Volume I of this Edgar Allan Poe tribute album was one of the highlights of 2009, featuring as it did a selection of up-and-coming artists from the post-industrial scene (see my review in Cyclic Defrost #24). Now we have a second volume with a further selection of songs and instrumentals inspired by Poe’s works both celebrated and obscure.
The typically morbid poem ‘For Annie’ has prompted Sweden’s Fredrik Klingwall to compose a short, romantic piano piece. ‘The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar’ are dramatised via a lively waltz-time song from Argentina’s Igniis., replete with spoken-word samples and rococo instrumental flourishes. Schattenspiel and Barbarossa Umtrunk team up to produce a suitably frightening version of ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ with lyrics in French. France’s Jorvallr contributes an achingly beautiful instrumental, which is like a cross between Erik Satie and Philip Glass. Holland’s Strydwolf has set ‘Hymn to Aristogeiton and Harmodius’ to music and created a catchy slice of neofolk/military pop complete with martial drums, accordion and acoustic guitar. ‘Mesmeric Revelation’ sees Gnomonclast weaving an intricate, beatless web of spoken word vocals, Floydian guitar, and orchestral synth parts, which bodes well for their forthcoming album.
This is a must for admirers of Poe and for fans of post-industrial and apocalyptic folk sounds.
[Available for free download from Notariqon here.]
Ewan Burke
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