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Holding up the black-and-white collage that he made for the cover of Descending Pharaohs’ first full-length, multi-instrumentalist Theo Khoury says: “It’s labor of love. It doesn’t make any practical sense. There’s so much work that we put in, but we love the shit out of it.” He might as well be talking about his band.
This passion project of Khoury and guitarist Ricardo Esway started early in the pandemic with the two getting to know one another over socially distanced beers. Once vaccinated, rehearsals commenced with the men mixing elements of psychedelia, post-punk, jazz and Middle Eastern sounds.
“I think what we share is, we’re both diggers,” Khoury says. “We’ve had our heads in records and scenes for years and have an almost nerdy appreciation for foreign scales.”
Descending Pharaohs has since been commanding stages around Portland, using their hypnotic music and a backdrop of trippy visuals to overwhelm the senses of anyone within their blast radius. Up next is their LP Ritual of Light, which will hopefully be available at the end of 2023, and a continued evolution of their collective sound. “Every time one of us has an idea,” Esway says, “it mutates almost instantly.”
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