After teasing the audience with a single (Hail hail hail) and a reissue (Midnight Will), Of The Wand and the Moon is back with a long awaited fourth album. “Sonnenheim” contains 14 tracks (including some new versions of known songs) and comes in a luxurious digipack with gold printing and embossed letters.
The album contains many of the elements which Of the Wand and the Moon is known (and loved by many) for. Folky acoustic guitars, atmospheric ambient elements, clear and pleasant melodies, whispered melancholic lyrics, themes of nordic religion and nature. After the ritual, soundscape-like ‘Black moth’, the most catchy song of the album follows, ‘Nighttime in Sonnenheim’. A typical neofolk song, with accordion playing by Andreas Ritter, which directly makes it remind of Forseti.
“Sonnenheim” contains various more accessible folky songs which are not very surprising, but nice to listen to. Good examples are ‘Summer solstice’, a new version of ‘My black faith’, ‘Wonderful wonderful sun’ and ‘Here’s the sun’. Only a few songs deviate from the general style, like the dark and dense ‘Camouflage’ or the slow and mysterious ‘I shall Feast’.
The album does not bring many new elements to the general sound of OTWATM, apart from the contributions of various guest musicians. But the general quality of the songs is high and the album as a whole sounds very focused, making “Sonnenheim” better in my opinion than for instance its predecessor “Lucifer”. In other words, recommended for fans of Kim Larsen and his group.
