Gnäw II is meditative record that is truly unlike anything else that you’re going to hear right now.

Gnäw is a Prague-based experimental duo, who have broken down traditional Iranian music traditions into their most basic elements, and re-contextualizes them through a soundscape lens, bonding them with droning rock and electronic instrumentation.

Available today from Centripetal Force (North America), Stoned to Death (CZ), Radio Khiyaban (NL), and Ramble Records (Australia), this album features a unique blend of Finnish and Persian string instruments like the santoor, kantele and setar, swirling around synthesizers, electric violins and guitars. This exciting combination is at once both spiritual and deeply psychedelic, often creating cosmic pools of atmospheric ambience. At times, the tracks can be as spacey as a mid-90s Future Sound of London dreamscape, and at others, like the pulsating “Karavan e Rahzanan,” sound like if Agitation Free’s organic jams were infiltrated by the synth gurus of Cluster or Faust.

This is a very out-there kind of record that takes you far into the astral plane and keeps you there. If the more quiet moments of Acid Mothers Temple and the kosmische explorations of bands like Embryo are your thing, then this is THE must have album of 2025. US based listeners can grab your copy here.

-KH