Faith Coloccia + Tashi Dorji: And Their Power Was Alive

In collaboration, Faith Coloccia has just about covered every blade of grass across the experimental landscape. Her sonic meditations, cross-pollinating with everyone from the late Philip Jeck to Aidan Baker and many more. Coloccia’s latest, alongside Bhutanese-born, Asheville-based experimental guitarist, Tashi Dorji, who together interlace their creative spirit on And Their Power Was Alive.

The Vashon, Washington-based Coloccia has always added soft inflections the darker strain of experimentalism. The life partner of Aaron Turner, Coloccia has been as much a muse and inspiration to his work than anyone. (The melodic piano line that underpins Invisible Lines Between Imaginary Lands – one of the many touch points on And Their Power Was Alive – could have been a gateway interlude on Wavering Radiant, for instance.)

Following her excellent 2025 release alongside Daniel Menche (Swelter – Room40), from the outside at least, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Coloccia and Dorji’s paths would eventually cross. Particularly after Dorji’s latest solo full-length, low clouds hang, this land is on fire. In what is one of the year’s best experimental guitar releases, Dorji continued this rich vein of form in the summer with Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s Efrim Menuck as BLOOM AND RUIN for the white-hot Two Liberations.

Low clouds hang, this land is on fire… saw Dorji entering through new portals, which opened his world to the kind of existential possibilities that he and Coloccia orchestrate on And Their Power Was Alive. Which is evident from opening ambient soundscape, Excessive Yield; inspired by experimentalism’s darkest frontiers that Coloccia simply illuminates.

Following is the keys-led Short Lived Echo, which finds Coloccia front and centre. Her voice, angel-like as it cuts through Dorji’s foggy noisescapes that seemingly hover over the riverbank. And in truth, that’s where this collaboration is set. Its rustic charm, forming an imagery where the compositions submit to the greater forces of the environment.

Elsewhere, Dawns Upon the Sea is Dorji’s time to shine. His wandering guitar drones, picks and plinks, creating the vibe of a spectre feeling their way through the haze. Which leads to Fires Three, where Coloccia and Dorji’s sound worlds eventually combine. The piece, one of rich cadence and catharsis, best served in solitude.

So too the beautiful piano-based closing piece, Silica’s Last Word. Coloccia’s haunting vocal, carried by Dorji’s soft tremolo, as the pair mark an end to And Their Power Was Alive. A deep mediation of tone, texture and emotional power, and the more time spent in its company, the more its grip tightens. This collaboration, while perhaps one of the year’s more understated is also one of the most enticing.

And Their Power Was Alive is out now via Whited Sepulchre Records. Purchase from Bandcamp.