Causa Sui – From The Source

by Mark 'Yeti' Richard · Published January 5, 2025 · Updated January 6, 2025

Causa Sui from Odense, Denmark, formed in 2004 and released a 2005 Self Titled and 2007 Free Ride album that featured vocals from Kasper Markus. When he left the band in 2008, Causa Sui decided to carry on as an instrumental and the line up consists of: Jess Kahr on bass, Jakob Skøtt on drums, Jonas Munk on guitar, electronics, and Rasmus Elm Rasmussen on keyboards. The band’s other releases include 2008/2009 Summer Sessions (Volume 1,2,&3), 2013’s Eporie Tide, 2016’s Return To Sky, 2017’s Vibraciones Doradas, and 2020’s Szabodelico. The band also released the Pewt’r Sessions (Volume 1,2,&3), and two live albums, 2014’s Live At Freak Valley, and 2017’s Live In Copenhagen. The style of music that Causa Sui play is a mix of psychedelic rock, jazz, experimental, ambient, stoner, and improvisational rock.

I am somewhat embarrassed to admit that I totally missed out on this band. I remember seeing their name here and there years ago and for whatever reason, I never looked into them. Being a fan of instrumental rock with bands like 35007, Monkey3, My Sleeping Karma, and many others, I totally missed out on Causa Sui. The band released their latest album, called From The Source, this past June 28th, 2024. This is the band’s first studio album in over four years and it was released on El Paraiso Records. The album contains four tracks and is about forty seven minutes long.

“Sorcerer’s Disciple” begins the album with a stick four click and the bass and drums guiding the rhythm forward. The layered keyboards adds a nice airy feel to the song and the psychedelic guitar playing harnesses the sound together. Causa Sui has a loose jazz like feel to this track with excellent dynamic buildups from all of the instruments. The pick up of the drumming towards the end with the guitar strumming is a beautiful enhancement to the song. “Sorcerer’s Disciple” is a great opening track that utilizes musical awareness from a slow brewing beginning to an almost volatile and combustible conclusion.

“Dust Dwellers” is a more laid back tune which begins with bass guitar and carries on with a slow and steady progression. The nice intricate guitar playing adds a soothing touch to the song with the smooth swing style drumming. The keyboards are really hypnotizing on portions of the song too which deepens the whole aura and flow structure of the music.

The third song is called “The Spot”. The drums and bass start the song with a tribal rhythm as the guitar and keys enter the mix. The various layers of sounds that Causa Sui are able to produce with each instrument doing it’s own thing but all really connected into the same groove is rather enticing. The music has a psychedelic and jazz vibe going on in unison. This is the sound of a well put together band that can instinctively know where each of its members are going with such dynamic interplay happening. It sounds quite brilliant actually. The cosmic flow of subtle fuzz is another pathway in which the band will sometimes travel. Sprinkles of piano with wah guitar are enhanced with atmospheric elements of synth and a rhythm section as solid as granite rock. “The Spot” is a valuable taste and the precursor to where Causa Sui will ultimately lead us.

“Visions Of A New Horizon” is the twenty four minute monumental closure on From The Source. Nothing short of amazing with this track! From the classical guitar sounding start to the enhanced and clean accents from the other instruments, the song is carefully separated by seven different movements. At the two and a half minute mark, the song transforms into a jazz style jam session that reminds me a lot of The Bakerton Group. Another transition happens around seven minutes in when the song drifts down more spacy and mellow terrain. It has a nice soothing Pink Floyd texture to it with rolling bass lines, psych guitar magnification, enveloped by synthesized keys. Another change emerges around twelve minutes where the song craters into more sophisticated space rock. The song crescendos with wah guitar and solid percussion and levels off before the end sequence kicks in. The song concludes with the same classical guitar riff from the start.

From The Source is a great listen. Causa Sui create very elaborate song crafting skills that evoke transcendence. Listening to their music is like a mind altering experience where sometimes my thoughts will get lost in another dimension. The quest can be very therapeutic and you know you have found something special when a band can take you on this kind of sonic journey. From what I understand, Causa Sui records all of their own music and did the artwork and layout for this album too. I totally respect the DIY approach and that says a lot about how talented and creative these Danish musicians truly are.