This is the fifth album from this German based act known as Hekate. Fans would welcome warmly this new release after having waited a long seven years since their 2004 CD Goddess.
This disc comes in as a nice breeze of harmonies and eerie on these hot and humid summer times. While "Byronic Hero" opens up as an epic choirs and dramatic mood, most of the music here is actually quite laid back. This band is being labeled as neo-folk with a certain symphonic edge, although the latter is somewhat minimal but nonetheless adding its own flavor here and there. German bands are good at including folklore and legends, as well as poetry into their music, and this album has plenty of it to offer. You have both sweet female vocals and good, with a strong accent mind you, male counterpart. The male ones are often of a spoken and narrative nature. The band switches from German to English all the time, and on "Per Aspera ad Astra" the words are all in French. The lovely voice of Susanne Grosche is whispering harmonious poetry and romantic words in an eerie fashion, while acoustic arpeggios add their usual melodiousness. This instrument appears in a few occasions like on: "In My Garden", "Seelenreise" and "Sanctus". Other more traditional instrumentations are scattered throughout as well. You can hear some percussions, string instrument and accordion. Additionally, you have a bit of samplings, like birds for example; a bit of electronics and frequent ambient or spacey keyboards. What you won't hear is electric guitars and no such thing as fast paces either. The tempo goes a tad up on a couple tracks such as: "Sanctus" and "The Present Day". This last ones has the particularity of mixing some slightly techno beats and traditional folksy vibes in the same songs; all of which done with good taste.
Well folks, here you have it, Die Welt der Dunklen Gärten is a cool opus of artistic German neo-folk melodies.
Track listing:
1- Byronic Hero
2- Jardin d'Anais
3- In my Garden
4- Seelenreise
5- Sanctus
6- Die Dunkle Wolke
7- Per Aspera ad Astra
8- Idilia Dubb
9- Oh du Welt der Dunklen Gärten
10- Opportuniy of Time
11- The Present Day
12- Die blaue Blume
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