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Prophecy Productions


by Kayo Dot

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Entheogenesis Impatient listeners are weeded out in the opening 5 minutes, while those who persevere are treated to an unforgettable experience. This monster weaves an impossibly dense tapestry of sound with the replay value of a Final Fantasy.

Scalding technical metal, rich chamber compositions and some trademark twists provide a great soundtrack to the lyrical concept. This seamless union between words and music creates a vivid and powerful narrative. Amongst the finest works of a one of a kind band. Favorite track: Passing the River.
baudelagon thumbnail
baudelagon Kayo Dot crée une musique très expérimentale, qui peut s'avérer un peu rebutante à la première écoute - structure d'abord insaisissable, ruptures dans le corps de la chanson parfois brutales, longueur des morceaux... - mais après plusieurs écoutes patientes et attentives, un autre monde se révèle à vous petit à petit. Et ce premier morceau, que je ne supportais d'abord pas, ne cesse, par exemple, de me hanter, et c'est un de ceux qui me reviennent le plus en mémoire à propos de cet album. Favorite track: The Second Operation (Lunar Water).
Eric Gedenk
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Eric Gedenk Zilda Caosgi--Punches me in the face every time. Favorite track: Zlida Caosgi (To Water the Earth).
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  • Streaming + Download

    Purchasable with gift card

      $6.99 USD  or more


  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Available for the first time outside of Japan, Kayo Dot's 100-minute epic concept album HUBARDO is here on double CD courtesy of The Flenser. 2xCD version of the album with 20-page booklet in a 6-panel jacket!

    Includes unlimited streaming of Hubardo via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 4 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $17 USD or more 


  • Hubardo - 3xLP Flenser-reissued 180g black vinyl
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    A triple-LP of HUBARDO, packaged in a sturdy, triple-gatefold jacket with 6 huge panels of original artwork by Rachel Wolf and pressed on heavyweight black vinyl. Also includes an 11x22" insert featuring all the lyrics and credits, and an image from the jacket, perfect for hanging on your wall. Includes a free high-resolution download, of course.


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  • Hubardo Super Limited Japanese Import 2xCD
    Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Finally, a CD version of Kayo Dot's highly-lauded 100-minute 2013 magnum opus, Hubardo. This double-CD was produced by Daymare Records out of Japan and is the only CD issue in existence of this album. Original pressing limited to 250, we have a few copies on hand. Sorry, my camera-phone is a piece of shit, so please excuse the photo quality below.


