Artist: Flickers From The Fen
Title: Stoned In Gielinor III
Type: Album
Label: Digital / Crypt Of The Wizard / Phantom Lure / Out Of Season
Ah, I am a couple of months late to this (so sadly missed out on the cassette… sulk sulk) due to the vagaries of life and the pernicious nature of social media streams. But I got here after dawdling along and I hope Mercian Sam would agree that the speed of the journey is far less important than the journey itself and getting there. And dawdling is such a lovely word how can you hate on people who do it?
So for those few who don’t know Flickers From The Fen are the strange spirit of the countryside, of RuneScape and other lands, and a mystical magician in a very impressive hat more often seen casting spritely musical spells with a fiddle than bent over a cauldron. Unless, you know, dinner….
Coming across them by chance, and being swept up in their jig, though, is… it is just something special.
‘In Fine Fettle’ is indeed a lovely way to start. The melody is light and sunny, a calm sway that can’t help but conjure green green grass and softly rolling hills, sunlight and a day to dawdle with no purpose other than perhaps seeing what the day brings. It puts such a warm smile on your face, a lilting flute brushing past in a gentle dance. ‘An Orb In The Sky (sends the Orks Awry)’ kind of coaxing more energy from you. The sun is even brighter and the melody is just absolutely beautiful; it has the softest of bounces, the segue into a country dance, moments of rest to bring some contemplation. And then back to the dance you are pulled, nary an ork to be found… Folk synth, fantasy rural life. Joy. ‘Skylark Summit’ is where we find ourselves afterwards. A little outcrop perhaps on a hill overlooking the fields and above us the the song of the birds. And yet their eager song brings a stillness to us, a moment to allow us to push back on any few remaining cares and just breathe in the beauty below.
‘The Wolf At The Edge Of The World’ could be a grim song, hunger and hunting and…no, this is the beast itself no more, no less, part of the world looking out. It has a little touch of the melancholy perhaps but the beautiful layering of the melody and the rise of it also brings a sense of majesty. At the edge of the world perhaps but it is still a part of the world for its allotted time. When next my old bones haul me up to the top of a local hill, this shall be the song I listen to.
‘Puffin Song’ is sweetness, a little gaggle of melody and instruments chattering away to themselves in their own little world. Maybe tales of the see or complaints about the neighbours. Who knows. It has simply the sound of life to it. Landscape folk music with a true sense of wonder in the small things and some simply beautiful fiddle playing here that makes my heart swell. ‘Lift Thissen’…? Well with an almost Irish tinge to the music, I shall as someone from the mythical land of Yorkshire decide that this is an entreaty to lift thy self. And it does with birdlike fluttering flute and then the emotional tugging of a tune that seems to have centuries of age in the world around you. I want to use the words beautiful and gorgeous yet again but more importantly it is music that seems to care for you.
‘Great Grinding Staircase’ spirals slowly along its way, a little heavy become the steps with the effort but there is always a little musical snippet to encourage and lift the weight on your legs one more time. Our reward would appear to be an audience with a ‘Beast Beyond Belief’ which is a dark and doomy moment. The low end sound and pace is most threatening to be sure, but there is something in the melody that offers a little perspective somehow. A little wonder rather than just fear.
‘Swords For All’ is of course a fine idea, but also here is a simple, smooth passage of music, polished to sunlight bright. Do we need them in ‘The Meadow Bends’ Pt1 and 2 ? I somehow doubt it. Free and fresh music, a place that simply seems like home somehow. It feels safe, warm. So pretty that wherever you travel it travels with you.
‘Skies Over Isafdar’ begins with an empic, historic sound and yet the music soon slides smoothly into what might be thought of as the detail. And place grand has these things; the little cratures that pass by the historic scene unconcerned with anothing other than their own little world, the birds wheeling with little care beyond riding those streams. A lesson, perhaps.
The album closes with ‘Street Of The Holy Field’. A short little trilling number and a perfec t way to leave as though passing a busker on your way out of the tavern…
Oh my. Such joy is to be had within this album. At times you would think the multitude of instruments and sounds on some songs would be a clatter of chaos but it simple is not; more as though you have chanced upon an impromptu meeting of friends and musicians in the warmest and most welcome of taverns. They talk of course, and laugh and drink, but mostly they play together and the music they conjure is full of that friendship and warmth. They know each others’ souls and play so perfectly together that every voice has its moment, every instrument its time to glow.
This is an album of bright sun and warmth. Oh there are moments that tug hard on your heart but not in darkness, simply in the warmth of the memories they rouse and the sweet if sad knowledge that those moments will never reappear. But it is momentary as those memories are precious and with these friends around you there are so many more moments that will join those memories.
So if you see the strange dancing man in in big hat, fiddle bright beneath his chin, follow. The magic will never leave you.
Gizmo
Stoned in Gielinor III | Flickers from the Fen
Glorious cover by (@haexenkessl) • Instagram photos and videos
Walking The Liminal Space 