Natural Snow Buildings

Natural Snow Buildings are an experimental psych-folk duo from France, consisting of Mehdi Ameziane and Solange Gularte. Their music incorporates lengthy raga-influenced drones created by layers of heavily distorted guitars, acoustic instruments (particularly woodwind and percussion), and chanted vocals, resulting in an intoxicating, often overwhelming mass of hypnotic sound. After meeting at a Paris university in 1997, the duo began making music together, and started self-releasing cassettes in 1999. French label <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22hinah%22">hinah</a> released the duo's 2002 cassette Ghost Folks as a CD-R, and from there NSB began releasing their material as limited handcrafted CD-Rs, developing a cult following among the psych-folk underground. In 2007, Gularte began releasing solo material as <a href="spotify:artist:4IFgDqsrG7co1olyYxFkaZ">Isengrind</a>, while Ameziane used the name <a href="spotify:artist:7bZ7KkvVQHl4osHgp9kHT2">Twinsistermoon</a> for his solo work. The year 2008 saw the release of numerous NSB CD-Rs and cassettes on American labels <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Digitalis%22">Digitalis</a> and <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Students+of+Decay%22">Students of Decay</a>, the latter of which also released The Snowbringer Cult, an ambitious double CD including solo as well as collaborative material by Ameziane and Gularte. The label also reissued NSB's 2006 double CD-R The Dance of the Moon and the Sun. Another sprawling double CD, Shadow Kingdom, appeared on U.K. label <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Blackest+Rainbow%22">Blackest Rainbow</a> in 2009. The label released two more NSB albums, Waves of the Random Sea and Chants of Niflheim, in 2011. American label <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Ba+Da+Bing%21%22">Ba Da Bing!</a> began releasing NSB's music in 2012, starting with CD and vinyl reissues of their 2008 triple CD-R Night Coercion into the Company of Witches, followed by reissues of The Snowbringer Cult (which was also given a first-time vinyl reissue, as both a four-LP box set as well as individual issues of the two solo discs and the collaborative double LP) and the 2009 box set Daughter of Darkness, previously only available on cassette. Following the duo's self-released 2014 CD-R The Night Country, Natural Snow Buildings returned to <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Ba+Da+Bing%21%22">Ba Da Bing!</a> in 2015 with the release of Terror's Horns, their most concise, focused album to date. ~ Paul Simpson, Rovi