Monoliths & Dimensions is the 2009 album by Sunn O))), released by Southern Lord in May of that year and the record on which the duo opened its sound to a wider ensemble. Stephen O’Malley and Greg Anderson began, as before, with guitar and bass drones worked out in the studio; the composer Eyvind Kang then wrote parts for brass, strings, woodwinds, harp, piano, conch shell and hydrophone around them.
The four tracks, Aghartha, Big Church, Hunting & Gathering (Cydonia) and Alice, feature the vocalist Attila Csihar, who for once recorded in the room with the band, alongside guests including the trombonist Julian Priester, Dylan Carlson of Earth, Oren Ambarchi and Stuart Dempster. A Viennese women’s choir opens Big Church, whose tubular bells were recorded in Ennio Morricone’s studio. Randall Dunn and Mel Dettmer mixed the result so that the acoustic instruments kept their natural colour against the amplifiers.