The Shadowsphere is a young group from Finland, founded by Andy and William Klove. According to their biography they started as a ‘goth band’, but they ‘shortly noticed that one genre is too narrow a niche when it comes to expressing ourselves’, so they ‘moved on to wider fields’. Their self-released debut EP contains four tracks, including two versions of the title track.
The music can perhaps be described as a mixture of darkwave, neo-classical and medieval music. Though guitar, bass and piano is used, synthesizers play an important role in creating the melody lines. I read that The Shadowsphere now works with a flute and cello player as well. This is a good development, because the track on this EP (‘ The Guilt is with Him’) which uses a real cello directly stands out. ‘Through the field’ is also a pleasant song, through its baroque clavecimbel melody and grave vocals.
An obvious influence on the music seems to be Sopor Aeternus (‘Shadowsphere’ is also the title of a Sopor song). Furthermore I have to think of other neo-classical acts like Weltenbrand or Die Verbannten Kinder Eva’s. The Shadowsphere clearly shows potential on this release. The compositions may be quite simple and the sound somewhat too synthetic, the songs do convey a lot of atmosphere and the male vocals are convincing. We will hear more from them!
