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neofolk

liedersammlung (v/a) * Neue Welten (10″ 2001 ragna organisation/electronic sound lab)

In a magnificent cover comes this nice compilation 10″. A 5-sided cardboard cover that you have to unscrew in the middle to get the disc out. Two flaps on the left and right with the bandinfo and texts in the middle panel. I am not 100% sure when this compilation was released, but I think somewhere last year. It is limited to 500 copies, mine is 291, so I guess there are about 200 left.
“Neue Welten” opens with a magnificent bombastic industrial track of Coincide with singing and continues with a tranquil, nice and (to me) unknown Dies Natalis song called “Wohin Des Wegens”. The last track of side A and first track of side B are electro tracks by Painbastard and Transform Colláge. Then we get an industrial/ambient track by Dighum and a very nice last track by Ophir which is again rather bombastic industrial.
All in all quite a nice compilation with mostly unknown bands to me and even an unknown label! <6/4/02><3>

v/a * Neo-Form sampler 1 (online compilation 2005)

Many years ago you had to buy demos and compilation cds to get to know new bands. Nowadays the internet is stuffed with mp3s for free download. Now there are more and more online compilations, so new bands can present themselves together with known bands but still for free. The German magazine Neo-Form (of which I had never heard) now presents a new of such online compilations. 17 Contributions which are all “exclusive in this form”, whether a new track, an old or new version or a live-track. There are a few established bands to be found: Cawatana, Volksweerbaarheid, Von Thronstahl and Belborn. Then there are a few bands that you may have heard off, such as Langemarck, Laufeyiar Sonr or Herr. The rest are (to me) new names: Culture Of Darkened Fires, Rose Rovine E Amanti, Shava Sadhana, nA, Werra, Solblot, Gruenland, Stein, Sagittarius and UR. Most of the music is neofolk -and not the worst even-, but there is also more avantgarde and industrial music to be heard. Another very nice free compilation!

v/a * Lichttaufe – Der Folklore Liedschatz – Wave Gotik Treffen Leipzig (cd 2000 prophecy productions)

However (neo-)folk music was not really that well represented on the ninth Wave Gotik Treffen (especially not when things started to go wrong), it was decided to release a special folk-compilation for this edition of the festival.
Unmistakingly this is a really good compilation, as a matter of fact, this is one of the better compilations that I know. It lasts for almost an hour and features exclusive tracks from known and less-known folky bands from the gothic scene. These bands are: Hagalaz’ Runedance with a brilliant new song in the “shamanistic” vein. Next up is Empyrium who’s “exclusive” track is the same as on “On The Brink Of Infinity” (see review elsewhere). Still this is a beautiful dark orchestral track. Then we have a nice neo-folk song from Orplid. Also we find Tenhi from Finland, who already released a mcd and a cd on Prophecy Productions, but their song isn’t really good. Further we have Hekate (who also have a cd combining industrial, ritual and folk), Of The Wand And The Moon (cd reviewed elsewhere), Scivias, Waldteufel, Forseti, Spiritual Front and Dies Natalis. All tracks are at least average and some are simply great.
Over all I can recommend this cd to anyone who needs an introduction into gothic folkmusic.

v/a * Looking For Europe (4cd 2005 auerbach tonträger)

