By: Anders

Posted: Dec 22, 2005

Some albums are hard to put words to, one of those albums is "Le Serpent Rouge" by Swedish Arcana. They paint huge atmospheric paintings of a lost time, melancholic sound pictures, invoking all from despair and loss to hope and happiness, a travel throughout emotions, a soul seeking journey within light and darkness, truly amazing.

The music is rooted in dark ambient and presents spheres of emotions, shifting through the songs and the entire album, as it was a play we were witnessing. The compositions are amazing, very vivid and spell-binds the listener upon the very first listen, and takes one deeper and deeper into the universe of the band for each listen. The overall atmosphere invoked is medieval and one is really taken back in time and the paintings evolving in ones mind are amazing and as vivid as the mysterious music. There isn't used that many elements, they all come sneaking into the sound and are added layer upon layer, until the complete sound picture is done and the amazing tracks are unfolding themselves. Quiet percussion, trumpets, a lot of different effects and whispers en masse paint the sky bleak and adds a mysterious aura.

The flow in the songs are always present, a really important thing when speaking of music as this, and even more important when there aren't any vocals present, the shifts in the atmosphere and the music, and the different whispers, keeps the listener caught at the speakers for hours as the sounds evolve into pictures in ones mind.

I usually don't have an easy time with music as this, but this album caught me the first time I listened to it, and have kept on growing on me. The atmosphere invoked on the album is amazing, and the emotions the band touches are many as well. The longing and melancholic scent, there are haunting most of the tracks is breathtaking and huge. And even though the only vocals present are the many forms of whispers, mixed low in the sound picture, then they work really well. Trust me when I say that there are many hours of enjoyment and exploration hidden on this album. Really good work by Arcana, a well-made and complete album, which is really hard to describe, so all the content get to its right, you need to listen to this by yourselves, to make up your minds about it

Rating: 8½/10

Print