DARKWOOD - Weltenwende - 10" - 8 tracks - Eis & Licht - 2003

Released a few months ago on Eis & Licht, this 10" offers, I must say, the best of Darkwood's material up to now.
I am totally subjugated by the eight beautiful tracks featured on this new record. A feeling rather comparable to the first listening of Forseti 'Jenzig' 10"... and this is more than a compliment!
The musical compositions are mainly acoustic and the lyrics deal with 'enthusiasm and resignation, struggle and reflection, ascent and retreat, love and grief'.

This new opus 'Weltenwende' begins with a medieval piece 'Wiederkehr' before leaving place to a different version of 'Der Falken Flug', a title on the last CD 'Flammende Welt', enhanced by the presence of the grave sound of a cello and an aerial violin....
Follows 'Im Heimatwald'... a pure dark folk gem, full of melancholy, combining with finesse cello, percussions (just at the end of the track to slightly accelerate the rhythm), acoustic guitar and vocals in German... just beautiful! This song certainly features amongst the best dark-folk composition ever.
The first side ends with a rather martial ambient piece 'Der Schaffende' with Henryk Vogel's spoken words inspired by Nietzsche and strong percussions.

The B-side opens in the best manner with 'Stiller Bund' and its fairy flute... followed by the calm and folky 'Weg ins Licht', then the very intimate 'Tochter des Waldes' where the flute is still present, accompanying German spoken words...
This 10" closes with the superb 'Epitaph' where percussions and flute combined with Henryk vocals and acoustic guitar deliver a classical but nonetheless lively neofolk song.

The whole 10" is homogeneous and shows the true maturity of Darkwood's musical evolution... The 10" is definitely a format that suits perfectly Darwood's work!

The 10" is limited to 700 copies and comes in an original gatefold cover and nice artwork carried out by Heidenvolk (originally Darkwood's label). The lyrics of 'Der Schaffende' are also mentioned in the inner sleeve.

Highly recommended!

Nathalie F.
Summer 2003

Contact: www.darkwood.de
Eis & Licht: www.eislicht.de