mvm.

A fused state of mind brings about an expansive music set that stands tall.This is KAYAM and this Omens.

KAYAM is the powerhouse of sibling duo of Kim and Mike Rauss’s mind palace of musings. A fitting term known as falafel pop, it extends further than just their adoration for chickpeas. It’s rather a telling on their fertile upbringing from England to Germany and to Israel, resulting in an expansive vocabulary of immeasurable sounds.

Now, after their chilling expedition of Sand To Snow in 2020, the pair are back with their illustrious follow-up Omens, a collection far more experienced and aware of the passing sand in the hourglass. If the encompassing guitar-percussive bop of Mike’s Personal Song or the swaying wisps of Bloom don’t do it for you, maybe the enriching Atlas will provide more to your earbuds. Kim’s brazen Celtic harp leads the fray in melodic temperament as it traverses you to those lapsing waves far, far away into a Middle Earth soundtrack of solitude, “now I walked out to the water, can you see that I am stronger / Felt the Earth dissolve below me as I watch the tides grow slowly.“

While Mike’s Trip to the Desert / Let’s Go For A Walk / Dreamt Up Moment and Kim’s Fairy Memory are instrumental interludes between one bridge to the next, these alone are enough to take you away to the very windy sand-dunes or the overgrown forestry caught up in an Odyssey of an assassin’s adventure; almost plucked straight from Ubisoft‘s crafted playbook. Lately follows, a vocal call-and-response matched with ebbs and flows of instrumental tact, an impasse met very much by fellow ‘healing’ artist Mose, who, like our pair here, is a perfectionist to his craft.

The echoic 11 Days – with its guitar trills and quips – is enchanting just as self-titled Omens is a wandering intrigue into the work of KAYAM. A folky after-thought very much inspired by the likes of Hosier and Francis Leftwich.

// I breathe deeply, a state in which time is a distant memory, around me images pass – a strong mysterious presence of the past.//

Creating subtle but compelling music is no easy feat, but these two just do it so well with very minimal effort. They also have a pretty wicked website: https://www.kayamband.com/.

Simply put, Omens is just easy feels: a campfire chill-out, a morning commute, a witches’ brew – it’s the perfect in-between of international indie-pop fitting for any European adventure.