Taras Bulba was formed in the winter of 2019 by Fred Laird and Jon Blacow. Taking a new direction from their last musical outfit Earthling Society, the duo embarked on an inner space mission for new age ideas, rhythmic mantras, ambient landscapes and creative micro dosing. Recorded between September 2018 to May 2019 on home recording equipment in different houses and any empty space large enough for a drum kit. A laptop dying with over worked CPU and amps so broken that the only alternative was to record straight into the desk. Working to a true DIY ethic like some paranoid Philip K.Dick character with a tin foil antenna; piecing together tracks created out of the ether like satellite messages from some imaginary planet. Taras Bulba – 1 is a pot-pouri of Eastern/ Asian sounds, Krautrock Rhythms, ambient landscapes, psychedelic blues and Orb inspired dub. Taking influences from Midori Takada, Tony Scott, CAN, Neu!, 6 organs of Admittance, The Orb and the soundtracks of David Lynch and Angelo Badalemnti. Fred Laird – vox, electric, acoustic and bass guitar, bouzouki, Alesis Micron, recorder, Tibetan bells, Buddha box, harmonizer, drum programming, kalimba, hammer and bolster, field recordings. Jon Blacow – drums, gongs, darbuka, LP congas, electronic tablas, Shamisen, ektara, electronic rhythms.