Causa Sui

I’ve long been keeping an ear towards the psych enclave in Copenhagen centered around El Paraiso Records. The label’s been bridging the psych and jazz camps in Europe, with the epicenter of their output revolving around flagship band Causa Sui. It’s been four years since an album landed proper from the group, though they let out a live one last year to tide us over. With From The Source, the band returns to the fray as vibrant and visceral as ever. The album fully incorporates the tertiary works from the bands’s members, smelting the jazz, Library, ambient, and experimental impulses to their psych onslaught.

Causa Sui don’t waver from their usual heady crush, diving into things with an eight minute exorcism of psychedelic talismans and pushing though to a side-long crusher that brings down the full weight of their scorch on the listener. The band’s playing is limber and loose, drawing on the jazz impulses that have rippled through the group. At it’s heart, though, From The Source, is a return to the band’s heaviest moments. The closer is a 24-minute suite in seven parts, tearing atmospheric holes with its heft and snaking the listener through the heart of the storm that the Sui has been building over their tenure.

The band is well-versed in expansive moments, with some of their best records stretching towards the cosmic expanses., but “Visions of a New Horizon” grabs a place among the band’s highlights, a comfortable companion to “Visions of Summer,” or “Tropic of Capricorn.” The name should be familiar to RSTB readers at this point, but if you’re just jumping into the El Paraiso waters, this is a great place to start and work your way back. Summer of Sui, let it shake the shingles.