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The eye of Leviathan was swept from the sea The crooked serpent in the deep of the night We gather by the well to gather the rain That fell from the eye of Leviathan A pail of sweet water from the well of Leviathan A baptism wrought in a ladle of rain Gladly it fell from a sky and its stars It fell from the night like a wraith in a rage The prayer that journeyed from the abyss To the lush of the earth In the hush of the night The stone from the sky On the outskirts of town All the stars will fall from the heavens Into the ladle of gathered rain To those who thirst: drink There is water enough for all
Nearby the moldering bridge and the stream that gushes from a fatal wound The quiet town in its hallowed hollow, waking while still sleeping sound Oblivious and dreaming, its people always dreaming Of nothing and no one and nowhere worth speaking! Oblivious and trivial, uncomplicated people But the sun shone forth one Sunday morning And stretched its arms toward the evening And a beam of light fell on the stone The black eye sleeping in an open grave What is this thing? the crying of the throng This ugly thing upon the ground that smokes and Smolders with a dismal sound? A nightmare, infidelity! An offensive darkling augury! Shun this horror! Shun this omen fallen in the night! Only one awake, and one that hates His very life A poet’s soul And a deeper sea The stone bore waves into his mind Seared his eyes and washed his hate away
Thief 06:51
That cloudless night by the waning light of a tired moon The poet stole across the town (Sleeping, always sleeping And dreaming, never dreaming) A shadow and a shade A ghost that just was made Creeping across the common, past the bridge and past the fountain He pushed his wheelbarrow forward through the gloom And rested by the river where He could see the stone The shape of it alone Made him grasp his heart An artist when his art Stares back at him, a fount of living inspiration The stone, he brought it home beneath the secrecy of night The thief cometh like the Lord Into his house where it was stored He crept into the dreams of the townspeople Like a knife into a vein Or a rope around a throat
Oh, the dust and the dust and the dust The ages of neglect by the Cover of rust The stone was alive, he could feel it Breathing beneath his hands On the table in the kitchen By the light from the lamp Burning high with olive oil He touched the stone, like ice from the sky Like ice from the eyes of the hangman He touched the stone and wondered at it Caressed the coarse rock and was humbled by it And he knew not why Why the others hated the stone from the sky This gem that felt warm amidst all the cold The breathing and pulsing of life in the stone And he put out the lamp and crawled into bed And dreamt of the stone and a tree And the tree grew up from the stone Watered with blood in a watering can The blood of the pen The pride of the poet lashed to his misery And up into heaven, a fathomless tree Where it bore forth wonderful fruit The fruit of the stars from the womb of the Earth And he awoke amidst the shudders and sighs The tears that drip-drip from a faucet of eyes And he saw the poem written before him By the olive oil lamp in the kitchen Of a seed blown far by the winds of the spaces To the far-off planet and its secret places To the home of the anguished and longing The hope of the hopeless, the name of the nameless
The hammer and the chisel from out in the shed Pulled out from beneath a pile of time He remembered that was where he left it Though it had less rust back then Sunlight pushing through the eaves The poet and the sculptor The hermit and the madman The chisel shattered into pieces of dismay He dropped the stone from the cottage roof It hit the ground on a bed of dirt Rolled to the grass like a tired old man Turning asleep away from the sun The distant rumbling of thunder made him stop and think The rushing of the thunderhead A storm blown in from heaven And rain like whispers in the nearby forest leaves The forest roof and the swaying of its cathedral eaves He glanced up at the LIGHTNING ROD And rushed toward his ladder He fastened the ROD upon the roof To the dream that promised meaning Promised purpose to his life, his loneliness and love And dancing naked as the rain threw down Its pitchers in rage upon the ground He prayed and wept as the lightning crept Above the poet and his rite And when the day had turned to night With the fury of the tempest A splitting of the laden sky The LIGHTNING ROD exploded With the stone upon the roof And left a seed magnificent With these words inscribed thereon
A ghoul amongst the graves The poet bore his song into the forest And there was no moon, the moon was new A silver coin snatched from its purse by thieves Drank deeply of the night, down the path and through the trees He trembled as he strove to find The secret ancient grove mankind Was all too busy to desecrate Where he wrote and wept and pretended to be The only entity left in his beautiful world He bore his prize before him, his passion and his effort The seed was dressed in the poet’s cloak Occult… Concealed… An infant spirited away by its wary watchful mother Into the chapel where he worshipped tree and cone And leaf and stone The swaying evergreens caressed him Stroked his cheek, the fireflies blessed him He used a sexton’s shovel and spade To dig a bed for the cowled thing The thing that made the town afraid That no one caused and no one made The nightingale poured out its dirge To accompany the funeral The grave is dug, the seed is sown The stars snuffed out, one by one And as the morning crept ashore A mound of earth on the forest floor Where there was only moss the night before
Flowers bloom at night and throw off phantom darts of light Living little opal stars and little phantom shimmers A shadow with a watering can crept in to tend the garden The soundless shade made its way as crickets all around Chose their nighttime music and made their nighttime sound Within the grove the shadow flowed and knelt before the moss Shadow water sprinkled on the earthy forest bed The thinnest grin above the trees A secret joke A sliver peeking in through a starry door Shadow water sprinkled soundless on the mossy forest floor Water drawn from a well, secluded on a hill In the summer of the poet’s youth Before he learned the poet’s truth That life will never yield to Will That life will never yield to Will And that watering can held tightly in ghostly hand! Where is it from, where has it been? The shed by the house of the sleeping poet! It sits there still on its shelf! And he dreams in his bed as the moon overhead Sheds light from a silver crescent He dreams of the grove and the mound and the seed It was watered that night with the water of need
Floodgate 07:22
When morning cast the stars aside And the chill of night had all but died As sleep removed its blanket pall From the waking eyes of all The poet stretched his limbs and dressed And wandered out to see the blessed Grove and mound, but with a sound Of water that was not there before… A singing stream had grown overnight Centuries old, with smooth stones covered in moss The path to the grove is overtaken Its source bubbles up from under the earth From the seed… The poet drank sweet water from a cupped hands chalice He was baptized at the stream by a mourning dove All the loveliness in the world was in her All the sadness flowed out into the forest and into thin air Mist-wrapped trees, the tattered shrouds of night, as she Beckoned downstream Nothing but death, the ageless kiss of the queen The most beautiful thing is the deathless unseen No end to the miraculous waters that stream forth from the earth And the stream grew into the blue royalty of a river The cascades that tumble away like lives into the æther Surged forth ceaseless like wasted time As the moon grew fat with days The river widened and wove its way Deeper into the mist and the trees As an unfinished rhyme, as a grief-laden breeze
Out of the west the evening-colored air Made a music box out of the treetops A wind harp out of the stars Velvet waters tumble out from the fountainhead of Inspiration and played the rushes Wordless song on the river sighing Forgotten the pipes and the flutes of the dying The air is alive with the stirrings and turnings Of phrase in the twilight like petals flying Into the waters and dreamily floating The poet felled him a tree He felled him a fir and was shriven He drew from pine his boat Simple, imperfect, with evergreen dressing the air He fashioned boards from his longing, and Sacrificed food and rest for ever He forgot himself Distaste in this thing surrounding him Decay The poet amidst the musical waters Became the song and what he had Dreamt of being all along
Nameless, a boy upon a rough boat He makes his way downstream under the candles of the stars The great chandeliers of the mansion The moon in her fullness, she waltzes across the singing surface As animals and insects sleep peacefully in their places Water passes softly by Drifting up from silent wells like memories in meditation Count his bones, the boat drifted as a young leaf fallen Hapless and helpless, and he blessed the mossy stones A night and a day of longing is as nothing, as a shell cast into The raging sea is forgotten A star swallowed up in the void that pulses A life expired that never blossoms The music is his, the boy in his trance He wrote it across the mist and the rapids And it carried him away from the forest And it carried him away He gave himself to the river And it carried him away
Blood circulates slowly through unhurried and thoughtful veins He sat in his body and wondered how the sweetest of his strains Could ever lay a bow to the violin before him Ended is the passing at the silent, secret gate Where the temple universal stole away in sublimation The garden was like brilliance unto the blindman without measure Entranced by the advent of oblivion He lay back in his boat, his arms poised to Embrace the entirety in one embrace and throw open its doors And he died at the gate that will not open That will not open for the flesh that is weak Unknown and nameless, the lyric of the ghost Haunts the garden and the gate and is happy The ideal outlasts the flesh that is weak Yes, and the well outlasts the drought that is momentary Trees in the garden that tower and sway Raise up their boughs to whisper and pray A sweet gale swept in, the breath of the poet And loosed another seed to fall in the hamlet The eye of Leviathan that fell from the sky To enchant the lonely, to love and to die


