Spotlight: ZuLiK

ZuLiK

Genre: Experimental/Art/Progressive Rock With Multiple Influences

Location: Mexico

MEMBERS

“Zulik” is integrated by:

Mintel Alonso –Composition, musical production, artistic direction & general concept
Diana Hernández –Photography & Artwork
Leonardo Fernández –Storyboard & Poetry
Nicole De la Mora –Cinematography
Al Vázquez –Animation & Programming
Lorena Vázquez-Graphic Design

Also great musicians and collaborators were involved. Check out our featured talent here:

http://www.zulikproject.com/credits.html

THE INTERVIEW (With Alonso Mintel (Composition, Musical Production, Artistic Direction & General Concept)

1. The music of the Zulik project is made to trigger a sort of catharsis or emotional release of ourselves through it's varied structure of soundscapes. In more blatant terms, it is supposed to initiate a journey of consciousness. Ok, so maybe that's not so blatant - but it's what I gathered from listening to the album. Perhaps I'm not so good with this, so could you explain exactly what this project is and it's purpose?

Zulik is an Art Collective gathering different creative areas such as music, visual arts and literary work.

Our first artistic proposal is called “Zulik Project” and it’s composed of a conceptual album featuring 52 minutes of a music continuum (15 tracks), containing original artwork and poems.

Zulik Project seeks a personal introspective through music. We aim to trigger different emotions and stages that mirror our own self just by letting thoughts flow with the music, creating an instrumental thinking trip, providing some poems and artwork as a guideline.

On any way you wish to experiment its contents, we’ve learned that the best experience is by listening to it continuously from starts to end. We took a great deal of care in the making of this project, and we´re hoping that it’ll work as intended.

2. Many musicians collaborated on this album in order to create it's unique sound. There are atmospheric pieces, jazz pieces, electronic pieces, metal pieces and so much more. Exactly how did all of this come together and how long did it take?

Well, it started as a small project and in time, it got a little out of hand. First we did some 47+ musical ideas in a computer, round up some close friends and played some samples for them, just to learn witch musical soundscapes really worked for some associated emotions. From that feedback we ended up working with nearly 20+ ideas that were tested as well with more listeners, ending in the 15 recorded tracks (or chapters), that now compose Zulik Project. Back then, there was a huge undertaking for refining the concept behind the music, analyzing and figuring out how we emotionally mesmerize our selves as life throws us some unexpected curves. We wanted to capture the real path of falling and rising in life. We considered that deep within us, there are always these voices that tells us what to do and what not to, guiding our will as problems and adversities appear. Once we got a hold on a few of these concepts, we stared creating a musical argument around that, which in time ended up taking us a from peaceful states of mind, through a chaos as we ignite this catastasis that embrace us as one gets to achieve evolution, mental growth, experience in life and in time, all in order to reach a peace of mind and then again closing the circle. Translating this concept to music inevitably led us to all this mesh of musical genres, but we tried hard to propose a unique sound for the project. Designing and consolidating that vibe took us some time dough. Musicians were introduced later on. Sequencing musical ideas “in the box” is easy! …but the sounding result just sucks!

(Is like comparing an internet chat VS real live conversation with someone).

There are so many sonic details lost by just sequencing music against what you can do with real recording, interacting directly with musicians, good instruments and amazing talent.

Things got bigger than we expected, when we realize that we wanted communicate very specific feelings with music; therefore it was inevitable to record it all for real.

We recorded as the studio hours were available, sadly there were huge gaps between recordings, since all the people involved in this project formally work professionally in our own respective areas of expertise, (you know… there are always other priorities, job deadlines to meet and other side projects to attend first, etc.), and finding time and availability was always an issue. But we were not too worried on how many time it might took more than sustaining a good quality on the content of the project, so instead of fighting it, we just let the project undertake its very own pulse and let the production flow as times favored us, that´s how we got around a few obstacles. (None the less there were moments we did thought we were not going to finish it ever).

