SUM OF R – Spectral

RELEASE YEAR: 2025
BAND URL: https://www.sumofrofficial.com/

Formed by Swiss sound-shaper Reto Mäder and completed by Finnish visionaries Marko Neuman and Jukka Rämänen, Sum Of R channel cosmic vibrations more than genre – summoning music that feels unearthed rather than written. Spectral is the sound of a séance captured on tape: raw yet spacious, disciplined yet dreamlike – is what the promo for this interesting trio announces.

Their release “Spectral” is featuring some notable guests on several songs, like for example  Juho Vanhanen (Oranssi Pazuzu, Grave Pleasures) or Vicotnik (Dødheimsgard). And it’s quickly obvious why such artists would gladly collaborate on the album: it quickly dwells into the ‘hey, what was that which I just listened and how could someone even put that together and make it sound so good. Or is it so bad it’s good? Or is it super good?’. It’s probably a first batch of questions given by people/bands/projects who do psychedelic ritualistic offerings through their music. It’s both catchy and scary.

Also given the Finnish guys’ background with Dark Buddha Rising and Waste of Space Orchestra (among others), the music makes ‘more sense’. It is in tune with what they have been creating so far, yet more playful (not in a happy playground way though). It’s like they’re summoning entities from a wider variety of hells than before.

There’s bleakness, there’s a beautiful choir combined with the most eerie of horrific sounds that can shame a lot of existing cult dark movies. There’s a sense of unease, but again, all with a playfulness of adding a lot of cool sounds to the mix and probably the mid song “Beer Cans in a Bottmless Pit” – feat Vicotnik – is just the essence of that.

I’m not sure I’ll ever grasp all the aspects of this album, but it’s certainly one with many faces and it’s for those who like to be curious about the tunes that they listen to. And prefer to explore the unknown, versus let the familiar of the usual beats take over.