Thuringian folklorists Mosaic have a huge body of work although this is only their third studio album following on from ‘Secret Ambrosian Fire’ of 2019. Maybe due to displacement from lockdown but things have been handled slightly differently this time around with all aspects of the album being handled by Valkenstijn rather than a full band. Thrungia is a German state with a rich history, it has links to poets and artists such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Georg Heym & Georg Trakl who have been the inspiration on this album and its narrative of customs as well as the ghosts and witches who haunt the land. Now this is one of those albums that it would be really beneficial for the listener to speak German as lyrical content is no doubt very important. If like me don’t, you may find yourself stumbling around in the dark a bit. There is help from titles translated to the likes of ‘Homeland’ for the album title and ‘We Are Ghosts,’ ‘The Old Road’ and ‘The Charcoal Burner’ for some of the songs to steer you on the way. It has to be said the somewhat schizophrenic approach from track-to-track musically does not help a huge amount here either but it certainly keeps you on toes never knowing quite what to expect next.
The cartoon style music at start of Wir sind Geister gives it a ‘Laurel & Hardy going Alpine skiing’ vibe and bouncing the listener around on a post-punk like beat with the addition of some authentic yodels it’s instantly curious stuff far removed from simple black folk metal. Acoustic instruments calm things on ‘Die alte Straße’ and with the expressive regional dialect the song could easily resemble a ballad by someone such as In Extremo whilst ‘Teufelsberg’ finally installs more of a blackened tumult as it gallops off through the forests. Style changes yet again on ‘Hullefraansnacht’ and with the traditional instrumentation taking centre stage along with whispered lyrics we are firmly in Dornenreich territory.
The track that makes the most sense to me here is ‘Der Köhlerknecht’ with the clank of what sounds like miners toiling with the clang of picks and spades whilst some banshee like calls haunt the background and the austere vocals croon away. At least this one provides a vision in the head and atmospherically sets the scene. Tracks get longer and are left to meander melodies and vocal performance are strong and on the whole one gets a pastoral sense of things that is on the whole easy on the ear with occasional flourishes of pace. Favourite number is ‘Unterhulz Zoubar’ which has that repetitive post-punk bounce and vocals rolling off the tongue but I’m further confounded by the closer which is a rather unnecessary section of ambience and another somewhat disparate segment on an already fairly lengthy album.
Well, this is certainly a mosaic and for me not all the parts joined up together and I admit this would have been a more rewarding experience if I could have followed it better. Still, I’m sure others will make more sense of it especially any Thuringia natives out there.
(6/10 Pete Woods)
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