Julia Úlehla - Understories LP (Preorder: Ships May 30, 2025)
*Please note: This title will ship on or around its release date May 30, 2025. Date and availability is subject to change. We will ship all items in your order when the last title is released and available – so if you would like anything else on your order shipped separately, please place separate orders. Thank you.
Dálava, the genre-defying ensemble led by vocalist Julia Úlehla with guitarist Aram Bajakian (Lou Reed, John Zorn), returns with Understories, a deeply evocative new album that explores uncharted territories of sound, seamlessly weaving Moravian folk traditions with an experimental, improvisational approach into a captivating new soundscape. Their music has received critical acclaim for it's expressive depth: fRoots extolled their prior release as "so overwhelming and so intense that it is hard to put into any category. Saying that The Book of Transfigurations is a masterpiece is not an exaggeration."
Much of the music is based on a published collection of engagingly melodic songs that Úlehla's great-grandfather collected from his native village a century ago. Sung in Czech and English, Úlehla's hypnotic voice spans from whisper to holler, by turns vulnerable and stentorian, embodying each song in it's own fantastical world. The music resides in that indeterminate, liminal space between past and future, magic and realism, neither primordial nor of this world. The album is a sonic exploration that transcends time and borders, fusing disparate traditions into a singular, emotionally charged experience.
Label: Pi Recordings
UPC: 808713010718
Release Date: May 30, 2025
Track List
- Open Your Ear to the Great Below
- Escape Velocity
- Entanglement
- Queen of Heaven and Earth
- Bowed Low
- The Way Down
- Phase Transition
- Water of Life
- Sacrifice
- Side Real Time