Xaphan: Book of Angels Volume 9
2008

Something a bit different for the Secret Chiefs 3. A release not so tied down to the band's own conceptual maze, but to someone else's. Zorn's! He wrote such strong and indestructable lines for his Masada Book II that us taking a few bold harmonic liberties made for a nice blending of forces. Staying as true as possible to the Angeology involved implies directly contradicting some of the Names when neccessary, and we learned a lot from committing ourselves & riding every peak and valley on the Masada roller-coaster. It's true that SC3 is already fairly accustomed to taking "modal" music to adventurous places, but these "heads" have their own life --- and them being run through the gamut of interpretations native to SC3 (as well as through the masses of detail in orchestration/arrangement you'd find on any SC3 record) has resulted in a full-fledged, fully-embraced 'event' as far as we're concerned. This is something that initially was supposed to be done in two months and of course ended up taking seven months to record & mix (still peanuts by SC3 standards!), but it's because we fell in love with the material and really embraced it fully. For you patiently waiting fans, here is the first of many payoffs we can FINALLY present to you without reservation.

Features four panels of full color angelically-themed artwork by Anonymous 13, which can be found in a secret stash underneath the CD tray.