released February 4, 2022

All tracks written, recorded and mastered by Chandra Shukla except Dicentra III written and recorded by Chandra Shukla and Elisa Faires.

Chandra Shukla, electronics, guitar, horns, vibes, drones, strings, timpani, samples at Dissimulata 2007, 2010, 2020 and 2021.

Elisa Faires appears on piano and voice on Dicentra III (for Ennio Morricone)


The original album was created in 2007 and recordings of the original were reconstructed and destroyed countless times over the years. To this day, some of those original remnants of this track remain yet we find them too difficult and painful listen to. When we first started recording, I wanted to record at experimental bit rates that would deteriorate and distort the sound intentionally. As interesting as this intention seemed at first, I felt it slowly hurting my ears. Then I was threatened with the idea of changing the bit rates as it was ruining my hearing. This project was shelved and i wanted it to be thrown out completely, I was embarrassed that I even bothered to be so uniquely difficult. Fast forward to 2020 in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, and I discovered the Dicentra tracks again as they turned up while driving and listening to a random playlist the tracks were on. What this prompted was a reconstruction of the entire record. With some help from Elisa Faires, I rebuilt and rerecorded specific themes kept in place from the original recordings. Elisa and I, masks and hand sanitizer ventured out from our home in Asheville to record at a music school on a piano that was in tune. On top of this, she offered to construct a choral section with an aria on the Dicentra III piece which is an epic long segment dedicated to Ennio Morricone who passed away in November of 2020 while we were recording. I kept chipping away at redefining the other versions on my own. Each version of each Dicentra track had a similar likeness to the 4 composers they are dedicated to and along with John Cage I have witnessed their passing away over time in my living life. Each one had a huge impact on me and the way I thought about sound and music. I was truly saddened when hearing about each composer return to the eternal void. Dicentra is a tribute to the legacy they've left behind.

Dicentra was also a piece that was performed multiple times with many different artists as part of X A M B U C A live performances going back to 2006 including varying musicians over time usually with a backing track. It was also played at John Zorn's now defunct "The Stone" in 2007.

Chandra Shukla, February 2022

Published by Touch Music / Fairwood Music (UK) Ltd.

© XAMBUCA 2022. All rights reserved.