vampinabox

Still looking for "Celtic/Gothic Rock" (and having received a few very nice recommendations in private, for artists on and outside Jamendo) I just discovered this beautiful surprise.

The Dark/Gothic element in music is a trap. It can lead to a tendency of giving more attention to appearences than to essence, which is why many of the albums dedicated to this genre seem to have all the necessary "packaging" but unfortunately lack in verve and truth.

But there is no fanfare here; only simplicity, sobriety, tenderness - and most important of all, sincerity. Everything depends on the particularity of the singer's voice (a rich and expressive baritone with a remote echo of Boris Christoff), the delicate instrumentations and unpretentious but solemn and imposing melodies. There is genuine beauty and passion, poetry inherent in each note, creating a magical atmosphere of dark but enticing fairy tale.

I don't understand a word of what you are singing, but at the end of the album I had tears in my eyes and a feeling of purification in my soul.

Thank you.

This is an album out of this world... Music that comes from an unknown, seductive universe, and the voice of a mermaid or a fairy, with an almost archetypal sound that speaks directly to the heart.

The eerie atmosphere invokes a feeling that creatures of a faraway world are watching us from their highest seat - ex cathedra - communicating with us through sounds we can vaguely recognise but which also carry an aura of unsolvable mysteries.

Many thanks to the dear friend who made me discover this album, it was a revelation. Good continuation to your beautiful work.

Interesting voice - an echo of something between Nina Persson and Tracey Thorn - not the kind of female voice that appeals to me personally, but with a very distinct timbre and colour that enhances the atmosphere of the songs. Her lower notes are sweet and show perhaps the real "character" of the voice. Ethereal guitars and keyboards, robust but not overwhelming percussion. The lyrics are beautiful, some of the melodies "difficult" enough to make a difference.

It is one of the albums I found pleasant the first time I listened to them, but something in them made me return and notice even more elements and details that had escaped me before. There is internal power and architecture in this one, despite the first impression of daintiness and fluidity.

"Shan Shui" and "Underwater Place" are little gems.

After his rather self-explanatory album "Fuck the War" (which included a little jewel entitled "Butterflies"), Ralph Buckley makes a spectacular comeback with an album that bears a deceptively colourful cartoon figure on the cover, and the equally deceptive title "cocoa krispies & lucky charms".

What awaits the listener is a journey into the desperate world of addictions and obsessions, accompanied by sometimes almost joyful melodies, whose discrepancy with the themes of the songs made me think of Paul Roland. Morphine, alcohol, love gone bad, utopian dreaming and for dessert, some kind of ironic existential dilemma: which weighs more - the death of a bee or of God himself?

The tragic aspect of our existence, the absurdity and inhuman materialism of the world we live in are illustrated in this half-hour album with poignant tenderness and sincerity. The sweetness of the melodies makes this poignancy even more painful; but this is why art is here - to denounce and exorcise ugliness by speaking of it through beauty.

Dreamy melodies ranging from jazzy to ambient-electro. The voice is beautiful, warm and sensual; the slow-moving rhythms and almost whispered words have a calming, soothing effect. "Dysphoria" is an ominous note in the heart of the sweetness, a menacing but not unwelcome agitation of the waters.

Atmospheric, relaxing music for a lazy summer afternoon.