Docetism :: Endura (Bunkier Productions)

Endura breathes, sighs, sinks its feet into the sand, fills its mind with sublunary profundity.

Docetism is a project inspired by some of the earliest and most controversial Christian doctrines, in particular the concept referenced in its name, the belief that during his life on earth, Jesus Christ did not manifest himself in a “natural” body but appeared as an apparition. In the centuries that immediately followed, the idea evolved and became central to the belief of the Gnostic Christians—the physical world was created by a lesser, imperfect and materialistic Demiurge but contained a spark of the light of the True God. In other words, matter was inherently ignoble and spirit the only everlasting good. By 325 AD, such dualism had been condemned by the mainstream church, although its impact is still felt today in theological ambivalence toward flesh and blood.

Though insistent that the world is basically flawed, the Gnostic worldview allows for a generous, allegorical interpretation of the gospels that the Polish artist Docetism seems to embrace, opening with a jungle of bird chatter over which draws a dark cloud of unknowing. With his tactile ambient dub, he actually seems to revel in nature, not wrestle with its putative deceptiveness. The world seems not a series of privations, a kind of purgatory to be endured, but rather a garden to be observed and experienced at very close range. Endura breathes, sighs, sinks its feet into the sand, fills its mind with sublunary profundity.

Transcendental concerns seem to loom larger as Endura passes the halfway mark and choral hosts indicate aspirations of ultimately shedding this mortal coil, no matter how dear. A final, untitled and upbeat hidden track brings us full circle to a re-imagining of the opening avian babel, now drenched in sunlight. Not exactly symmetrical, but a kind of reconciliation.

Endura is available on Bunkier Productions. [Release page]