Well, this is a difficult one.
Maybe I’m having trouble rating the album because it’s neither metal nor dark nor extreme and thus different from the majority of the stuff we review. Or maybe the difficulties that I’m having stem from the fact that this is only slightly related to my preferred genres of music. And last but not least, maybe it’s because this feels just too constructed. Artfully constructed, yes, but constructed still. I did choose to review it though, so let’s get on with it.
Tvinna is a German/Swiss/Dutch folk/prog rock project revolving around Laura and Rafael Fella of Faun (Laura) and Eluveitie (Rafael). Two – Wings of Ember is their second full-length album, following One – In the Dark (2021, By Norse). The band’s most recent long player came into existence during the pandemic and after some line-up changes which initially left only Laura and Rafael from the original set of people. The album is the second out of four planed chapters for each of which Tvinna have set themselves the goal to “break down the different episodes of life” and to “link them to the four elements” – fire, earth, air and water.
So far, so good. But if you thought that this is where the explanations end and the music starts, you thought wrong. Because explanations there are a lot. So many, in fact, that the one-sheet that was sent along with the release at hand extends to five pages. And I’ve read them all. They did not help to make the music more appealing, on the contrary, actually, but I did learn something about the extraordinary motivation that stands behind the project. Tvinna, the document says, “got founded (…) with the aim of interweaving the human soul, as part of nature, into music, making it sonically tangible.”
There are at least two problematic suppositions for me here. The first one being to assume that what is commonly referred to as “soul” really exists, and the second one being that the construct named “soul” would be part of nature. To me, the terms “nature” and “soul” are incompatible. Just like synth pop and heavy metal. And this, finally, is where we start talking about the music.
While I freely admit that I didn’t like the album one bit after the first two or three run-throughs, I kind of changed my mind after watching the videos that the band has produced for four of the albums eleven tracks. Filmed in Iceland and featuring breathtaking scenery, the pictures provide a fitting backdrop for the band’s compositions and an access to their vision. Through the videos, a world of poetry and myths opened up, melancholic and highly emotional, something I didn’t perceive through the music alone. And although the sentiments and worldviews expressed differ from what I feel and think, I was able to appreciate someone presenting their view of things, even if what was presented did appear at bit cheesy to me at times.
After additional listens, I can now say that there are undeniably some appealing tracks on Tvinna’s new album, with Fortress being my favourite. Altogether, the music can be described as a mixture between The Gathering, Heilung and Leaves Eyes. It is absolutely clear that a lot of work was invested in making this piece of music. But there are also quite a few songs where the pieces do not combine to form a consistent whole. For example, the soaring, meandering guitar part at the end of Arma appears oddly out of place and is not connected to anything that happened before. The accelerated drumming in the beginning of title track Wings of Ember leads to absolutely nowhere and sounds as if the drummer would rather be in a different band.
Presented as music “completely freed from categories, stylistic terms and barriers”, the eleven tracks on Two – Wings of Ember can be classified for long parts as synth wave or even synth pop with dominant female vocals. A classic rock set up of guitars, bass and drums, though always present, is often pushed into the background. Folk elements, folk instruments and nature sounds create appealing details, but they are only details. In the end, the backbone of the album is built from synth tunes and vocals.
Despite the evident amount of work invested in Two – Wings of Ember, after multiple listens, nothing too memorable remains. That’s a shame. Especially since things could have been different if the end product had been a little less polished, rawer, wilder and less constructed.
A difficult one, as I said.
(6.5/10 Slavica)
Leave a Reply