“Welcome to the Hallucination we call Home,” beckons a calm, steady voice in its echoes and layers of slithering percussion and Eastern-influenced stringed instrument tapestries. Where is home? Well, at least for these 40-odd minutes, that home is the Shining Realm — both an Iowa psychedelic supergroup and a state of being.
That welcome is where the band’s second album Talismandala begins. The first track “Auroroboros” supplies a hallucinatory dipped toe into a sea of psychedelia, calling to mind Donovan’s trippy narrative monologue in the 1969 track “Atlantis.”
Within Shining Realm’s narration, a cycle is presented — one of birth in what can be presumed to be Earth, where one will “live here, assume a character and then Die,” returning to the mythologized Shining Realm, waiting for a rebirth. In this soundscape of cosmic proportions, all seems cyclical. That local psych folk supergroup itself is an incarnation of storied Iowa City bands and members from Maul of America, Daisyglue, Commanders and the Boo-Hoos.
Previously mainstays of Chris Wiersema’s beloved Feed Me Weird Things, the full-circle nature of the musical narrative stretches further. The Shining Realm’s first performance happened to be a FMWT show back in 2019, opening for Chicago Kraut rock band Spiral Galaxy, whose band members — Sara Gossett and Steven Krakow — lovingly crafted Talismandala’s cover artwork and band talisman. The cycle, and its poetic nature, remains unbroken.
What doesn’t remain unbroken is the glass shattered for the raucous outro of “Time Machine Blues,” accompanying blistering guitar chords. “Breaking glass” is listed playfully in the instrument credits of Joe Derderian, who also contributed percussion and “backwards talking.” It’s gutsy production choices like these, alongside rollicking hand drums and what’s credited as “cosmic whistling” (which I can only assume refers to Charles Pagan’s out-of-this-world lung capacity), that allow each of the album’s tracks to melt together into one breathtaking auditory mosaic.
Amid the explosive chaos are catchy melodies and sun-kissed psychedelic ‘60s sounds. On the title track “Talismandala,” the vocal harmonies are mystical, with vocal snarls and a steady, jangly guitar riff. The carefully crafted auditory time capsule swings open as the harmonies join and build off each other to a sustained, cathartic yell. The listener gets a classic, epic jam-band finale, manifested as “Memories of a Stone.” The nearly eight-minute odyssey begins ominously, with vocals low and slow, simmering to a boil and breaking open.
“Talismandala” is more than just a fun word to say — it’s a fusion of sensibilities central to Shining Realm’s ethos. There’s a feeling of meditation in the album’s song structures, its guitar riffs and its rebirth narrative. Like a mandala, it’s temporary; like a talisman, it’s timeless.
This article was originally published in Little Village’s June 2025 issue.
