By Monk
The title of this album translates from old Norse as both “sun” and “soul” and as such it is an extremely appropriate description of this latest solo album from one of the most incisive artists on the European neo-folk scene, as it shines the former’s light into the darkest recesses of the latter in a way in which is enervating, enlightening, enrapturing and also densely introspective and retrospective in its tonal simulacra.
Best known for her collaborative audio work on the Netflix series ‘Vikings: Valhalla’ as well as her stage appearances with Wardruna, Myrkur and Gaahls Wyrd, it may surprise many to learn that Kati Rán – who shares her stage name with the Norse goddess of the oceans – actually hails from The Netherlands, such is the rich evocation of the equally rich but bleak northern landscapes she brings to life via her elegant, eloquent sonic portraits.
The most striking aspect of this epic album is the tonality of Rán’s voice: emotionally resonant, hauntingly beautiful and beautifully haunting, effusive and laconic, ebullient and contemplative, billowing and swirling, swallowing you into her dark embrace, drawing you inexorably and inevitably into the warmth of the vocal’s eloquently elegiac elegance. The slow beating war drums of introductory track ‘Sála’ invoke a sense of inexorable inevitability, hypnotic and challenging in equal measure, entrancing and evocative, piercing deep into your soul with senses of both reflection and celebration as you march to its captivating beat ever deeper into this fascinatingly fantastic album.
.The album is built around three absolute monoliths, the first of which is ‘Blodbylgje’ (or ‘Blood Wave’), a hugely epic track which ebbs and flows between beautifully exorcised lamentations and eviscerating yet sensitive spoken word passages, the sonic background displaying a driven restraint that builds the atmospheric layers with senses of both impending doom and joyous celebration, taking you to new levels, both innermost and outside yourself, you never dreamed you would explore.
After ‘Drifting’, quite literally, into an electronica-infused gothic/industrial interlude, ‘Stone Pillars’ sees this multi-faceted artist straying into the English language domain for the first but not only time, introducing in the process elements of Celtic folk into its trance-inducing voyage across the oceans of sound on which every aspect of this album rides, pitching and rising on the waves of emotion and dark passion, by turns turbulent and pacific.
‘Sála’ is a sublimely beautiful album, sumptuous yet laconic. One which defies description and subsumes every hyperbola in the English, Dutch or ancient Nordic languages. Let the sun shine into your soul.
- ‘Sála‘ is out now.
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