ONCE A BARGE
The Withered Leaves
As
always, the impressive work on the record cover. Reaping Horde is the only
label I know that pays so much attention to its releases, with such originality,
as much researched as bearer of symbols. The record is hidden in a black
silk wrapping, mischievously filled with strands of straw, creating a tiny
cavity inside which lies the album of Once A Barge, a German formation.
“The Withered Leaves” is their
first album and has just been released. The music is strongly anchored
in the dark folk tradition(s) as wall as its themes of predilection. We
renew with acoustic guitar, martial percussions, the dark and displaced
atmosphere, so dark that the mind reminisces the dark periods of 80’s new
wave, similar to formations such as Joy Division or Pink Turns Blue, or
even the first Death in June albums. The coldness of the tracks comes forth
mainly through the massive and evanescent use of keyboards and drum machines.
Although there are some weak points here and there, that can be seen as
some youthful sin, on the whole the album remains coherent and convincing,
possessing a skin deep melancholy, filled with a regenerating and welcome
nostalgia. One hears with pleasure the tortured delights of early Sol Invictus,
especially the superb O Ruina. The tracks give an impression of intrinsic
and epic strength, remote and deep, pernicious and intoxicating and whose
imaged invocations remind the dark designs of the cult World Serpent formations,
with revealing song titles such as Ring Stone, Winter Snow of Farewell,
Rose Garden, Wutanes Her, Afterworld or Under A Withered Tree.
A
successful beginning with a generous album for a most promising formation.
Stéphane
Fivaz
November
2000
Translation
Ian C.
Contact, informations and orders :
Band's contact :
Reaping Horde
Apartado 101
5401-909 Chaves
Portugal
e-mail : horde@portugalmail.com
Once A barge
Antonius Franck
Im Spreen 11
59846 Sundern
Allemagne