a slow ascension towards a higher elevation, if not a higher state of consciousness."
- Ray Van Horn, Jr. - Blabbermouth
"With a unique sonic blueprint, Darsombra achieve the sheer transcendence and intensity that most acts can only dream of with an enviable effortlessness . . . (the band) aims skyward, reaching for a celestial warmth, while skillfully implying a myriad of other textures and emotions en route. The sheer evocative power of the music is huge . . . feels like a psyched-out soundtrack to the Earth’s formation and evolution of complex life in slow motion – majestic and utterly vast."
- George Leeming - The Sleeping Shaman
“I think it’s fair to say that the duo would insist that the best way to experience Darsombra would be in the live setting, where their music melds and merges with their audio-visual show to invoke a real sense of sonic transcendence. However, what is impressive is, unlike many of their contemporaries, the duo manages to transfer a great deal of that elevated, nigh-on spiritual plain they conjure onto their recordings.”
- Chris Keith-Wright - Echoes and Dust
Magic Pockets:
Magic Pockets is a progressive/synth/drone project by Ruadhan O’Meara (of Dublin based Synth-Metal act No Spill Blood). He has been creating music under this moniker since 2012, and has performed live amongst the likes of Emeralds, Umberto, Man Forever, Blanck Mass, The Ex, & Xeno and Oaklander.
The debut LP ‘Volcano of The Bleeding Skies’ was released on Vinyl & Digital download by Penske recordings on 25/11/2016.
The album was recorded using an array of vintage synthesizers, drum machines, miscellaneous electronics and manipulated samples, all sent to 1 inch tape. Its 7 tracks feature swirling psychedelics, pulsing sequences, and stark minimalism all the while incorporating harmony and melodic leads. Drawing heavily from the sounds of bygone eras, it also sits aside the current wave of electronic re-invention.
Listen:
https://magic-pockets.bandcamp.com/album/volcano-of-the-bleeding-skies
"The seven-track release recalls vintage synth electronica, the dark atmospheric soundtracks of John Carpenter and Goblin, and most recently the Stranger Things soundtrack" - Nialler9
