Album Review: Tau, Tau, Tau, Tau

Former Humanzi frontman Shaun Mulrooney now resides in Berlin and has released music as Dead Skeletons and Admiral Black. Now calling himself Sean Nunutzi, the Dubliner sought inspiration in a pilgrimage to a sacred desert called Wixarika in north west Mexico.

The result of his collaboration with Venezuelan-born Gerald Pasqualin (together they area Tau) is a terrific collection of psychedelic folk and mesmerising chants in English, Spanish and Irish, recorded in a nine-day session. By an eerie but beautiful coincidence, they started recording Tau, Tau, Tau on the day David Bowie died.

Erstwhile Siouxsie and the Banshees member Knox Chandler, Earl Harvin of Tindersticks, Nina Hynes and Miss Kenichi also contribute to a pleasantly surprising album. There are plenty of pop nuggets lurking in these desert inspired sessions, like the infectious ’The Midnight Jaguar’ and the gorgeous ‘I See You’. ‘Mo Anam Cara’ (Irish for soulmate) nods towards Nunutzi’s roots, but with English lyrics and rootsy rhythms.

Ultimately uncategorisable, Tau, Tau, Tau is a cracking artistic statement.