Litha is the solo black metal project of ambient composer and live bassist of Mizmor and Hell, Andrew Black. It serves as an outlet for Andrew to channel the lifelong anxiety and depression that have shaped his life, as well as a way to wrestle with guilt caused by the dissonance between a desire for altruism and his disposition towards misanthropy. Andrew is originally from Salem, Oregon, where he met early friends and collaborators, ALN of Mizmor and MSW of Hell, to form their band, Sorceress. After Sorceress ended, Andrew began exploring ambient music with the intention of expressing himself more fully but found it difficult to convey everything he had hoped to in that genre. “Litha represents a distinct departure from my ambient music,” Andrew says. “This project was born out of my need to vent the uglier and angrier emotions that have been a part of me for as long as I can remember. Ambient music has been a great way to express more melancholic emotions, but I needed a way to process my anger and pain, which I’ve historically hidden away from others. I felt like I couldn’t say everything I needed to in instrumental ambient music, so I decided I needed an additional outlet. Litha is that outlet and an effort to bring that ugliness to the surface to process it instead of continuing to hide it.” Vinyl from Tartarus Records.
