Artist: Heritage
Title: A Tale For The Lost
Type: Album
Label: Digital
Rafael M. Guerra, the mastermind behind this delight, was not a name I knew really but they cropped up on my feed with codes, blessed codes. With the delightful artwork as perfect bait I redeemed one.
And here I am composing a review. Besides the story of the protagonist Roli, there is a noted theme that chimed sweetly with the month, and the times so I included it here verbatim: ‘This album is about the way humans construct false worlds, often through prejudice about those they barely know. All of this inevitably leads to negative thoughts, feelings, and even actions towards those who suffer from these prejudices, making it difficult for them to show who they truly are, or worse, losing this possibility entirely.’
But to the music and our little hero…
‘Albus The Lightstealer’ is a quiet yet ominous beginning. The music feels somehow chilly, a cold winter night perhaps. The slow build of melody, the echoing notes like the song of nightbirds somehow for me slowly replaces ominous with simply magical. It dakes a darker turn but more in sadness than malevolence. The orchestration here, the arrangement, is simply breathtaking in its delicacy. Light enough to move no flake of snow and yet gradually as the tapestry becomes vivid and fills your world. I hear distant voices, raised in confusion or anger, perhaps in strife, but they fade with the last notes..
‘The Last Light Inn’ is, as you might expect, a sweet light sight, a sound that feels as though its presence bring a little more energy as a promise to be a safe haven in the dark. But there is a shadow to the melody too; a steady, heavy pace to the almost subliminal percussion, a beat that you don’t notice when it begins until it is clear it has herded you for some time. The touch of the composer here is frankly, to me, brilliant. It opens the door to the warmth of an inn, a little bustle before settling. A strange place, perhaps…
‘Wayfarer Roli’ has the sweetest theme. Delicate and wistful notes with a slow but broad swell behind it like curiosity sparkling against a dark world. There is such a gentleness to the music of Roli, too, Fear, perhaps, but one that amplifies innocence rather than hate.
‘Luca, the Cicada’ has a slow waltz and the delightful flickering like insect wingsat moments. It feels like a soft distraction, entertainment at the In perhaps? Or even someone alone, simply dancing while nobody can see.
‘Echoes Of A Den’ brings the winds, the night still feeling cold and strange. Notes bright against the dark and now almost sorrowful synths. It moves in short hesitant steps but strangely, perhaps the suggestion of the title, there is a curious… almost an amtopshere of safety, or at least respite here.
‘Lost Woods’ brings a feeling of age, the sedate motion of a place that has been for ages and will be for ages more. Flute sounds flutter through the background, the music swells in an almost epic manner but spreads no further than the woods. ‘Glade’ is where we reach. The music offers a feeling of once more being beneath the sky. The flowing notes sprinkle that night time magic for me, but perhaps that will just be me as the melody has more of the sun in its heart; harp and mandolin like plucking describing a warm stillness and recalling memories.
Until finally we meet ‘Aurel, the Lightbearer’ in a gorgeous flurry of notes, droplets of light spinning our from strings and lighting the synths sounds which open like a glow in the darkness. Oh it makes my heart ache so much; beauty and perhaps that misuunderstanding spoken of. Perhaps Albus stole no light, perhaps they were always Aurel, the bearer of the light, keeping it safe throughout the night which has its place too. Keeping it safe to greet the morning and to warmh the world for the seasons to come. I’m sure I may be wrong, but at this moment it is how I feel this beautiful work; Roli following their heart, seeing the light being stolen away only to find it safe in the hands that others said stole it, tended until its time comes again and the world can turn its delicate dance once more.
And I received this world, these thoughts, from a code freely offered from an artist I was barely aware of. That in istelf is a lesson too.
I do hope so much that this has some kind of artifact release, something that the beautifully composed and arranged orchestral yet intimate music deserves. Such talent, and such storytelling.
I live for this. Rafel M. Guerra, I thank you with all my heart.
Gizmo
Walking The Liminal Space 