Forseti – Erde

Forseti has become in the past few years one of the most prominent neo-folk /folk noir projects. In fact the band only consists of Andreas Ritter. He is accompanied by guests and befriended musicians. The first album (Jenzig) was nice with melodic acoustic folk songs, the sequel (Windzeit) was simply very good. This upward trend is continued on this third record, entitled Erde.

Erde is a beautiful album on which the musical growth of Forseti is very clear. The songs are richer on instrumentation (next to the guitar the cello, violin and queer flute have a very prominent role in the songs), as is immediately evident on the openingtrack ‘Korn’. The songs are even better structured than on the previous record.

It is a bit weird to call this folk noir, as Erde is not a dark album. It is melancholy without a doubt, but not darker than the music of Leonard Cohen, Nick Drake or the Dutch Ygdrassil. In this tradition of singer / songwriters Forseti fits also very well. Songs like ‘Lichterflug’ and ‘Der Graue König’ make Erde a highlight in the genre. But Forseti should try to reach a broader audience with this record. It has the quality to do that.

artist: Forseti
label: Grunwald
details: 11 tracks [Grun003]