Forndom – Alster (Haunting Dark Ritual Folk)
Yeah I get these ambient submissions sometimes and it always reminds me how difficult it is it to make a lasting impression or be effective in the genre. It’s far beyond that in difficulty if you’re remaking tracks within the genre that were released in a previously different form. This is exactly what Sweden’s Forndom is doing with Alster, which can be translated as ‘work,’ in the sense of a thing which is created. Since the band name is translated as ‘antiquity,’ stepping back to classical roots to reinvision his older work, including an unreleased track titled “Aska,” is rather daring. Case in point some fans were already complaining about the approach on Facebook and how they don’t want to hear any piano or something. Lol, get over yourselves losers.
Perhaps its my own proclivity for things of the antique, but even without an trained sense of classical style Forndom has produced a masterwork here. Alster utilizes the atmospheric and mystical sounds of Scandinavian folk through dominant piano passages, which are surrounded by bleak, minimalist ambient structures. Not the entry-level key-holding of amateurs on a Radio Shack Casio, no, but a skilled and delicate sense of classical structure developed through fingers accustomed to their instrument. You can feel the fingerwork as it develops throughout the tracks, and man is it ever haunting. Like a misty, unkempt field of wildflowers at dawn, Alster is a surprising reworking of what’s come before, connected to classical traditions, yet reimaging the artist’s own work in a form that will surprise even dedicated fans. Looking for more of his same? Don’t. Let him do his work and enjoy the result.
Written by Stanley, Devourer of Souls
Forndom – Alster
Nordvis Produktion
Cover Photography: Band
4.8 / 5
