Lapis is a collaboration between Darkwood and Chaos As Shelter. As with all Heidenvolk releases this record is a concept album. The theme of this project is alchemy, and more specific it deals with the creation of the Philosopher’s Stone.
The tracks on this album follow the process of this creation, as it is done accordingly to alchemistic writing (of Paracelsus), in four stages. This is worked out very well on Lapis. The album opens with some sort of bubbling sound, like you might hear in an old laboratory. After that the record evolves into soundscapes and a few songs with a ritualistic feeling. At the end of the record there is a very quiet piece that symbolises the succesful finished process.
You will hear some haunting sounds and some folkloristic elements on Lapis. The more folky songs (‘Melanosis’, ‘Leukosis’, ‘Xanthosis’ and ‘Iosis’) are raw and unpolished. The Russian singing by Vera Agnivolok gives the music a special sjamanistic feeling that serves the mood and theme very well.
Lapis thus turns out to be a very interesting album, both thematically as musically. Both the fans of the folky songs by Darkwood (like on Weltenwende) as of the more experimental/soundscape material (like on Herbstgewölk) by this project will enjoy this album. It is the perfect combination of these two aspects.
Also it has to be said that Lapis comes in a beautiful digifile with wonderful surrealistic paintings in the booklet .