On a label that is new to me, a book about neofolk (which I will review as soon as I finished reading it) and an accompanying compilation cd were released. You can buy them separately or together in a box. The cd comes in a nice package with a rather large booklet in German and English with a short history of neofolk music and information about the bands. If you only want to read something about the music and hear some of it, you will have enough if you get this compilation. For philosophical backgrounds, more history, interviews, etc., you will need the book (which is in German btw). I don’t quite follow the ‘thinking paths’ of the writers and compilers of this cd. If Blood Axis covers a song of Strawbs, did this band influence neofolk music? Maybe Moynihan just heard the song on the radio and liked the lyrics. In a similar fashion, quite a few old songs that I never heard off can be found on this compilation as “predecessors”. Maybe some have a similar style or could have influenced some band (who on their turn influenced the rest, so what does that make of the influence of the first band?), but I didn’t know most of them. Also, most of these songs are terrible. Should they have put all these songs on the first cd, I would just have never played it, but there are (more recent, okay) on the others. Also, what do Blood Axis, Sieben, ORE, Kirlian Camera, Der Blutharsch, Gae Bolg, Boyd Rice, Empyrium and Shining Vril have to do with neofolk? If neofolk isn’t just simple guitar-music in a certain style, with similar underlying ideas, etc.? Are bands with similar underlying ideas, but different music influences for neofolk music? Sure they are from the same scene of influence for the scene, but if that is the condition then where are Forthcoming Fire / Von Thronstahl, Belborn or Spiritual Front or for example Genocide Organ, A Challenge of Honour, Karjalan Sissit or Turbund Sturmwerk, just to name a few bands?
Overall I am not too happy with the compilation ‘musically’. There are four cds, but the tracks that are good or alright can easily fit on one. Some bands have exclusive tracks, such as Blood Axis (some folkrock kind of cover song), Sieben (alternative version), Agnivolok, Sol Invictus (alternative version), Darkwood (alt.version), Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio, Laibach (justly on the cd as influence, but with a terrible and not very typical track), Andrew King, Werkraum & Lady Morphia (not my taste!), Der Blutharsch (a funny track) and Shining Vril. People who listen to this music more will probably have most of the non-exclusive material. Like I said, here and there a good track: Orplid (an oldie), ORE (always nice), Hagalaz’ Runedance and Der Blutharsch; sometimes ‘too neofolk’ for me (Forseti, Darkwood, Tenhi, Neun Welten), but actually that was what it is all about, right?
For those of you who are not too familiar with ‘neofolk’ (in the defination of the writers of the book), this compilation offers you both music and information. People who -like me- have listened to this music for several years, may find the book a nice read (but also here I disagree on several points) and enough to buy from this ‘project’.

Letters From The Nuovo Europae :Neue Kultur Für Die Gulag-Massen: (magazine aug 2000)

Reviewing a magazine? Well, I was asked for that more than ones and since it actually fits the ‘dark music’ concept, why not? Still it is a little strange though. Several reviews from Sententia are used, I set up the internetpage, so it feels a bit like reviewing my own work. But, of course 90% of the work is done by Kommandant Dan Ghetu, so here we go.
The cover shows a very nice picture of a statue of Arno Breker (which was actually my choice…) and an impressive list of bands and organistations that are interviewed. To name a few: Von Thronstahl, Der Blutharsch, Tesco, Ain Soph, Cold Spring, Wutanes Heer, but there are a lot more. These names should give you an idea of the corner we can place the Letters in: euro-centric and militant folk and industrial. A slowly growing outcasted scene. Therefor you will also not be surprised to read some ‘strong ideology’ in these pages, so you better be not afraid of these.
Anyway, the interviews are at times pretty damn long, with original questions not only about the music, but about politics, culture, etc. To keep the magazine to agreeable proportions, the texts are printed very small, so you need a lot of light to read this. For my taste there are too many pictures to acompany the interviews, but the policy here is that there should also be something for the eye. The interviews are done by Dan Ghetu himself of course, but also by Matyunov Igor of Klek DVA and M. Magazine and Nihil from Klek DVA. The reviews are also by these three, “the mysterious FS from Switserland” and copied from the very pages you are reading now.
If you are interested in euro-centric music (which covers folk, but also ambient, industrial, noise, power electronics, etc.), this is a very good read and you might get a few nice surprises. Particularly nice to read are the interviews with Albin Julius (Der Blutharsch) and another with Elzbeth where you can read both versions of the split of The Moon Lay Hidden Beneath A Cloud.
What I also found good to find out, is that even though most featured artists have a somehow similar worldview, all of them have very specific ideas themselves. From the extreme views of Josef K. of Von Thronstahl to the surprisingly moderate visions of Albin Julius.
Anyway, if you want a taster of the magazine, you can visit the webpage that we just put up last week. The printed version contains a lot more interviews and reviews (not to mention advertising of interesting labels!), so if you find the webpages interesting, you will definately need to buy the printed version as well.
A new issue is coming up, less music, more “Kultur”!

v/a * L’Ame Electrique (mag/cd 2001 l’ame electrique/wkn)

