Artist: Arcysion
Title: Evergreen
Type: EP
Label: Digital
The world has got me, like most people I guess, in a dark place at the moment. I know this place far too well and the fact that at my age I am still here is down to true friends, self awareness and a good base of quiet stubbornness yet to be completely eroded. But it is at times like that, when I am pulling out of the latest dark vale that dungeon synth is the perfect soundtrack.
So here we have a fine and evocative Ep of such music. One Morus The Sorcerer is the entity behind Arcysion and the desire to be led through a gate into another world is apparently so easy for the sorcerer.
‘Pale Mist Rising’ is a soft, but haunting little moment in time. A sombre light, a damp chill but still you see the beauty. The synths are sweet, old school sounds. That late eighties, early nineties feel where Mortiis or Depressive Silence listened to Vangelis and Tangerine Dream and filtered it through black metal and fantasy and crafted worlds from it. This is a rich,beautiful sound by Arcysion; we get wheeling birds overhead, the gentle flow of the land and a sense of welcoming isolation rather than menace.
‘Where No Elf-Kin Tread’ has notes like dripping water, perhaps in a cave where outside the wind cuts through trees and around corners. There’s the hint of dark voice, throats used to old speech, a land not to intrude upon but also strangely no menace. Simply a place that is what it is and should be afforded that respect. The music has both movement in these strange voice, wind, whatever screes but a stillness created by the slow and sparse droplet like notes and the soft wash of sounds behind. Always a step away from darkness but a curious world.
‘Kemst þó hægt fari’ next, if I have managed a translation, which I hope I have because it is the slightly dry humour of something like ‘getting there slowly, but reaching our destination’. Its a an odd little dance, a vibrant trilling of notes here, a slowing there and a sense of wonder all around. Again the sounds of birds, somewhere high in the soft grey clouds, but also a sense of optimism. Small steps, scurried notes, but getting there…
‘Beyond The Canopy, moon and star’ has a handful of lyrics. Beyond the woods evergreen there lies a lone stardome, and orb with the palest sheen where lies my astral home. The keyboard wash is perhaps more to the fore, the notes adding a sense of wistful musing maybe.
‘In Bark And Stone’ closes makes me think of how memory lives in place; natural and even those touched by the hand of some race. The low keyboard sounds invoke a sense of deep time, long ages wrapped in their slow whispering. The lighter, echoing notes are like the marks that seasons and hands have left to mark it. And suddenly, in a moment, all is gone.
This is a lovely EP by this Polish wizard, one I would urge all dungeon synth fans to seek out. It is steeped in the old ways and it has a sense of wonder and, yes, a sense of gentleness for me too. Something I needed and something I felt I had to share.
Thank you Morus the Sorcerer. Arcysion has gifted me a time of calmness and peace along a slow but wondrous journey.
Gizmo
Walking The Liminal Space 