The project itself took about 9 years in the making, started from just a project idea, then a first registry structure in 2005, all the way to our formal project release dated on March 7, 2012.

The recording sessions were amazing, everything was done at Estudio19 where we literary played with every single piece of gear they have there. We also got a few our dear friends to lend us a lot of their vintage instruments so that we could really get all the sound textures right. And of course, the joy of gathering amazing talented musicians who are best fitted for musically endeavoring in experimentation and up to creative collaborations throughout all this process.

(There are some cool pictures from the recording sessions in our Zulik Facebook Page: Check them out.)

3. Describe the recording process for the album. Where did you have difficulty, if any?

Early Project Ideas (2004)
First Registry Structure (2005)
Recordings (2007 -2009)
Mixing (2008 -2010)
Mastering (2011)
Zulik Project Release date on March 7, 2011

First we defined which musical ideas were worth recording, since the album concept was still in early stage; we just experimented, with these scratch recordings for drafting which instruments and diverse elements needed to be featured for certain moods. Then, as musical ideas were settled we started recording all rhythms, some stuff against sequences, creating the right drum sounds for every theme. After that it was a complex puzzle for future recordings, this was because of the interpretation arguments, there were some songs that needed certain other elements before we could record in an orderly fashion way, but eventually we got around that and moved on to the main elements of the project which are the first voices (Singers and lead guitars). We treated each voice as if it were a specific live character in a story. We had to design each single guitar sound to carry a specific mood and vibe in the right way which stays coherent in interpretation and sound against its assigned mood or argument in the concept.

Male and female voices had a great deal of acting involved since we had to tryout a lot of different ideas before even understanding what kind of singing really needed to be in the project. But we were very certain that all human voices needed to participate in and out of the themes in just the right moments or else we could loose the intended emotional flow.

A human voice immediately distracts attention to a musical soundscape, and in consequence lose track of a lingering thought you might have going on, so if we were up to apply voices, we needed to have them set in just the right places. Literary content was what defined these decisions.

Once we cleared all the recordings, we had to undertake the titanic editing job for all the music. When you work with talented musicians, editing is not much a matter of fixing anything at all, it’s more a matter of selecting the right take since each performance is executed nicely, imprinting different intentions, musical arguments and alternative playing techniques. When this is in your hands, picking the best take, ooh my, is complicated and requires a lot of time. Once all songs were ready for mixing, finally we had a better understanding of the project, but a little worried if everything was going work once all the songs were to be set in a playing continuum.

All Zulik’s written content was at that point better defined and some artwork was being already produced as well so we moved foreword and slowly the project started to get the right feel. Each song started to fit in a proper space and every sound had a reason to exist. By the time Mixing was concluded we still had to join everything together through the mastering process in a big master track of 52 minutes. After mastering we just had a few things to get by with the artwork, the CD manufacturing, legal stuff and getting ready for our release date, etc.

Zulik Project was finally released March 7, 2012

Once we cleared all the recordings, we had to undertake the titanic editing job for all the music. When you work with talented musicians, editing is not much a matter of fixing anything at all, it’s more a matter of selecting the right take since each performance is executed nicely, imprinting different intentions, musical arguments and alternative playing techniques. When this is in your hands, picking the best take, ooh my, is complicated and requires a lot of time.

Once all songs were ready for mixing, finally we had a better understanding of the project, but a little worried if everything was going work once all the songs were to be set in a playing continuum.

All Zulik’s written content was at that point better defined and some artwork was being already produced as well so we moved foreword and slowly the project started to get the right feel. Each song started to fit in a proper space and every sound had a reason to exist. By the time Mixing was concluded we still had to join everything together through the mastering process in a big master track of 52 minutes. After mastering we just had a few things to get by with the artwork, the CD manufacturing, legal stuff and getting ready for our release date, etc.

Zulik Project was finally released March 7, 2012.

