Artist: Beyond The Forests
Title: Echoes Beneath The Ashen Trees
Type: Album
Label: Digital / Kajdums Tower
This review has taken a bit, I must admit. It is a long album, but nothing out of the ordinary in dungeon synth albums, but also the chaos of life kept pulling on the rug. But here we are, thankfully. Now the name was new to me, but the project goes back to 1995 when mastermind Erkyna (aka Hildr Valkyrie) began her journey. This resurrection comes with a cover by Gustav Dore which also inspired the track titles. A nice and evocative change.
‘Where Harpies Perch And Whisper’ has a strange and wonderful opening. The simple synth sounds, the added melody and both swelling to open up a curious and still place. The tone is deeply old school but just beautifully phrased; the light is low but the place it has a grace to it, a strange sweetness. ‘The Forest Of The Vast Silence’ retains that sense of natural magic; the melody line to the background feeling like the hidden magic, the undisturbed small life within the domain, beneath the canopy. The kind of kingdom that instils no fear, simply respect due. Quite, quite beautiful. ‘The Grove Of Eternal Solitude’ make wonderful use of drums, a deep sounding beat that brings a austerity and a sense of worship to a place of quiet The winds pick up, the drums beat, but the solitude remains.
‘Whispers Among Withered Leaves’ has such a sense of the sylvan scene, a slow waltz as nature takes its course and offers its knowledge as it does; delicate and somehow deeply comforting.
‘The Nameless Arbor’ is far darker. A hollow haunting sound slips from beneath the synths. There is a feeling, one that crawls up arms and prickles hairs that warns you to be wary. Not quite fear, but knowledge that this place has its rules and they are old and will be observed. ‘Where Flesh Becomes Bark’ may be the result of crossing those boundaries, or perhaps a goal sought out as it has a calm but deep religious fervour to it. Choral vocals, the ritual drumming; to stay forever here seems a goal that many would seek. Maybe ‘Elysium Of The Cursed Forest’ would refute that but a curse to some, with its ominous dark opening, and the implacable atmosphere enshrouding you. May still be a place to offer awe to. Its movement is slow, dreamlike, but it has a sense of determination to it too. A strange passage to be sure.
‘Sentinel Of The Forsaken Wood’ is immediately suffused with the old spirit of dungeon synth. The wind blows across some old, twisted landscape and the synths walk through it with a slow, eerie tone. A little life stirs in the percussion, a melody lighter than expected turns. There is a simple folk feel to this; a curiously homely place but the whisper of magic remains to haunt it. It hits that moment of both upliifting and melancholy, light crystal like notes glittering in the darkness. The sentinel watches and all remains safe though forsaken by all outsiders.
The title track closes the album. At first a lonely, simple tune that flowers into a strange beautiful shade. The synths wrap around it, speaking softly. Perhaps of things past, who knows? It’s the strange but compelling gnelteness here that gets to me. There is a darkness but not one I fear. It is simply the flow of the magic here. It has no malevolent intent. Perhaps at times this world might be harsh but here we see the gentleness when you simply observe and allow it to hold you. Magic in the world may invoke fear but here, as it echoes beneath the ashen trees it simply wishes you to hear its memories. A gorgeous end to a softly woven album.
Yes I was captivated by this. The darkness here is never menacing; it shows the beauty of things as they are, not as you fear them or as you try to make them. It feels and sounds like a passage of life in a quiet, dark, ancient place here ash and rot, cold winds and eyes in the shadows are simply how this place is. All you need to enter is to hold respect in your heart.
Gizmo
Echoes Beneath The Ashen Trees | Beyond The Forests | Morke Og Lys
KTR067 – Echoes Beneath The Ashen Trees | Beyond The Forests | Kajdum’s Tower-metal
Walking The Liminal Space 