The Atacama desert, high in northern Chile, provides the Earth's best vantage point for watching the stars. Clear and dry for 300 days of the year, it's home to 42% of the world's space telescopes; it's humanity's most ambitious base camp for looking out at the final frontier. At the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) – 66 radio antennas near the spine of the Andes – astronomers hope to detect galaxies that could house life-supporting, water-bearing planets, while the Very Large Telescope (VLT) observes outer space with an interferometer that is four billion times more powerful than the naked eye.

Stargazing is something of a way of life in Chile, so it shouldn't be so surprising that the country's capital, Santiago, is currently home to a thriving psychedelic rock scene. This month, the Sacred Bones label (which has already given the world Zola Jesus and Moon Duo) is putting out formidable albums from two of the brightest lights in the city's star system. Föllakzoid's five-track collection II deals in nefarious, irresistible, krautrocky darkwave, while Noctuary, from 60s-loving psych warriors the Holydrug Couple, sounds like an even more blissed-out Tame Impala. Together with enchanting power trio La Hell Gang and the ritualistic Watch Out! (all labelmates on the fabulously named Blow Your Mind records), the Santiago scene is fast catching the attention of plugged-in stoners worldwide.



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You could say that there's something in the water, but Chile's propensity for psychedelic sounds has more to do with what's written in the stars. As Föllakzoid guitarist and experimental film-maker Domingo García-Huidobro explains, "We find, in the cosmos, a source of inspiration where everyone, no matter where he's from, can be separated from his body. He can separate physically within the music." Domingo believes that South America exists in the pull of a gravitational field that allows communication with other places, times and dimensions. So far, so far-out, but to him, it's completely obvious. As 18-year-olds, Föllakzoid and his friends found themselves jamming out dirges close in length and depth to the work of Neu! and the other Krautrock godheads, without ever having heard those bands. This, they figured, could be no coincidence. "We developed the theory that those guys, in different times, must have got the same vibes we are receiving. They wanted the sound to be bigger, they wanted to lift people from their environment."

Furthermore, he reckons those telescopes are acting as some kind of conduit across the planes, helping to guide the destiny of him, his bandmates and everyone on the Chilean psych scene. "Being in Chile makes you closer to the stars. A lot of the things we decide in our lives, we leave to general karma. And, yeah, space has a lot to do with it."