4. All of the track names on the album are foreign, so I'm not quite sure what they mean (if you could provide an English translation of the track titles, it would be appreciated) but I noticed that the album opens with "Nesfa Ra" and closes with "Nesfa Rithu." In addition to that, I've noticed that the band's moniker of ZuLik also appears in the album. What exactly does ZuLiK mean or refer to?

Behind the music of this album there´s a lot of literary work who defined and designed each stage of Zulik´s concept. The project is arranged like a play consisting of a prologue and 3 acts.

Prologue
01 Nesfa Rah (Nightfall 4:48)

02 Di Kú (Search 4:50)

I act

 03 Tai Kut Sil (Deception 6:21)

04 Kilu Praí (The price 6:35)

05 Nesfa Lipá (Next Day 0:52)

06 Alú Kutré (Control 1:48)

II act

07 Aika (Denial 2:22)

08 Hare K (Realization 1:46)

09 Alú Kutré de Faz (Trial and error 0:58)

10 Kiva (Confrontation 2:05)

11 Lin Gox (Ascendant spiral 3:52)

III act

12 ZuguZ (The mirror 2:49)

13 Nis Pas Kiva (Becoming 6:12)

14 Zulik (Chrysalid 4:27)

15 Nesfa Rithu (Dawn 1:37)

About the language and its literary content. We wanted to be consistent with our objectives in the all aspects of the concept. So at some point we were researching some psychology topics, drafting some poems and integrating some conceptual arguments, that’s when we had to take a decision about the language to use (English, Spanish, French… ancient tongues, you name it).

The thing is: we felt that we didn´t wanted to draw much attention to what is actually said, but more of what its felt. Our songs just flow better if there’s just an emotion but not a formal idea sang within it. Taking all the literary work and written poetry in mind, we developed some phonetic work around it, for us to create a “soul language” (sort of speak), with these ideas, we got back to the studio and started experimenting with our featured singers over the songs, finding a way to make it work. (There were some sessions on which we might have to stop in a middle of a take, to call out to some friends just to ask them if we were not using already existing words in other languages like German, Japanese or who knows maybe using curse words in Finnish. (We laughed a lot in a few sessions trying to sing in tongues).

As the music started to come together, the jigsaw puzzle with written content also started to fall in the right places, poems were enhanced and all the hidden words got a real meaning behind the music which we felt we wanted to leave as a free will as possible, for any one listening to make their own interpretation. (But these ideas are there! We think, hidden somewhere in our very own language)

For us, the word “Zulik” stands for something very similar to a Nirvana, is a feeling of joy and personal satisfaction, a stage that can only be reached by overcoming any emotional adversity. Stepping up, earning personal growth and learning experience. Some times we just look back on our past and see how we’ve outgrown all our problems and fears. It is a good feeling that comes from within. Changing one self and evolving requires hard work, but when we get to that place “Zulik” you realize that without a beginning or an end, all in your life is worth it.

5. Where did the inspiration from this music come from? What artists influenced the work of Zulik? Would you say that there is anything here that came from another realm?

For us, the idea in making a conceptual album definitely came from our passion on listening music, especially with so many cool albums out there that do have an integrated concept within them. Is just a wishful intent on our behalf, trying to deliver that same “drive” that you can feel by listening to cool music… Oh but, better said than done, that’s for sure.

Listening closely to music is nice habit, regardless the musical genre, is always a joy and a deferent level of satisfaction if your attention is 100% focused on it.
I think there’s a hidden key in thousands of amazing legendary conceptual albums such as “The dark side of the moon”, (to mention the obvious). Somehow there’s always an amazing sonic world going on deep inside the music.

As far as influences go, we can deny our love to rock, a big share of it to progressive rock as well, but to be completely honest, it wasn’t our intent from the beginning to do it in those genres since original ideas were done by looking into emotive soundscapes. It was a happy accident that every step of the way things slowly took us to sound in all these mesh genres inclining to progressive rock; it always was more like defending the concept and its objectives before composing on a more musically oriented view, like a normal music band would.

