Artist: Melankolia
Title: Compendium 2007 – 2017
Type: Album
Label: Digital / Nightblade Records
Obligatory shock horror opening: Despite pretence to the contrary I do not actually have an encyclo-photographic knowledge of Dungeon Synth and Ambient. Yeah I can hear you all laughing at the one person who thought I did. Be nice to themguys…Ahem. But this is by way of the fact that I have only recently come into contact with the name Melankolia but when the name had sunk in, then came the notice that this Compendium was to be released and , well, you have to give it a go.
And so that was how I discovered why so many people were looking forward to this resurrection. It’s a little gem.
Our journey into Melankolia begins with ‘Walk Of Mind’. It’s gorgeous and riish, slow swell of music is, even without the title, the perfect sound to moments I have when my mind retreats and I think on the many years that have passed and the faces and sunsets that entails. It is, indeed, melancholia of the most beautiful and reflective kind. To me it is the sound of beauty past, some appreciated at the time but many not and none to come again. How many more such pictures will be set alongside this wistful hallway of memory I can never know. So perhaps best just to relish those that and face the regret that their loss entails. It rises, it ebbs, and the gentle melody holds you in its warmth.
We then enter a triptych; ‘Let There Be Darkness’ I-III. Pt I is indeed a turn towards the shadows. The piano in the room next door as a lone voice whispers and rambles incoherently in your room. Then the synths swell. I imagine night, a simple cabin looking out over water. The lighter notes reflect from the water but you are torn between the beuaty and the utter loneliness of this place. The melody shifts softly like silk over slow moving arms, finds new folds and still the voice whispers. Pt II has an older, archaic feel to the miusic, the lonesome violin offering neo-classical in dark medieval times. A little Arcana passes softly. A world of gothic stone and dusty libraries and drapes no one has closed for decades, longer as the violin and the piano wander through the halls. Pt III descends further, a strange but quiet wall of noise and slowly the music rises from it. Swells of synths, the trickling of the piano notes; hesitant, echoing as though beneath stone. Cavernous? Or tombs long forgotten. And for all the darkness there is still, in the echoes of choral voices and the shimmering synths and thoughtful steps of the piano a sad beauty here. Still, ageless and quiet it will be there even if no human sees it again.
‘Like A Light In My Darkness’ draws a bow across deep strings and begins a slow, lonely waltz with a piano melody. Quite beautiful in its mood and motion, the partnered leads seem dance together as though the world beyond is fading. Perhaps it is for them. Maybe for us too… ‘Where No Rust Shall Destroy’ begins with a rustle of leaves in a breeze, water flowing, nervous birds….and the most gentle and delicate of melodies warily steps into the glade. I find this strangely heartbreaking; on the one hand there is this place painted by the most careful and loving music, melodies which want no feather to be disturbed but even before I hear it I can sense something behind it all. A thread of the music which has a darker tone. As though even this place must pass..
‘Road Of Verdant Praise’ passes by running water, a choral, religious feel to the music filling the space of steps. Something reminds me of old Clannad, and yet the feel is utterly different. It brings a hallowed spirit to this place. Not one built of stone and men praising, but of seeing the nature of the place, the green and the brown and the small life within. It suggests, rather than urges, that this is a place to take your ease, even if just for a while. Be still, allow it simply to be and your rest will help your steps onwards glide a little.
‘Where Aeons Meet’ is chosen to end this Compendium. It is a slow, dreamlike drift with the most delicate swells of percussion, a hazy light to the synth droneas piano notes drop like slow rain and another melody wanders through darker places where grey stone might lie. A voice comes; clear and rich but it demands nothing, it simply adds strokes to the picture. We walk on through this strange land. The voice returns, like an arm pointing to the vista where the walker walks, and walks alone….
If like me this is your first hearing of Melankolia it is a perfect moment of introduction. The quality and richness of the sounds, the sombre tone that still encompasses beauty. The sense of slow deliberate motion and of the solitary. With excellent recording and a wonderful touch to arrangements I can see why some have held on to the name with such fondness over the quiet years. Dungeon synth, neo-classical and ambient in a heady yet quiet tapestry of music. Quite wonderful.
Gizmo
Walking The Liminal Space 