URZE DE LUME

(Portugal)

"As Árvores Estão Secas e Não Têm Folhas"

Digipak CD 2018, Equilibrium Music

"...The trees have grown dry and bare, as have I..."

On their third album, URZE DE LUME turn inwards for a soothing journey which illustrates not only departure, but also homecoming, meticulously setting to music memories imbued with both nostalgia and longing.

"As Árvores Estão Secas e Não Têm Folhas" is the second and final chapter of URZE DE LUME's ode to Autumn, in a follow-up to the acclaimed "Vozes Na Neblina" EP released in early 2017.

Although predominantly focused on guitar-based pieces, the leading role in "As Árvores..." is often taken on by the rebec, a bowed stringed instrument whose fiddle-like timbre brings forth an archaic, medieval-like, character to the album's instrumental canvas, which further expands on occasion to include wind instruments, discreet percussions and bagpipes. The intentionally minimalist aesthetics seem to match the beauty of bare trees to perfection, yet URZE DE LUME's use of multiple field recordings allows the hues of autumn to embed deeper into the music. Now and then, they turn also to narrated poetry to lead us further into the recesses of remembrance, urging the embrace of loss as one welcomes back nighttime, the cold, and a sense of void for times bygone that the arrival of Autumn inevitably brings about. This is the season where days start to run increasingly shorter and quieter, much like the lives of those to whom URZE DE LUME dedicates this solemn work.

Bonds to both Nature and tradition are at the heart of the band's rendition of Dark Folk, and both skillfully come together on this acoustic introspective incursion into life's ever-looming solitude.

"(...) another Iberian Dark Folk gem from Equilibrium Music" (Heathen Harvest)

"(...) great pieces to bring out the inner warrior within (...)" (Brutal Resonance)

"(...) Urze de Lume stand out for their musical sensibility and melodic know-how (...)" (No Melody Magazine)

"(...) Urze de Lume resurrect the genetic memory with their beautifully melancholic recreation of Lusitanian traditional folk music (which has elements firmly rooted in Celtic tradition) (...)" (Waldhalla)

"(...) a real jewel of ritual and ambient Neofolk, including dark and shamanic atmospheres which evoke Wovenhand's "Mosaic" (...)" (Mithra! Templezine)

"(...) uscita da non perdere per gli amanti del genere (...)" (Rosa Selvaggia).

File Under: Dark Folk / Acoustic