Rites of Uncovering, Arbouretum’s Thrill Jockey debut, is an album of broad scope, musically, lyrically and texturally. The name alludes to a process of constant questing that is part of Arbouretum’s raison d’etre, what Heumann describes as “a sense of religiosity that is not tied down to a particular moral or ecclesiastical approach, but rather proto-religious feelings such as awe in the face of something greater.” In this case, that “something greater” is the music itself and/or the source thereof. Rites…was influenced either obtusely or more directly (as in the song “Mohammed’s Hex and Bounty“, based on “Love with a Few Hairs” by Mohamed Mrabet) by the writer Paul Bowles. ? “There is an effort to ‘get to the bottom of things’, to peel back a certain protective veil between an observer perspective and what we could term naked reality,” says Heumann. “We are mostly concerned with trying to convey the emotional impact of an experience or state of mind to the listener.
