“After Death, dark and bright visas, ballads and psalms play about life, about death and about life after death. The lyrics and music of despair and hope have been taken from the Nordic 19th century and often ask the question of how we live on after we ourselves or those we love die. The world is unbearable, but it still feels good right here in this particular music. More than that, we don’t want to ask.” @efterdoden.bsky.social (translated from their bandcamp page)
I’ll be honest, reviewing this week’s album has been somewhat difficult. Every time I listen I drift off into the brilliance of it. It’s like time travel, you could be anywhere in the world. Even with the language, in this case Swedish, being non English. It s almost like an instrument of it’s own, it’s own timbre, cadence, but familiar. The syllables of the words allow you to follow along. There I go again. Drifting off.
There is a very real connection with the music here, it feels ancient but you know it’s also of now, more time travel? I found this in the bandcamp randomiser, it had sat there waiting for me to find it like some treasure and well, it is.
The combination of fiddle, moraoud, guitar, bass and subtle synths arranged within an inch, with the vocals swooning on and around. Incantations and prayers surrounded by melody.
Even thought these are arrangements/re-magining of traditional songs they have hooks all over the place. The recordings and arrangements are so good that I as soon as the last track ends I have to hit replay immediately. It’s so organic, of the earth and feels like you have walked into a rural pub and caught a band half way through. Oh I wish. That’s how good the recordings sound, they feel in the room, all at once. Minimal overdubs, performed. If they aren’t they have pulled off a neat trick.
I have never wanted to see a band more badly.
Totally recommended.
The sound is crystal clear and it has that melody and rhythm that someone who has never heard it before can hum along with immediately. The vocals are almost soaring, in probably the quietest way possible. There are no vocal acrobatics on display, but there is a conversational quality to them that feels calm, yet intense.
The instrumentation varies for each song, ranging from minimal in some and very full and dense in others. The most unusual and therefore most striking sound comes probably from a moraoud, an 8-stringed lute. The tones coming from it are reminiscent of a banjo, with an unusual jitteryness that works so very well with songs that are expressing a lot of sorrow.
Sorrow is the most common emotion I can hear in the four tracks of this EP, but especially the last track has a more upbeat feel to it; not the rowdy happiness you’d expect to hear in a pub, but the lighthearted fun I’d imagine at a village fairground. Overall, I’ve enjoyed this very much. It is not flashy music, nothing that would need pyrotechnics or a laser show. Just down to earth, well performed and recorded music to get lost in for a few minutes. Sometimes, that is all I need.
The natural reverb present just brings the music to life in a way that is perfectly fitting for this type of music, the type of music you expect to hear around a crackling campfire through which tales as old as time are told through song.
With the main instruments of choice being what sounds like a banjo-type instrument accompanied by fiddles it kind of brings to mind the Roots music of America which makes me wonder if this type of music might’ve been the progenitor to that iconic sound.Either way, it sounds wonderful and is the perfect relay to bring their tales regarding death to life in a manner that befits these dreary tales. It evidently adds a sense of melancholy to the music, but more than just sad the lyrics also show a reverence for death, a respect for the cycle of life so to speak.
So all in all I really loved this week’s pick. So much so I instantly bought it for myself.
- #FeatureFriday – And the Bones by Dr. Organ
- #FeatureFriday WIENER DEMEANOR by Cheer Captain
- #FeatureFriday – Effusion by Sweet Freeze
- Beginings Revisted by Jim France
- Recording in Progress by Aaron Smith
- Believer, a.k.a. The Last Shall Be the First
- Scrapyard Boyz: Ultra Despair Duo – Grizzly, Slogan
- The Nirvana Fallacy (or, Mania and Her Sophomore Slump) – Saint Louie
- The Cocker Spaniels Are Still Alive, And So Are You
- X by Everything’s a Crime
- Take to The Streets by Eparapo
- Ashenheart – Faded Gold
- Underground by Trina Chakrabarti
- Happy New Year #Feature Friday
- Adrift by Angry Blue Planet
- Hells Bells – Dallas Orbiter’s Spaceman Things