Artist: Ivanova Kula
Title: Lullaby For The Undead Knights
Type: Album
Label: Digital
I sometimes receive emails from musicians asking for reviews. Some are clearly sent by bands who haven’t a clue about my blog but I still give them a listen, others like Serbian gent Ivan Ris who is behind this music, are so what my blog is about. But you can only review so much when you’re one person and even music you like may have to be put aside. This one however refused to sit quietly in the corner. I liked it yes but … too little time. And yet I kept coming back to it.
So here we are, overdue for which I offer my sincere apologies.
Nine passages including Prologue and Epilogue. Mostly short. The sound which opens up the Prologue is a simple single keyboard but a such a sweet sound. It is the music of an instrument musing on times past that perhaps never quite were.
This style; the single keyboard and the tune is the style of the work. ‘Deserts And Ruins Were Once Forests And Palaces’ uses the simple phrasing gently but precisely. I just relax into it and let the complications and complexities of the modern world slip away as though dusting a room. ‘Through The Corridors Of Zaborav and Bestrag’ is a skeletal sound, fragile and dreamlike and easily broken. ‘Neither Heaven Nor Earth’ is a moment of melancholy, the melody like a musing on things which perhaps cannot be changed nor easily explained but they occupy thoughts.
‘The Past Awakens, Swords Are Forged Again’ might be the acho of past glory, faded but the sound still haunts the world. ‘Dance Across Un holy Ground’ is a short, light slow twirling of music before the title track, a slow and haunting, lilting track. Ethereal in nature is rests upon the land like a calming voice. Perhaps whispering that their work is done, that rest can come but will it ever? ‘Ancient Flash Upon The Fresh Blood And Flesh’ trails into a dark place, s slow brushing away of hope somehow.
The epilogue ebbs and flows, swells and fades and the work is over. It leaves my mind so quiet and at peace somehow. And this is why I kept coming back to it.
One of the most enduring, and even endearing aspects of the broad world of dungeon synth is the breadth of styles that can fit snugly under its blanket and that’s without breaking out into other areas. The music can be dark or triumphant or whimsical. It can be epic and multilayered, symphonic or simple and quiet. It can be a showcase for flamboyant musicianship or a beautiful expression of an artist simply finding a way to fully express themselves.
That is the layers of thought that touched me on being pointed at this album/EP. For some it might be too simple in its touch, but for others like myself that is its beauty. It is the quiet thoughtful voice that comes to you when you need stillness and that is something to be treasured.
Gizmo
Lullaby For The Undead Knights | Ivanova Kula | Ris & Ivanova Kula
Walking The Liminal Space 