The third album of the French project Dawn & Dusk Entwined. I appreciated the debut on World Serpent, but somehow missed the second album on the same label. Now there is a new album on the French label Athanor, dealing with familiar themes, like European pagan traditions. The album is ‘partly inspired by Otto Rahn’s “Luzifers Hofgesind” and aims to pay tribute to characters and places that still carry light’. Musically “Remergence” continues where previous records had left, with an atmospheric mixture of neo-classical hymns, dark ambient moods and some martial percussion. The whole is adorned with various samples, from movies and historical events.
The album is varied but still coherent. The first track, ‘Consolamentum’ is directly a fine majestic classical composition, with choirs, dark horn loops and solid percussion, which brings you in the right mood. Then it is time for a highlight, ‘Sacrifice for purity’. Militant percussion, a classical background, storm sounds, half-spoken vocals, triumphant trumpets, a song to get you in its spell. It is followed by a more minimal track, ‘Lines of shields’, with dark ambient sound, slow drumming, solemn vocals and warlike samples in the background, with a similar mood as the latest Toroidh trilogy.
Most of the next songs follow this rather tranquil line. ‘Spirit of Julian’ starts more martial, through the aggressive sampled voice and the rather industrial rhythm. Later in the song trumpets join and determined spoken words. ‘In the Wind of Bliss’ is then again soft and fragile, an instrumental song consisting mainly of a piano melody. I really like the hypnoticcountdown on ‘At the heart of darkness’, which is either sampled from or very similar to a scene in Lars von Trier’s film ‘Europa’. Then follows an uptempo tune called ‘Plénitudes et néant’. It begins with a cheering crowd, so perhaps it’s a live track, it has that feeling anyhow. The monotonous percussion, the almost cheerful mlody and the singing in French remind me of that other great French project, Dernière Volonté. A highlight. ‘Le long sommeil’ is a very lovely tranquil piece, with nice female spoken words in French.
A solid and mature album, with some highlights. I haven’t heard the previous album, but compared to the debut Dawn & Dusk Entwined has evolved positively.
