The words I wrote down after I listened to this album for the first time were: woozy, gloomy, folksy, hippie, Tiamat. “Minor chords, voices, delicate drones, and violent sprawls of sound, offered up to house the haunting presence of a hidden god” is what we’re told to expect.
There’s no question there’s a hypnotic feel to these nine pieces. What’s interesting is that they are all different. Whereas “King Winter” suggests the image of people standing round a camp fire, the fiddle in the background adding to the moodiness, “Nida” has an Eastern atmosphere. The constancy is the singer’s deep and dreamy voice, and the measured progress of these mystic pieces. Lux Interna will not be hurried. The hazy songs are distinguished by their subtleties. On “Spiritloom” there’s a chant-like quality to the vocals, supported by the constant drum and crusty guitar. This then is followed by “Wounded Stag”, which has the air of a modern communal folk song, a 21st century version of Redbone almost. The guitar and banjo sound as raw and natural as the vocals sound haunting. The 9 minute “Wounded Stag” is magnetic and ritualistic. There’s a unity. The vocalist sounds like Tiamat’s Johan Edlund in the “Wildhoney” era, but above all this is like a collective statement with slow, mechanical and reflective folk maintaining the mystique. “And when we sing, we sing as one” is a line from “Threefold”, the most conventional of the songs to this point, but even this is enhanced by the exotic drum rhythm. Vocally, the atmosphere is flat thanks to the dominant droning but the musicians see to it that there is colour as a variety of guitar rhythms provide additional layers to that irresistible drum beat. Stringed accompaniment provides the height to the constancy of the next ever-calming folk song. A female voice comes in to complement the authority of the male singer. It all sounds so simple as if a group of guys and gals have just gathered in the woods with a few instruments, but in reality it’s all cleverly interwoven. Classical darkness threatens to engulf “Black Bird”. The drum resounds powerfully like the sound of a wave hitting the shore. The slow delivery is once again misleading as there are overwhelming layers of exotic beauty and melancholy coming from all angles. This time it’s the lady with the haunting voice who presents this desolate picture. Not for the first time I found myself humming along to the irresistible rhythm and being drawn into this emotional and dreamy world. It is perhaps in the nature of this strange work that the album closes with a ritualistic chant. Harmony is achieved. The whole exercise has been one of achieving harmony and balance.
I stand by my initial reaction to this album but after being caught by surprise by its unusual and indeed unique qualities, I have found that with each subsequent listen I have become more absorbed in its variety of exotic pictures. “There is light in the body, there is blood in the sun” exudes mystical qualities.
(8.5/10 Andrew Doherty)
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