Osi and the Jupiter - Appalachia

In the late 1990s, I had a minor obsession with 4AD records, specifically with the collective output under the name This Mortal Coil. There was something very foreign and attractive in their lush soundscapes. Something that didn't exist in my corner of Southern (Christmas tree farming, not coal mining) Appalachia.

Osi and the Jupiter is the solo pagan dark folk project of Ohio's Sean Kratz, and is mostly known for a couple of excellent albums of neo-Norse folk. However, Kratz is also from Appalachia, and recorded a three song EP dedicated to our shared "homeland and the spiritual connection to the dense forested mountains".

Imagine if Ivo Watts-Russell had set up shop not in London, but in a barn somewhere on the back way between Morgantown and Parkersburg. The resulting catalog would not have sounded so much like This Mortal Coil, but instead would be this album.

From the lush cellos of "They Ride Through the Sky on Horse Drawn Chariots", with its echoes of
"Velvet Belly", to the vocal cues shared by "Appalachia" and "Come Here My Love", this is essentially the album I never knew I wanted.

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