**300 copies. Comes with an insert/booklet ** Capturing the thrilling momentum harnessed by last year's May by Arianne Churchman & Benedict Drew, the American imprint, Love's Devotee, further taps the brilliant percolations of the experimental underground with In the Kingdom of Flowers, the debut solo LP from Minneapolis-based organist and experimental musician Molly Raben. Among the most distinct and creatively captivating solo organ records we've heard in a good long while, drawing on countless touchstones — minimalism, kosmische, Ethio-jazz, and numerous social and spiritual traditions connected to the instrument, it's a seriously staggering piece of work that manages to balance openness and wonder with remarkable rigor and craft.

There's often a geographic paradox in underground music. Counter to intuition, attention, along with contemporary and historical narratives, tend to center around artists and scenes located in a handful of major cities — New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, London, Paris, Tokyo, Berlin, Milan, etc. — forming an "above ground" at the expense of artists working more autonomously, just out of view. Over the last couple of years, the Bethlehem, Pennsylvania imprint, Love's Devotee, has bucked this trend. Not only working in an unexpected location, with a deep dedication to the scenes emerging in their local area, but they've cast light on a handful of artists from across the globe whose work has been able to achieve a great deal of singularity through autonomy from the aforementioned urban hubs. Last year we fell in love with their release of Arianne Churchman & Benedict Drew's fantastic LP, May, and now they return with another immersion into a highly unique sound world with In the Kingdom of Flowers, the debut solo LP from Minneapolis-based organist and experimental musician Molly Raben. Channeling the hypnotic minimalism of early Terry Riley, Charlemagne Palestine's organ work, and flirtations with visionary Ethiopian keyboardists like Hailu Mergia and Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou, with heavy nods to stripped-down 70s kosmische, it's an absolutely mind-blowing revelation that breathes a much needed breath of fresh air into an instrument that has increasingly come to rest in fairly predictable realms of structure and sound. It's hard to express how excited we are about this one. Just about as recommended as they come, In the Kingdom of Flowers is issued in a highly limited black vinyl edition, housed in a beautifully printed jacket and insert, designed by Los Angeles-based artist Hannah E. Brown. It marks the emergence of a truly exciting voice from the midwestern underground that we're going to keep our eye on for many months and years to come.

Beyond having appeared on a handful of releases emerging from the Minneapolis area and beyond during recent years — Cole Pulice, The Minneapolis Uranium Club, etc. — as well as a collaborative cassette with Leonard King and a lathe cut 7" under the name Mary Grace, Molly Raben remains a relatively obscure figure within the broader consciousness of experimental music. With her debut, solo full-length, In the Kingdom of Flowers, it's hard not to imagine that's about to rapidly change. A longtime church organist, she has spent years inhabiting and investigating the instrument, drawing on its unique spatial characteristics and a seemingly limitless sense of creative potential. Comprising five shimmering solo organ improvisations — each tapping her technical prowess in distinct ways — across the two remarkable sides of In the Kingdom of Flowers, Raben draws upon her deep understanding of the mechanics, history and varied social contexts of the instrument, crafting melodically and harmonically rich music that's as intoxicating and seductive as it is challenging and rigorously exploratory.

Beginning with the long-form piece, Angel Pathway Garden Procession, she unlocks flowing, exploratory lines on her instrument, at times tapping the rich, ecstatic modalities explored by Terry Riley during the 1960s and 70s through hypnotic cycles, while continuously breaking the mold with gentle allusions to jazz — particularly those forms that emerged from Ethiopia — and flirtations with the more cosmic end of Kosmische, fragmented and abstracted into a truly engrossing journey that extends across the first side. The second side of the album, comprising four shorter pieces, shifts between tense experimental pieces, rooted in dissonance and texture, and passages that delve into tradition, history and ritual, weaving striking patchworks that fully embrace the organ's many roles in social and spiritual life, while retaining a remarkable sense of playfulness and wonder at each step of the way.

A thrilling and endlessly surprising listen from the first note to its last, Molly Raben's In the Kingdom of Flowers represents a truly remarkable and engrossing debut, maintaining a sense of openness that manages to incorporate the best of more idiosyncratic DIY experimentalism and all of the rigor you might expect from the most focused and historically aware practitioners. Unquestionably one of the best and most distinct solo organ records we've heard in a good long while, In the Kingdom of Flowers is issued by Love's Devotee in a highly limited black vinyl edition, housed in a beautifully printed jacket and insert, designed by Los Angeles-based artist Hannah E. Brown. Crazy good, inspiring, and not to be missed! When the word gets out, this one is going to fly.