I think there are very strong influences of each of our featured talent in their performances, but in the ending result there´s a fair share of Jeff Beck, Terry Bozzio, Daniel Lanois, Trent Reznor and even some Brian Eno just to mention some. Along many; David Bowie´s “Outside”, Allan Willder´s “Recoil” or Peter Gabriel´s “Up” had a great deal of influence on how things sound around the project too.

As it goes for the literary concept, photography and designed artwork, it’s a completely different story, influences came for just too many stuff, especially in the poetry part, but just like the music we got everything from scratch, slowly creating all its content including the typography used for Zulik Language.

Regardless any influence there might’ve been; As long as Zulik Project seeks out for this musical communication, and somehow, succeeds interacting with the listener, I think the magic will happen by its own.

Someone may or may not associate it with feelings but we really wish somehow to be part of their very own favorite music. The whole idea is to travel with it and it’s a nice liberty you can consent yourself. Also a liberty for us in making a studio project, by not being attached to any creative restriction, you let yourself add any alignment of instruments and sounds to a theme and you don’t have to worry about how the heck you’re going to sound it on stage or if it is out of context with an established band´s trajectory.

6. What do you believe in? How does that reflect in the music? I'm assuming that all of the members have different beliefs so that would collaborate into a project that sees itself as an amalgamate of all human ideas.

Even dough the project concept is inclined for a little soul searching, or maybe a soundtrack for the mind, we didn’t intend any of its contents to incline to any religion or personal faith believes. When creating the concept, we’ve got a chance to mesh our respective personal experiences, flash back to some old learning lessons of life, and we had a clear understanding that religion is always a sensible topic for anyone. So we preferred to leave religion out of the plate, but yes we did have to consider it at some point.

In the other hand, we think there is a nice common ground for everyone which embraces positive thinking, and useful ideas interacting with each other, after all, the project does intends to unlock feelings, and there’s a lot of people out there who likes to open themselves only through music.

During some recording sessions we had a lot of great chats about beliefs since all interpretations were worked through feelings and musical arguments, more than dealing with techniques and strict musical notation, all our attention was focused on capturing a real emotion, for example; recalling on what one felt at a time he got deceived and with that in mind, play the guitar tweaking interpretation one way or the other, or maybe could be of a time breaking on a relationship, or even pulling out some painful memories. Oh.. some parts were very very intense, especially recording Tk 3 “Tai Kut Sil” (Deception) and Tk 4 “Kilu Prai” (The price), since we had to bring in chaotic emotions such as anxiety, self destruction, aggressiveness, etc. In contrast, for other songs it was more of joy, optimistic and wishful thinking, visualizing nice warm places in our life, spiritual moments maybe with nature or walking in the great outdoors gazing at the stars, etc.

I think that in the ending result, musicians’ interpretations came out to be a nice blend of honest feelings regardless if they got to be coherent to a specific feeling or not, as long as a musical story gets communicated, then the artwork and literary content could give some guidelines on what’s going on.

7. When one listens to the music of Zulik, what do you expect to occur? What should be happening to them?

Ohh my! Well… what can I tell you; Zulik Project it’s a wild ride, that’s for sure!
As long as it helps the listener to linger in thought… who knows, maybe make some introspection or a little soul searching along the way that’ll be awesome. But at the end of the day maybe it’s all abut communicating positively through an artistic expression and it’s completely up to anyone’s interpretation. We really think that is up to the listener to give it its very own meaning to this project.
Funny to learn new things dough, once we putted Zulik Project out there for everyone to listen, it’s been our grate pleasure to receive great feedback and to be amazed of what people gathers from it, so many places that psyche can take you through music, at times, so unexpected things happen that music is the only key to make us get in the right state of mind. How sweet it is to provide that, we can’t ask for more. As long as we can deliver a “ticket to mind travel” through experiencing Zulik Project, I think we´re good.
…and if we do, please do let us know! ;)

contact@zulikproject.com

8. I likened the album to a joyously exciting drug trip of sorts, the very concrete statement that music can and does open heightened states of pleasure like the kind experienced during great satisfaction or the use of hypnotic substances. Was that your intention?

