Sunmundi, klwn cat - Lived and Born

After linking up on numerous tracks spanning just one year, NY rapper Sunmundi and California producer klwn cat dial in on a full length LP, Lived and Born.

While Lived and Born is not explicitly ‘about reincarnation,’ it considers what it might be like to be able to reflect on a whole past life worth of experience while still living. The lyrics posit death, love, self-growth, the sufferings of modernity, emotional instability, subjective vs. collective consciousness, etc. The mental becomes the material, while personal memories inform future wishes. On the opener, “Stay Compassionate,” the message of basic goodness is invoked in the face of despair, while “New Pavement” is a lyrical avowal to act with ambition.

Entirely produced by klwn cat, the soundscape of the 12-track album is at times noir, bare, jazzy, dreamy, and triumphant, its loops cycling just long enough for Sunmundi to take temporary shelter. The somber acoustic ballad “Sun Met Moon” is graced by the improvised guitar backing of Big Flowers, while the outro, “Harbingers” blasts trumpet flairs doubling as both a farewell and a call to arms.

Check your pulse, because now is the time to prepare for the next of your lives. What you learn here can have eternal ramifications when you realize that “it occasionally takes multiple lives to come to conclusions.”

Vocals by ‘Sunmundi’
Produced by ‘klwn cat’
Engineered by ‘klwn cat’

*additional guitar on “Sun Met Moon” by Big Flowers