The second of three Demdike Stare albums for 2010 is upon us. Its title ‘Liberation Through Hearing’ is a direct reference to the ‘Tibetan Book Of The Dead’, an ancient text intended to guide the reader through the experience of the consciousness occurring during the interval between death and the next rebirth, a subject also hinted at in Western culture by the Skull Disco label and explored by psychonauts such as Timothy Leary. If ‘Forest Of Evil’ was the push-off, we’re deep into the session now, rendering those intermediary hours of the trip when we’re untethered from reality and deposited in the moment, an interzone of harrowing drones, acousmatic sampledelics and arcane intentions designed to create a state of psychedelic submission. The dark currents run deep, seeping from the billowing sub tones and heavenly choirs of ‘Caged In Stammheim’ , through the Köner-like spherical bell hum and grazed shellac textures of ‘Eurydice’ before craftily phasing your sense of spatial perception as ‘Regolith’ expands to the five corners of audition. Further in, ‘The Stars Are Moving’ flickers with electro-static pulses and petrified key changes before ‘Bardo Thodol’ circles the senses with hypnotic chants and percussion. Finally the pellucid meditative drift of ’Matilda’s Dream’ brings us closer to the light, describing harmonised ambient chords and a bleak yet centred sense of self.