Yes, it was our intention straight on! The thing was that when we proposed that in the beginning, we really didn’t knew even where to start or if we were ever going to achieve that. As the project evolved, there was always this uncertainty of how the ending result was going to be, and in top of that, add up that we had to record all in a complete disorder, even the mixes were all scrambled having to imagine all the time how everything was going to stitch together.

In the end I think the resulting flow of the songs in a continuum was what turned out to be the real vessel to reach these states of mind. And we also learned that these sensations don’t translate as well when one just listens to a few separate tracks, that´s exactly the reason why we recommend it to be heard all in one piece.

9. Let's talk tech. What kind of instruments and programs were used in the creation of this art? There's some amazing guitar work on this one. What kind of guitars do you use? What kind of drums?

There was a great deal of geeky tech behind it all. Everything was processed and down mixed through analog gear. We did however recorded and edited in a digital format. At some point in Mastering we also printed straight to analog tape with a very cared technical process on every stage, so; for those quality lovers out there, we hope you like that result as well.

Working at Estudio 19 at Mexico City has been my privilege and joy, there’s just so many sweet microphones and gear there to create real sound, depth within sonic textures in every single instrument, this allowed me to use the entire studio as another creative instrument directly introducing a synergy roll in the music. So much fun!

The mastering was done with Michel Romanowski at San Francisco, CA. (also a very creative process as well), since I ended up with 18 final mixes there was a very complex puzzle of how to stitch everything together, Michel had to make it work as a whole program. There were a few tech issues to get by to make everything organically breathe and flow as each song passed by, loudness issues, odd times in crossfades, etc. (Hard to know now, in sound, that at some point some of those final mixes were done several months apart from each other). Tweaking sound was always very tricky, but that’s what made all the magic happen.

As for all the toys: there´s just so much gear involve that I could mention here, but we had somewhere around 12 vintage original guitars to record, no re-issues, ranging from Les Paul 64, Telecaster (with and without Hum Bukers), Stratocasters, Custom Shop, Les Paul 63, Gibson, Steinberg, etc.

Eight different guitar amps Fender, Mazerati Dr Z, Carvin, Marshall, Alamo, some things even went through a Pig Nose and a Gorilla Amp, not to mention all sorts of combinations with microphone setups, preamps at the studio such as the Neve´s 1073, 1272 and 3015/A models. A little army of stump boxes and Off board gear to play with. Reverbs and time processors at the studio such as Lexicon 480´s , Analog and digital EMTs, AKG Spring reverbs, Roland Tape Space Echo and Chorus units, etc.

Three different drum sets, DW Drums & 2 Yamahas custom lines, 7 different snare drums in different sizes, 4 different cymbal sets including 2 gongs, some 28+ tracks in microphone drum settings, using mainly Neuman, AKG and AEA microphones using Neves, TLA, Studer and GML preamps.

We had a great deal of experimentation and tons of fun. There was one particular session that we really got insane experimenting with guitar sounds, immerse in it so much, sounding so much awesome stuff, but sadly with absolutely nowhere to be used along the project. We learned that too much variables can open a very dangerous Pandora ’s Box for creativity, you can get lost very easily on your recording objectives and lose track of time.

10. Some say that we are beginning the Age Of Aquarius. Not the hippie movement of the 70's, but the actual 100% Age Of Aquarius. It doesn't seem so off base to tell you the truth, since more people seem to be getting in touch with their consciousness and are relying less on religions for advice. It seems like an age of metaphysics and self-awareness, but also an age of great turmoil at the same time. What are your views on this?

