Description
Label Review.
2017 album.
Our Overview.
Sun Kil Moon is the moniker of folk-rock vocalist and guitarist Mark Kozalek, formerly of Red House Painters. Recording new material with his former Painters bandmates Jerry Vessel and Anthony Koutsos, their resultant album ‘Ghost of the Great Highway’ was received to widespread critical acclaim refining and expanding the luminous acoustic balladry and harrowingly intimate lyricism that were the hallmarks of his career to date. Several more releases down the line and with a shifting line-up that now consists of Kozalek as a solo artist, Sun Kil Moon’s sixth release, ‘Benji’, was released in 2014 to yet more acclaim, and has already been heralded as one of the top 10 albums of the decade.
Fascinated by the sport of boxing, Kozalek named the project after the boxer Moon Sung-Kil. He uses his songwriting to blend the autobiographical with the universal; all of his songs are accounts of events that have affected Kozelek and almost all of them feature death. Mark Kozelek doesn’t just invite you into his world, he describes it in minute detail, with every emotion and fleeting thought explored.
“‘Common As Light And Love Are Red Valleys Of Blood’, for the most part, captures events from January to August of this year and how I processed it all while traveling. I’m blessed to have met the very talented Justin Broadrick and to have made these beautiful albums with him. These two new albums capture more than my reactions to mass murders or the passing of beloved heroes like David Bowie or Muhammad Ali. The Sun Kil Moon and Jesu / Sun Kil Moon albums are also full of love, humour, and my gratitude for the gift of life.” - Mark Kozelek.