One of our top albums of 2025 receives the remix treatment, as Hymnal (Resung) highlights six of the original fourteen tracks. Visionary vocalist Lyra Pramuk is well-served by these new takes, which highlight facets of the works that might otherwise have gone unnoticed.
Sequenced in a different order, the EP rearranges our perceptions of the original set, which we preferred to play as a single extended piece. Only “Ending,” for obvious reasons, remains where it was. “Unchosen,” the second track on Hymnal, is now the opening piece. The original began with vibrating synth, while Tarta Relena Aspre begins with Pramuk’s voice, heard as if approaching from a corridor. While the pieces end in a similar place, the remix extends the sonic distance traveled in a much shorter span. In contrast, Pramuk more than doubles the length of “Reality,” which in its 2:17 form seemed more of a bridge track. Adding a new percussive framework, the artist creates what seems like an entirely different piece, with greater vocal separation.
The moody, experimental “Meridian” gains beats and a dance floor sensibility from Laurel Halo and John Tejada. Could this be Pramuk’s first charted single? We hope so; the remix opens the artist to an entirely new audience. In like fashion, the beats arrived late in the original “Oracle,” but enter immediately in the “Verraco Weightless Reshape,” with propulsive drums and a half-speed breakdown.
The string-laden “Swallow” stays pitched-down and mysterious under the direction of Dumama, a miasma of sound with stuttering spoken word, disintegrating in its final moments like a computer glitch. And while the original “Ending” cannot be topped, “Djrum’s Endless Rework” wisely goes the alternative route, operating under a completely different set of rules. Operating as a series of movements, the piece goes from percussive stormer to subdued sampler to tribal hypnotizer to nearly-a cappella blanket, as uncategorizable as Pramuk herself. While the rework is not actually “endless,” it suggests that there is no end to the talent of the artist or to her potential trajectory. (Richard Allen)
a closer listen 