Even dough the project had its great deal of time in the making, for some reason we did wanted to release it no later than 2012. Mayan prophesy was no concern, but just in case, we didn´t wanted the world to end without Zulik in it. (Ha ha ha ha).

But yes, I think one way or the other, all this positive vibe around 2012 does have a change in consciousness in the world and it´s now a good time to have around a proposal like Zuik and may others like it. In a very subtle way, everyone here that was involved in the project feels that Zulik has a better chance to be heard now a day, than it would’ve done just a few years back.

Either way, it did helped us to have a dead-line or else we could´ve still be on and on still producing till today.

11. Will there be any more material from this project in the future, or is this it? Do you feel that you've finally set in stone that which you've wanted to create for years now?

At the moment we’re creating visual content for the project and hopefully will have it done very soon, it’s all aimed to present it as an art installation and also some stuff of it through interactions in a more complex website than the one we have now. Also, we’re looking forward for new and exiting collaborations with other artists and creators out there, who wish to develop derivative work out from Zulik.

As long as the Project still keeps us pushing foreword, we’ll keep it ongoing to all its ramifications.

Since Zulik is an Arts Collective, we also hope this is one of many new projects to come. After all we are all joined by the same passions and we like to create stuff all the time, either for work or just for fun, so if we proceed in a new venture, the only thing we have to make sure, is that we don´t take another 9 years in making it this time. Ha ha ha.

12. Apparently, you're offering this material for free to the masses? That really is a bold statement. You've worked on this material for many years, just so that you could freely share it with the entire world. What are your thoughts about this? What do you think about file sharing? Should musicians want to share their music with others simply for the joy of sharing it?

Since this is a studio project, it’s all a little deferent as it would for a formal band. We are more into sharing our project, maybe because we aim into communicating our proposal through the concept. We look at it more like a useful musical tool to have in your music collection. We don´t expect to be the top ten most wanted, neither the “must have” on a playlist. But, just like a good wine, we would like to be that special album that gets played in a special moment or in its own right time. Somehow, the best music always gets hand out to you by your best friends, so sharing Zulik lets this vibe ongoing by its own.

On the legal side;
We’re sharing Zulik Project under Creative Commons License:
Attribution-Non commercial – Sharealike CC BY-NC-SA

This license allows us to nurture this creative environment of artistic collaborations with others. Also allows anyone out there to make derivative work using it freely as long as they do give proper credit and in the eventuality that anyone does get to make some money out of his work and we´re featured on it, then with the right legal agreement, we can all win money through royalties, opportunities that this joint collaborations might bring and so on and so forth.

Now a days “Free” is a very complex word; something is worth nothing until you create a value for it. (Regardless of it cost). So we strongly think in the real value of just creating art. The value of honest creation through ideas and artistic collaborations witch in time, if they are really worth Dee, they’ll just bounce back on its own in a form of work, money, opportunities, new collaborations or maybe through complex retributions like endorsements that can allow us to keep on creating.

Producing music is very expensive, visual artwork even more, but when you set your mind in a project and you believe in it and its value, somehow things just flow and carry a cool vive on them. Retribution always comes back! So investing on them is always worth it.

Of Course, a little help from our friends is always very welcome, even dough Zulik Project is available online; we also have it on sale in digital stores for anyone who wishes to help out for the cause. And we are always on the look out for any opportunity that lets us keep pushing this project foreword. (Like you mention earlier, maybe being in a video game or a movie soundtrack, could be awesome).

As for my opinion in other musicians out there releasing new material and sharing it:
I think each case is different, but as long as you are playing gigs and money income can flow from other sources, you definitely have to share some of your music. Digital media is now all about file sharing and networking, so as long as the content is good, there will be a word of mouth and we´ve learned that the rest slowly follows by its own.

13. What are the symbols on the front and back of the album artwork? What do they mean? Who created them?

The front Symbol is designed by us, and it is the Zulik´s Logo. It is made out of a mesh of an infinity symbol at the top, a letter “K”, then the letter “L”, the letter “Z” in script writing and implying the dot for the “i”

We start the booklet with this symbol as an opening prologue for Tk 1- Nesfa Rah (Night fall.) The journey begins.

