nederlands
englishAll content is © 2006-2009, Evening of Light.
Venereum Arvum makes ritual folk, supplemented with electronic elements. The music varies between traditional and mediaeval compositions and own songs, and is made by Sean Breadin a.k.a. Sedayne (also of Shibboleth and Eleanor's Visceral Tomb) and his wife Rachel McCarron. Scowan Urla Grun forms the first part of a double album.
The first thing that is remarkable about the album is the great length of the songs, especially considering it's folk we're dealing with. At times, this is not disturbing at all, and it lends the songs a ritual quality, as on the first two tracks, but sometimes the songs do get boring, like the monotonous "Thomas the Rhymer" or the happy "Elf Dance: Sir Olaf & La Folia", which is a very nice song in itself, but lasts for too long. Another downside is the percussion, which sounds too electronic in my opinion (which doesn't really add anything), and is mixed relatively loud in comparison to the rest of the music. Nevertheless, there are also enough positive things to remark about Scowan Urla Grun, such as the great voice of both Sean and Rachel, and the unique, dreamy atmosphere of the music. My personal highlight of the album is the beautiful adaption of the mediaeval "Tempus Est Iocundum", but the up-tempo "Grow Grow Green Branch" is also very nice. After this, the album gets a bit tedious, sadly enough. Each of the following tracks doesn't manage to keep my attention for the whole length, there is too little variation for that.
Because of aforementioned criticism, the quality of the tracks varies, but all in all this is a nice CD, that is definitely worth a listen for lovers of modern interpretations of mediaeval music and traditional folk.
D.M.K.
The first thing that is remarkable about the album is the great length of the songs, especially considering it's folk we're dealing with. At times, this is not disturbing at all, and it lends the songs a ritual quality, as on the first two tracks, but sometimes the songs do get boring, like the monotonous "Thomas the Rhymer" or the happy "Elf Dance: Sir Olaf & La Folia", which is a very nice song in itself, but lasts for too long. Another downside is the percussion, which sounds too electronic in my opinion (which doesn't really add anything), and is mixed relatively loud in comparison to the rest of the music. Nevertheless, there are also enough positive things to remark about Scowan Urla Grun, such as the great voice of both Sean and Rachel, and the unique, dreamy atmosphere of the music. My personal highlight of the album is the beautiful adaption of the mediaeval "Tempus Est Iocundum", but the up-tempo "Grow Grow Green Branch" is also very nice. After this, the album gets a bit tedious, sadly enough. Each of the following tracks doesn't manage to keep my attention for the whole length, there is too little variation for that.
Because of aforementioned criticism, the quality of the tracks varies, but all in all this is a nice CD, that is definitely worth a listen for lovers of modern interpretations of mediaeval music and traditional folk.
D.M.K.