Reviews: folk

A new German neofolk project always has my interest. Especially when they are released by Eis & Licht, who don’t often add new artists to their roster. Nebelung comes from Bonn in the ‘Ruhrgebiet’, a grey industrial area which forms a sharp contrast with the forests depicted on the green digipack…

With every release Punch Productions seems to aim at a more impresive packaging. For Drinking To Better Days they succeeded in this once again. This 12” comes in a black velvet (!) gatefold sleeve. It really looks very impressive. The music on the record also fits this stylish packaging well…

Der Arbeiter is a project by Juan A. from Chile. I first encountered Der Arbeiter on the “Wir rufen deine Wölfe” compilation. “Reflejos del Sol” (reflections of the sun) is the first official album of this act. And it’s an interesting piece of work. I am often reminded of Kirlian Camera, through the dry technoid beats combined with moody ambient layers…

Christianity and country music are two defining elements in the work of David Eugene Edwards. Certainly not two aspects that usually play a prominent role in the music that I listen to. Nevertheless I greatly appreciate Edwards’ work. He is best known for his main group 16 Horsepower, but I especially like his darker side-project Woven Hand, started in 2001 during a sabbatical year…

These two records pay tribute to the dancenights called Elektrik Nacht that were organized in the past by the Augsburg’s inner circle of electronic producers, who are now also mostly associated with the Kommando 6 label. Both 12”es show the darker side of elektro/electronic music…

A really obscure ‘pagan electronic’ album by the German act Voxus Imp, originally released on tape in 1994. It has now been made available again by Mjölnir Tonkunst, in a small vinyl edition of 300 copies. The packaging is excellent, a lovely gatefold sleeve and a wonderful 4-page insert sheet with a long and interesting article in German called ‘Runen – Tradition & Interpretation”…

A vinyl-only album by Dies Natalis, containing six new tracks and limited to 500 nicely designed copies. As a conceptual theme the record deals with the Cathars, a religious group in southern France in the 11th century who were branded heretics by the Roman Catholic Church. The record starts surprising, with a strong medieval hymn with horn and bagpipe sounds and ritual percussion…

A new studio album by Sol Invictus, for the first time on the German Dark Vinyl label. That’s not the only change since the previous album “Thrones”, since Matt Howden and Sall Doherty are not present in the line-up…

In Ruin is an American dark folk act, founded by Terry Collia in 2002. “Seeds of the Past” is in fact a demo cd-r recorded by In Ruin in 2003, and later re-issued with bonus tracks by Bunkier Productions from Poland. The eight tracks directly make clear where the inspiration comes from…

The Polish label Bunkier Productions has assembled a compilation with 16 international acts. The cd-r is limited to only 100 copies and has a nice cover. The music ranges from dark folk and ritual to neo-classical and martial sounds. A few names were completely new to me, while others already have one or more releases out…

Many artists are ashamed about their early work after some time. Allerseelen though has nothing to hide, and has released material taken from tapes originally published around 1989, in a digitally remastered version. The 16 untitled tracks are now available on a limited double album…

The Italian formation Division S is always thirsty. Much beer and even more wine is needed to get them inspired. ‘In vino veritas’ is their motto. Their alcohol-inspired nihilistic music is certainly entertaining. Of course acts like Novy Svet, Circus Joy and especially Spiritual Front come to mind, and Boyd Rice with his friends, ‘Music, Martinis and Misanthropy’ style…

Except for a few compilation appareances, this album from 2002 is my first introduction to the music of The Mystery School, a collective lead by Carlos Boll from New York. He has created a pleasant listening album, somewhere between dark folk and moody pop, with some classical, ambient and psychedelic influences…

Three years after the first album “Last years calling” Novalis is back with a new cd. The misty trees and buildings on the cover already betray the melancholic sound of this German band…

This album was released on Blood Axis’ Storm label last year and really came as a surprise to me. Apparently “Barbara Carmina” is the debut of this collective of musicians from Portugal and Galicia, but it doesn’t sound like we’re listening to a group of newbies here. This special album is a must for anyone into (both traditional and dark) folk and medieval music…

Spyros Giasafakis is the main musician of Daemonia Nymphe, the neo-traditional Greek band. On this mini cd are five tracks of improvisations played with rebuilt ancient instruments. Other musicians like Louisa John-Krol and Christian Wolz (who both released music on Prikosnov?nie contributed to tracks…

Neutral is a band from Russia, not to be confused with the industrial act with the same name, created melancholic music somewhere between dark folk and neo-classical. A few years ago I was already pleasantly surprised by their live album “Walpurgis Night”. Now Cynfeirdd has released Neutral’s first studio album, which is certainly a beauty. Six tracks of dreamy and fragile acoustic music,…

Now and then Tony Wakeford cleans up his shelves and releases a cd full of Sol Invictus archive material. We were already treated to a series of live recordings (Brugge, Paris, Trieste). Now Tursa offers us a cd with rarities, remixes and unreleased tracks, “culled from my big box of DATs and CDR’s”…

This extremely dark record is produced by a project called Hexentanz, which is a collaboration between The Soil Bleeds Black and Psychonaut 75. Nekrocrafte is the first full length release by this project. Expect some dark ritual music when playing this cd. The sound is a mixture of electronic textures and acoustic instruments playing medieval inspired melodies…

After some excellent compilation appearances, I thought it was about time for an album of Werkraum. Apparently Cold Spring Records had the same idea and released the debut album of this German dark folk formation. Undere Feuer Brennen comes in a thin digipack with a gold print on it but no bandname or title. Inside we read that Werkraum is mainly a one man project of Axel Frank…