KARNNOS - Dun Scaith - CD - 12 tracks - Cynfeirdd - 2002

Two years after the well received 'Deatharch Crann', Karnnos comes back at last with a long awaited new album 'Dun Scaith'. Continuing his collaboration with the French label Cynfeirdd, Karnnos delivers with this new album the opposite, the other face of 'Deatharch Crann'. Johan A. exposed in length last year the links that unite these two works... 'Deatharch Crann' was the poetic and nostalgic expression of the Spirit of Europe and 'Dun Scaith' a reflection of its dark and bloody side...

The first minutes of listening open for the auditor the doors to world of abysses, in ruins... A dark, ritual atmosphere dear to Johan A. that crystallises on the first few violin notes, on the first 'whispered' lyrics... a perfect opening to a world of darkness...
The whole album then oscillates between a traditional Irish song 'Frascreeuder Ofrail Sgeo', ambient, ritual and dark folk sonorities... The magnificent 'Ruins and Terror', a true masterpiece of martial dark folk, will no doubt receive the favours of those who love the genre...

'Dun Scaith' is a musically rich album, where classic instruments (flute, violin, viola...), layers of natural sound samples (recordings of storms, torrents, bells...) mingle naturally during long ambient, dark and worrying pieces... that also leave the texts, declaimed in Portuguese on 'O Revolteio Entrelacado De Penumbra' or more often in English, express their strength, their share of shadows... the track 'Imbas Forosna', reveals a female voice, that of Pvra Dalem, which, by echoing the lyrics pronounced by Johan A., seems to address itself with restraint to our own consciences... in reference to an ancient Celtic ritual that opened the consciences to the invisible world that surrounds us... an ambient-ritual track of all beauty...
'Dun Scaith' is a marvellous alchemy of the best of what Karnnos had accustomed us to since 'Burial in Flames'... J.A. expresses his music with a purity, in front of which one can incline...
An album that definitely confirms Karnnos place amongst the major formations of the pagan-folk scene... Available from Cynfeirdd in a limited edition of 888 copies, the CD is presented in a black and white digifile, accompanied by a small booklet. There also exists an edition limited to 44 copies, available only from Cynfeirdd, that offers a bonus CD-R (two tracks) neatly presented in a cover in the same style as the most original Reaping Horde productions...

Strongly recommended !

Nathalie F.
November 2002

translation: Ian C.

Contact: http://cynfeirdd.free.fr