Ilian Ladov is a musician from St. Petersburg, Russia, who works in the medium of neofolk. The work is all instrumental, and has a very relaxed vibe to it. It’s a bit melancholy in parts, but not dour or droll at all.
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There is such a gentle lilt to the voice of Nata Boundriver of Ясный-Svetly that I can imagine this being what Kate Bush or Hope Sandoval sounding like if either had fronted post-rock era Mark Hollis or some band specializing in ethereal, ghostly music. A sublime listen.
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Your browser does not support iframes. The French collective Skáld come as a revelation to me. These are Frenchmen who expertly perform Nordic music and imbue it with everything from folk music to metal. From the band’s press release: “As the heirs of the ancient poets known as skalds, the SKÁLD group, with one song after another, tames this folk tradition. We can lose ourselves in the hills of Danish elves, and meet Swedish nymphs, as we listen to the ballad of Herr Mannelig, the tale of a female troll who hopes to become human (by attempting to wed…
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I had the pleasure of meeting Matt Howden, the mighty Sieben himself, while tour-managing for Sol Invictus in 2000. His violin playing added an otherworldly element to the music, and he was embarking on his solo career at that point. After scores of albums under Sieben and his own name, everything culminates in this album. It’s not so much a neofolk album as much as a combination of psychedelic rock and goth/post-punk, as raw as anything that came out 40 or 50 years ago (how time flies), but modern enough to break ground in any of these genres. Solid.
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If you’re going to spend the winter holidays listening to Gothic Christmas music, you could do much worse than hearing Thanatos doings warm and rather respectable Christmas tunes. May you, my friends who are either Orthodox, Catholic or those who participate in one way or another in Advent, enjoy a pleasant time.
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As we have but one day left in the calendar, we bud you adieu with the legendary French cold wave band Clair Obscur doing Robert Burns proud.
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It’s so nice to see new music come from Galicia, where my paternal ancestors hail from. trajedesaliva are from Vigo and seem to be influenced by dark ambient, ritual music and post-Industrial soundscapes, though it doesn’t try to overwhelm the listener. Something I really liked about this album is that it sounds, in parts, like 1970s Kosmische Musik (think of Tangerine Dream in their 70s prime), which makes this unique among darkwave or dark ambient bands.