HUBARDO is the seventh studio album by veteran avant-metal maestros, KAYO DOT. Produced by Randall Dunn (Sunn0))), Master Musicians of Bukkake, etc.), and with a running time of almost 100 minutes, the music follows an epic and heartbreaking narrative of a meteor falling to Earth and its enchantment and alchemical transformation of a lonely poet.

HUBARDO, meaning "lantern" or "lamp" in the magickal language of Enochian, marks the band's tenth anniversary. As such, it features aspects of all the shades of KAYO DOT from the past decade, including some that even hearken back to the band's former identity, the progressive MAUDLIN OF THE WELL, such as the album's opening: a stark and disturbing guest vocal appearance by MOTW screamer Jason Byron - his first recorded appearance since 2001.

From weird metal to beautiful post-rock, from demented ballads to tripped-out 70s fusion, this double-album has it all. With HUBARDO, KAYO DOT have crafted an enormous masterpiece of 21st-century progressive music.


released August 30, 2013

Toby Driver - bass, synths, piano, rhodes, organ, vocals, percussion. Ron Varod - guitars. Keith Abrams - drums. Daniel Means - tenor sax, alto sax, clarinet. Terran Olson - flute, alto sax, piano, organ, and synth solo on "Floodgate". Tim Byrnes - trumpet, horn in F. Mia Matsumiya - violin, synths. Jason Byron - guest vocal on "The Black Stone" intro. Randall Dunn - synth design. Jessika Kenney and BC Campbell - guest backing vocals.

Produced by Randall Dunn and Toby Driver at Avast in Seattle, WA, April 2013. Recorded and mixed by Randall Dunn. Assisted by Scott Cedarholm. Mastered by Jason Ward at Chicago Mastering.

Album photograms by Rachel Wolf. Band photos by Toby Driver.


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Kayo Dot (and the music of Toby Driver) New York, New York

KAYO DOT is an undefinable band led by composer Toby Driver. All the other projects and titles on this page are also the work of Toby Driver. Several additional titles are also available exclusively through our subscription service.

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