HAARA Turns Ritual Into Psychedelic Chaos on “Baccano”

Swiss psyche-folk band HAARA is stepping into darker territory with “Baccano,” a new single released through Rattler Records that transforms ritual, tension and impending battle into a hypnotic collision of sound.

The track takes its name from Bacchanalia, the ancient Roman festivals held in honor of Bacchus. Known for nights of dancing, shouting and general commotion, those celebrations provide an appropriate foundation for a song that rarely sits still.

“Baccano” opens with the voice of filmmaker Robert Gardner, sampled from his 1963 ethnographic documentary Dead Birds, before a didgeridoo cuts through the atmosphere. From there, percussion begins to build while electric guitar pushes the track into increasingly chaotic territory.

HAARA describes “Baccano” as an “electric tarantella,” and that collision of tradition and psychedelia sits at the center of the release. Electric bass is treated as a percussive force rather than simply holding down the low end, while layers of rhythm give the track an almost ceremonial intensity. It feels less like a conventional rock arrangement and more like something unfolding in real time.

The lyrics add another layer to that tension. Written and performed in English, they follow characters preparing for a battle set to take place the following day. Their words become a mantra as they perform a propitiatory ritual, ultimately placing their lives in the hands of fate.

Released alongside an accompanying music video, “Baccano” finds HAARA leaning fully into atmosphere and experimentation. Powerful, strange, and intentionally unsettling, the track makes chaos part of the experience rather than something to clean up.