Artist: Fernmage
Title: Where The Golden Grass Grew Silent
Type: EP
Label: Digital / Sokol Keep
So many albums of dungeon synth and adjacent I have to get through, so many pressures of the world outside to deal with and cope with, so much turmoil within. But this broad genre is the kind that helps when you are sick of screaming, sick of feeling every edge of your calm temper fray. And of course one little gem dropped a couple of days ago, one I had so been looking forward to.
A short EP, two pieces, just under thirteen minutes but in moments, lost in my headphones sound it took me away so here it is, and why you should pay it attention.
I’m sure they’re not, but if Fernmage are a new artist to you then you are entering a singularly wonderful world of music.
‘Where The Golden Grass Grew Silent’ begins so quietly, so sedate and yet with some beautiful and well chosen notes rich in sound and a deep golden as the title, it spreads such warmth over you. Oh there is a strange melancholy yes, a stillness and a sense of history whispered in the soft background sounds. But it also has a mystery to it, a world to explore…. my mind strangely went to that opening vista in the Shadow Of The Erdtree game expansion where a vast, rolling swathe of corn like golden grass strtetches out before you, Where odd remnants of buildings, les than even ruins, peek out. But something is out there, too. Oh we hear the birds, gentle and unconcerned, but the wave like loop of the synths spread the sense that something happened here that left its mark, something that has cast a dark but distant shadow. The acoustic guitar gently pushes the shadow back, the accompanying melody shining and echoing around it. Bad things happen, they leave their mark. Yes. But also there is still beauty as long as nature remains.
Just under eight minutes of heart-achingly gorgeous, thoughtful music from a place you need to see,
‘The Old East Road’ may be the path through this world, towards or away. Like most roads it depends upon your purpose. This has a clear way to it, a steady and calm journey offered and taken by many before. It may be untravelled by most now, a feeling of solitude drifting across its time worn mark, its fraying edges, but each time the music rises in sound it offeres the energy to continue. There is such calm here, such an old presence holding you, your horse and your thoughts. It may no longer be the swiftest route, but it is still the one that offers the most. It is the Old East Road for a reason… it was the way that the first took and you follow the echoes of their souls as you go. They knew best.
Perhaps…
There is such a depth of storytelling in these two passages of music. Such a deep and rich sound and a strong but gentle touch to bringing the sense of a place and a time when it was perhaps different but those shadows linger still. Evocative is the perfect word. It succeeds in being welcoming, enthralling whilst carrying just the shade of darker history to it without the land being poisoned. The land is simply old and with stories to tell.
Fernmage is just magical to me and, this weekend, it is the perfect soundtrack to the world I needed in my mind.
Gizmo
Fernmage – Where the Golden Grass Grew Silent – Summer under Shadow EP | Fernmage | SOKOL KEEP
Walking The Liminal Space 