Religious Music For Non-Believers is Ldgu's fourth album: his first work, Rattigan Glumphoboo, was released on Queenspectra in 2013, followed by the second episode (2018) of the Sriti series published on his Tresno Records imprint, where he joins with tenor sax a typical djidoranensemble, in the streets of the city of Malang (djidoran is a peculiar variation of the better knownjaranan, the music usually played in East Java during trance rituals). The End of a Story, his most recent work, saw the light on Tresno at the end of 2020. Aside from Queenspectra and Tresno, more Ldgu music can be found on Artetetra, Syrphe and Insitu Recordings.
Conceived between long periods spent abroad in Indonesia (2013/14/15) and Morocco (2018) for ethnomusicologic purposes, Religious Music For Non-Believers is at the same time a eulogy for Pauline Oliveros' demise, a homage to the music of Tim Hecker and Earth, and finally a descent into timeless horizons, where Ldgu seeks epiphanies in the realm of sound-related truths. The music heard here is improvised and recorded live on a huge pipe organ over two very, very hot and humid evenings in the summer of 2017. The music here contained is nothing but raw excerpts from long improvisations.
The mastering is curated by Amir Shoat in his London studio. The hiss you can hear in some parts is the compressor pumping air in the organ. We've decided to leave things as natural as they sound/feel.
Ldgu: pipe organ.
Recording: Ldgu.
Mixing: Ldgu.
Cover: Hans Memling, Chalice of Saint John the Evangelist, Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington. Design by Oli Cotton.
Mastering: Amir Shoat, London
Recorded live at Chiesa Santissima Annunziata, Porto Sant'Elpidio (Marche, Italy). August 7th-9th, 2017.