Allerseelen – Venezia

This cd was originally released in 2001, but will be re-issued this year on double vinyl with some extra (unreleased) tracks.

The sound of Allerseelen on Venezia has not much to do with the more industrial music from the early days of this project. Some songs have an electronic rhythm which is much more evident than on most contemporary tracks. But, there are already lots of samples from traditional instruments in the songs.

On Venezia the poetic character of Allerseelen is also evident. Some song texts are based on poems, which were written by Rainer Maria Rilke, Ezra Pound and Jean Cocteau. Venezia is thus a collection of nice pieces of music. ‘Horusknaben’ is, for example, a nice song, which is based on ‘On Wings of Rapture’ by pagan folk band Hagalaz Runedance. Despite the clear samples taken from the original, Allerseelen has made a song out of it that is truly one of its own, with a straight rhythm and spoken word.

Another track, ‘Musa’, is a very quiet and atmospheric piece that could have been on a recent album. And, ‘Bist du die Nacht’ was released last year in a different version as ‘Löwin’. Although the new version is musically enriched this version is still very good. It has a pleasant mood due to whispering voice and playful but sober piano.

Looking at this record after a few years you may conclude that this is a typical album for Allerseelen while developing its sound. Objectively Venezia is just still a really nice album.

artist: Allerseelen
label: Aorta
details: cd/lp, 12 tracks [AORCD06]