It was back in 2018 that saxophonist Jean Jacques Duerinckx came together with guitar-vocalist Guillaume Cazalet to form the genre-defying, boundary-pushing collective Neptunian Maximalism aka NNMM. Pulling on the Sun Ra inspired concept of the Arkestra, NNMM blend drone with free jazz and doom metal predicated on a sense of ritual, primal rhythm and otherworldliness. Untethered by expectations, their works range in intensity and scale as its members switch between genres, while always leaning heavily into the power of live performance. As such, their latest release, Le Sacre Du Soleil Invaincu is a voyage through the world of raga revisiting and reworking three classical Indian pieces recorded over four nights at St John’s Church in London’s Bethnal Green. 

Being a collective since the beginning, the line up of NNMM is everchanging. Described on their Bandcamp page as “trying to create a sense of acceptance of the end of the ‘Anthropocene’ era through a musical and soteriological experience,” the initial iteration of NNMM involved both Cazalet and Duerinckx plus drummers Sebastien Schmit and Pierre Arese. Four improvisational musicians who had never played together and who’s first live performance at Brussels’ HS63 also marked their debut release. This was shortly followed by studio album, The Conference Of The Stars whose drone metal-spiritual jazz aesthetic was taken to the next level on 2020’s opus Eons, dedicated in turn to the Earth, Sun and Moon, and channelling the heavyweight avant-garde influences of SUNN O))), Swans, Sun Ra and John Coltrane.

It wasn’t long before the NNMM project shifted and expanded with the additions of Reshma Goolamy on bass, Romain Martini on guitar, Didié Nietzche on soundscapes, Joaquin Bermudez on saz and setar,  Alice Thiel on synths and guitar, Lukas Bouchenot on percussion and Stephane Fedele on drums, which led to the heavily psychedelic ‘Solar Drone Ceremony’ and a series of live performances which saw the collective’s improvisational prowess pushed to the fore.

Now, most of this line-up have returned for Le Sacre Du Soleil Invaincu – a live performance from 2023’s anti-capitalist Judgement Hall Festival and the basis of which was the Indian classical drone music of raga interpreted within a drone-metal, guitar-heavy framework. An intense and weighty endeavour comprising three ragas, and as an artistic experience quite breathtaking.

Disc 1, ‘At Dusk’ brings forth the ‘Raga Marwa’ traditionally one of the most melodic in the canon and which NNMM have drenched in noise, drone and transcendent ambience. Section one ‘The Alaap’ is barely perceptible, but after nearly three and a half minutes the guitar lands with some aplomb - noise rock in essence, unequivocal in its heaviness but with a nascent underlying melody. This leads straight into the ‘Vilambit Laya Alaap’ with an explosion of guitar and which for its twelve-minute duration is unrelenting;  yet once again there is lightness too as atop the guitar sits a neat line of melody that plays throughout, notated to create a neatly psychedelic experience. The intense drone returns for ‘Unisson Composition’, before wah-wah guitar and the final comedown of ‘Dream Chord’ with what appears to be a single voice gently propelled forward, building and fading away.

Onto Part 2, ‘Arcana XX: Raag Todi,’ which opens with the stunning ‘Alaap on Surbahar’ performed on the surbahar or bass sitar by Cazalet himself, before segueing into the guttural lo-fi guitar of  ‘Raag (Raudra) Todi ‘Drut Laya, Chaotic Polyphonic Taan Combinations’. This raga consisting of just three sections, we round off with the pervasive ‘Raag (Raudra) Todi – Madhyalaya Yama DCCLXXII’ which utilises a deep-growling aesthetic reminiscent of GBYE and Swans - foreboding guitars accompanied by very deliberate, paced drumming.

Part 3 is titled ‘At Dusk’ and opens with the unhurried psych guitar of ‘Raag Bairagi - Vilambit Laya Alaap’ before giving way to the more intense metal drone psych-out of ‘Raag Bairagi - Rite D’Ovairture Badhat Unisson’ replete with warring Viking-esque voices and ‘Raag Bairagi - Sthayi Antara Composition’ with its devastating lo-fi sonic assault. This all eventually winds down to the final section and the haunting Middle Eastern pipes and expectant percussion of ‘Raag Bairagi - Layakari In Offer To The Cosmic Serpent’. Truly, a monumental work.