Neutral – Of shadow and its dream

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,. Neutral sounds highly melancholic and romantic. The base is formed by well-played acoustic guitar and moody strings. The vocals, alternatively male and female voices, are also pleasant to listen to. A song like ‘Axe and Flower: tow faces’ makes me think of Of the Wand and the moon, especially through the whispered vocals. Other tracks bring to mind Argine (especially through the prominent violin) and fellow-Russians Romowe Rikoito.

A small critical remark: quantitively we are not spoiled on this album. The six long tracks last for about 40 minutes. Two of the tracks were familiar to me already: the cover ‘Sheath and Knife’ can be found on the Sol Invictus tribute compilation “Sol Lucet Omnibus”, while “Diamonds in your hands” was also featured on the aforementioned live album. But both tracks are worthwhile, so it’s no problem to have them included here. If you like delicate ‘heavenly folk’, then Neutral will certainly be to your liking.

artist: Neutral
label: Cynfeirdd
details: 2004, lim. to 499 copies. [Cyn 033]