At the end of the booklet we close the project with the “PHI” symbol (Greek alphabet). Its illustrated with our own typography used for the Zulik Language.

PHI is an important math number for fractals and Fibonacci numbers (φ =1.618033…) we use it as a metaphor as a key symbol to unlock how real life makes his recurrent cycles, they behave more like a constant ongoing fractal even dough there’s an apparent beginning and end, they keep on going to infinity. Tk 15 Nesfá Rithu (Dawn)

-If you have the “repeat album playback option” in ON, it’ll loop musically and a new cycle starts again, and again just like life does.

By the way, we use the image of a moth on several places as a metaphor on how, just like moths, we are always looking on the search of light; sometimes chasing the moon, and some others falling for illusions like a light bulb, either we fall or keep going, life is a trip.

All art design is original and just like the music; it contains a lot of cool stuff as well.

14. Finally, if you were able to look ahead ten or twenty years in the future; what is it that you think you would see? What is it that you would like to see?

Reaching people through music is a very strong feeling. Of course it would be a sweet dream to foresee lots cool projects that far in the future and sill have them ongoing, each time making one even better than the one before. But then again; if we could just reach a few people by this single project, for us it’s all worth the wile. And who knows, time will tell how far this gets.

So for now, if anyone is up for trying it out… step inside the Zulik Project!

Thank you for making such intriguing music and I hope that your vision receives plenty of respect throughout the world.

Thank you Eric! Were so grateful for lending us some space at The Grim Tower, and helping us share this project with your audience, we hope everyone finds it this project interesting and enjoys listening to it. If you haven't heard the ZuLiK project yet, then you can go and check it out here:All the Zulik Project is online at:

http://www.zulikproject.com/

(Also check us out on Facebook, Sound Cloud, iTunes, Amazon, Youtube, Twitter, Grooveshark, last.fm, etc)

Also, please send us some feedback! We really appreciate it!

contact@zulikproject.com

THE REVIEW 

Zulik - Zulik Project (2012 Band Request) - The Zulik project consists of an amalgamation of musicians that have come together to make music that triggers a state of emotional catharsis; music that makes you let go of all your feelings and drift off into the stars. It is heavily recommended that this album be listened to with a set of headphones or earbuds, and at night or in a darkened room. This is the kind of music that one could close their eyes and meditate to in some instances. The band recommends that you give yourself some time and space to listen to the album from beginning to end and I stand by that recommendation. It is not a metal album, obviously consisting of a variety of instruments and styles in an effort to make an experience that is truly electrifying. Parts of the album consist of some awesome guitar work, while others take more electronic and even tribal approaches. Every track on this disc is different and every track is meant to be one part of the big picture that it Zulik. The disc is close to an hour, but it is certainly an hour that you won't forget if you're in the mood to really travel. The disc says 2005-2011, which means that this is five years of work in all honesty and it's definitely recommended for everyone. I don't care what kind of music you listen to, whether it's rock, electronica, jazz, atmospheres, even pop - you can find something to like here. The whole idea of this project was to create amazing atmospheres and they've done it. This isn't just an album I could listen to once; it's an album that I could listen to many times because it's got so much different material to offer. I also recommend that fans of electronic video game soundtracks check this one out, because I definitely heard some music that reminds me of some of the work done on the Xenosaga titles, which contain some awesome electronic and atmospheric pieces if you haven't heard them. Zulik transcends you, it transcends me - it transcends the boundaries that we put on music as a society... if you believe that the concept of God is the connection of everything in existence; then we could certainly classify this album as the voice of God ourselves - Deus Inceptus to Deus Exitus.

But to be as blunt as is acceptable in reviews: It's really fucking good.

Highlights: All. Nefsa Rah - Nesfa Rithu (15 Tracks, 51:00)

10/10