Graceful trance magic on Black Truffle. Recorded live. Unadorned by digital effects, deeply felt, meditative and, when played on loop, one of the most captivating musical tranquillisers out there right now. KKAARREENNIINNAA marks the return of the American composer Charlemagne Palestine to the Berlin-based label. Spanning 43 minutes, the album documents a 2025 performance in London, alongside Daniel O’Sullivan and Black Truffle founder Oren Ambarchi. At the heart of it all: Palestine’s voice. Although Palestine is best known for his ecstatic piano Strumming Music performances, his work as a singer is equally significant, shaped by sacred Jewish music and his study of Indian and Javanese musical traditions.
Here he reinterprets ‘Karenina’, first recorded in 1997 in memory of his late black Labrador. In this recording, described by Palestine as a ‘karaoke version’, O’Sullivan operates three cassette decks playing the original recording. As the phases drift apart, complex echoes and psychedelic layers of voice emerge. Alongside this, an organ sound played live by Palestine swells into a dense, psychedelic mass of sound, sensitively supported by Ambarchi’s swirling guitar as well as O’Sullivan’s viola, synthesisers and vocals. Palestine’s voice hovers above it all, transforming everything into a magical trance séance with its plaintive, shamanic intensity.
