Numün is an NYC-based trio featuring “ambient country” pioneer Bob Holmes (SUSS), new music composer and artist Joel Mellin, as well as percussionist/multi-instrumentalist Chris Romero–both from Gamelan Dharma Swara. The group is currently readying their voyage au soleil LP for release on September 4th via Musique Impossible.
The album’s initial impulse was a project celebrating the 50th anniversary of the lunar landing, and the first track produced from these sessions was ‘Tranquility Base” featured on the compilation The Moon and Back – One Small Step for Global Pop (WIAIWYA). Taking 1969 as their starting point, numün reimagine the psychedelic musical landscape befitting such galactic travel with a diverse combination of instrumentation that includes elements of traditional Balinese and Americana, with synthesizers and loop manipulation.
On the album’s title track, the group melts into celestial bliss with Chris Romero’s fretless banjo riff leading the way. Joel Mellin explains:
“”voyage au soleil” started with Chris’s banjo lick, and only after the original session with Bob and I playing along was complete did I realize there was a mistake in a setting and the original high organ pad had peaked. From that point on, the track needed to lead to that moment – where you’re reaching the sun and still going. Bob played all the guitars on this track, louder than anything else on the record. I added the electric piano as a call and response, and, with Chris’s banjo as a focal point, the trajectory was clear.”
