Like some long lost Elfenblut release, the latest album of solo work from San Francisco based multi-instrumentalist Leila Abdul-Rauf drifts across your field of hearing in a wash of unearthly reverb-drenched vocals, shadow-streaked ambient sound and delicate instrumentation. Gorgeous stuff that left me positively spellbound. If you only knew Rauf-Abdul from the heavier and more abrasive stuff that she's been involved with (like the grotesque philosophical death metal of Vastum, or Bay Area prog metallers Hammers Of Misfortune, or her stint with caveman prog-core outfit Bastard Noise), you might come to this expecting something a little harder. But Insomnia is far from it, a gauzy, bleary experience that fully enfolds the listener in its twilight beauty.

From the jazzy, horn-stained dreaminess of "Drift", to the ethereal choral vocals and bleak electronic drones that sweep across the opener "Midnight", Rauf-Abdul crafts a solemn, almost liturgical atmosphere that drifts through the whole album. The songs are carefully structured, filled with moments of fragile beauty and dusky, fog-shrouded drama. And that jazzy quality adds a unique feel; her mournful trumpet is a near constant presence throughout Insomnia, smearing moody, understated melodies across a number of the tracks. At the same time, other less immediately identifiable instruments drift like smoke-ghosts underneath sheets of gossamer sound, traces of piano and e-bowed guitar set adrift on waves of spacious reverb; cetaceous synths warble and moan through dense shimmering cloudscapes of kosmische grandeur, and some of those passages can have a similar luminous feel as something from Vangelis or late 70's Tangerine Dream. And while Abdul-Rauf's voice (both literal and instrumental) is the crux for this music, she's brought on a few friends to help actualize this music, including some brief guitar work from a member of Bay Area sludge-metallers Cardinal Wyrm.

It's really stunning stuff, dark and dolorous, and another unique release from Malignant's Antibody sub-imprint. A subtle, lovely album of autumnal gloom, absolutely recommended to those into the likes of Dead Can Dance, Caul, Amber Asylum and Dark Sanctuary. Comes in digipack packaging.