For all of us earthbound creatures, the firmament with its revolutions of planets and stars, determining the spread of tides and the length of days and the drift of the calendar and the juxtaposition of our very personalities (astrology-wise, we're speaking) is a marvelous muse to have. Hanging over us day in and out, framed in the unattainable and yet somehow soul-linked to our own humble path across the face of this planet. There's an element of the uncanny to all of this and the sooner you accept it, the better your life becomes. Case in point: ten years ago in space and time, Ben Chasny, then five years into the journey that is Six Organs of Admittance, toured the west coast of the United States as he had done before, but this time featuring Comets on Fire as his backing band. The sound was heavy, but it wasn't Dust and Chimes-heavy, and it wasn't Nightly Trembling heavy either. Instead, a new way of informing matter had been witnessed by all concerned, Ben, the band and those who saw the shows - a Higgs Bosun element was fleetingly identified. Several tracks were taped for what turned out to be posterity - Six Organs of Admittance grew into and through the next phase, with Dark Noontide and Compathia taking the place of the all-band Six Organs of Admittance in time and space.

Ascent is the name of the forthcoming Six Organs of Admittance album, the one that comes at the end of the season after this one. There's a few moons and many tides between here and there, but casting his mind forward into the life of the record while writing it, Ben forsaw an epic of science-fantastic proportion - a trip involving humans in space, and the combination of fallibility and cold fate that our lives mean in the crushing all-jaws of the Universe. As soon as this idea had jelled, time-travel seemed to be the only way to realize it - for who better to help Ben launch the space-craft than his old CoF-mates? Especially since they all shared a bit of history that never happened? SO, they got together and made the record. Ascent is a fully electric, multi-headed rock and roll record born in space with one monocle'd eye cast toward the destruction of ....things. Men. Beliefs. Maybe even Earth? Sci-fi can be so hard to read, but it's great on the ears, especially with the sure hands of Ben Chasny at the controls. Recorded with Tim Green at his Louder Studios, the record is pure Six Organs Of Admittance - but a Six O that few have yet heard, one with classic Six Organs senses at the ready, spinning out exotic riffs with supreme sensitivity, with pure rock in the reserve tanks – and it sounds like more than we or you will ever hope it does. But don't take our fragile and transitory word for it, check out that future technology we shot into cyber-space last month, the mysterious QR-code, for a track from the album and hear for yourself what it sounds like to drive a hot rod through space.