After a long periode of silence, here we have the second issue of the Greek magazine “L’Ame Electrique”. This magazine is very well printed, written in good english and has interesting interviews with Tribe of Circle, Les Joyaux de la Princesse, Waldteufel, Novy Svet, Of The Wand and the Moon, Gae Bolg & the Church of Fand (among others). However there could have been a shitload of reviews since the first issue, they sticked to recent and relevant releases. What is even more interesting though, is that the magazine comes with a cd with one track of each band that ever released something on Albin Julius’ (Der Blutharsch) “Hau Ruck!” label and the tracks are mostly exclusive and in chronological order.
So, in this order you will hear C.O.Caspar, Novy Svet, Dernière Volonté, Of The Wand And The Moon, La Maison Moderne, Tribe of Circle, Novo Homo, Lucisferrato, I-C-K, His Divine Grace, Decadence, Reutoff and Changes. Since Hau Ruck! offers a variety of styles of music, not all tracks are my taste and also it appears that most bands didn’t contribute their best material. But since all tracks beside Of The Wand are exclusive and it has all the bands from Hau Ruck! this compilation may be a good introduction for those who are not too familiar with the bands and a good expansion of the collection of those who are. Besides, the magazine itself is worth the money already!

v/a * Il Sium E Il Vencul (lp 1999 sin organisation)

I have wondered if I should get this lp for quite a while and eventually I did. Now I remember why I don’t buy that many compilations again and I guess I will be more carefull in the future… Not that there isn’t an interesting line-up here, but I hate it when a compilation is full of tracks that I already have. The bands that I didn’t know vary between boring and alright, but there is one point of light: I don’t believe I had the live version of Tempestra Noire’s song “The Outset For…”. The other bands are Nobody, Ataraxia, Ordeal, Neither/Neither World, Sisygambis, Dead Leaves Rising and Autumn.

v/a * Neo-Form 2 (online compilation 2006 neo-form) + v/a * Honi Soit Qui Mal Y Pense (online compilation 2006 neo-folk.it)

When the first online compilations were published by these two websites late 2004 and early 2005 it was in a way still new to offer music like this. A good way to get to know new bands though. More bands and websites started to release online compilations, but it is not really that this took a really high flight. After Ny Regret De Passe, Ad Perpetuam Gloriam and Neo-Form 1, I never really checked the websites where I found these compilations anymore. Recently for some reason I stumbled upon both and both proved to have new compilations available. In the case of Neoform, both old (Allerseelen, Tribe Of Circle, OTWATM) and many new bands. “Honi…” presents ‘two cds’ with mostly smaller or completely new bands. Like I said before, the website names suggest neofolk music, but obviously the websites are maintained by people who use this term to catch the whole scene. There is not much neofolk on the compilations, but more ambient, industrial, a bit of noise, military pop (but not as much as you may expect) and indeed, also a bit of neofolk. Both compilations are pretty good again, especially Neo-Form 2. Happy downloading! Oh, you may have to find software to unpack the files, but nothing that the internet can’t solve. <12/1/07><4>

v/a * Hermann Hendrich (cd 2002)

Waiting for the Breker compilation of Vaws (which is said to be available) you can get this tribute to another German sculptor. I hadn’t seen it coming and I don’t think I had heard of Hendrich before this cd. Anyway, the line-up was promising enough to order this cd, but the result is very disappointing. Besides a few very well-known bands (Belborn, Trumpet Call, Thronstahl, Waldteufel), there are some quite-known bands (The Sword Volcano Complex, Shining Vril) and a bunch of bands that I didn’t know (Freiheitsgeist, Sturmkind, Gandolfs Gedanken, Carpe-Diem, Elke Rohling). There is a bit too much guitar on this compilation (even leaning towards metal/rock at times) and most tracks are awfull. A good thing -though- is that the Belborn track is a very nice opener, the Trumpet Call isn’t too typical and there is a totally unique (in sound, but also previously unavailable) track of Von Thronstahl to be heard (together with one from the first cd).
So, it’s upto you if you decide to buy this compilation.

v/a * Gloria Victis Vae Victis (cd 2005 war office propaganda)

In a magnificent wooden package comes this WOP compilation with 20 tracks. Most of the bands are the established, but smaller bands (like Der Arbeiter, Rukkanor or Omnicore), other bands are (a bit) bigger (Belborn, Pazival, Toroidh, Karjalan Sissit, HERR), but no ‘top sellers’. The new names to me are Out of Sight (a nice weird ‘industrial’ track), Ait! (industrial), Krepulec (ambient industrial) and Vishudda Kali (what kind of music is this?). All tracks but the Karjalan one are new to me and the biggest surprise is already the opener. I know Cawatana as just another unimaginable neofolk band, but here we have a very martial and loud industrial track. Not brilliant maybe, but certainly surprising. For the rest mostly industrial music, some Parzival weirdness and more tranquil sounds towards the end. A nice compilation in a magnificent package (too bad that cutbacks had to be made on the booklet), limted to 111 copies (very special version) and 777 copies. Sold out from the label, but some distros seem to have copies left.