Barbarossa Umtrunk and Pale Roses - La Clairière des Eaux Mortes
La… Read Full Bio ↴Barbarossa Umtrunk and Pale Roses - La Clairière des Eaux Mortes
La Clairière des Eaux Mortes (or The Clearing of the Dead Waters) is a full-length split between two very different projects. Obviously inspired by their mutual reading habits, the title of this album is taken from a novel by French writer Raoul De Warren. As far as I can tell, it’s a horror-fantasy story centered around a cursed swamp, an ancient site of witchcraft and Satanic rituals. What I didn’t expect when I started reading up on this album was to find neofolk and martial music dealing with these more recent literary themes. Literature and mythology are common reference points, but standing away from the pack enough to title one’s album after a horror novel written in 1980 (imagine an American neofolk album called The Damnation Game or Salem’s Lot) is to both bands’ credit in a genre usually preoccupied with history, war, religion, and tradition. Barbarossa Umtrunk recites De Warren’s words from the aforementioned book and one other, La Bête de l’Apocalypse, on several tracks. This would not be the first time that I would end up wishing that I had paid more attention in high school French, or to my Québécois relatives, as no transcriptions of these spoken passages are provided in the liner notes.
La Clairière des Eaux Mortes is an odd sort of split–one that I have seen occasionally before. The two artists have opted to alternate their songs, instead of each having their own ‘album side’. Interspersing the tracks this way can have varying results. In some cases it lends a sense of cohesion to an album that might otherwise lack it, giving the impression of one creative force instead of two distinct ones. In this case, these two artists are too divergent to make it stick. Although the wide stylistic net that Barbarossa Umtrunk casts on this album does suit the format, his spoken-word atmospherics are at stark odds with Pale Roses‘ plain, stripped-down sound.
Barbarossa Umtrunk
For Barbarossa Umtrunk, the most evocative track is ‘A l’Ombre des 7 Cromlechs’, mesmerizing with its drunken-jazz use of meandering, jabbering layers of trumpet and a conversation sampled from the 1981 film Excalibur. Arthur’s panicked dialogue among the chaos of the trumpets gives the impression of a man completely lost, adrift in his mind or in some unfamiliar alien world. ‘Cantlon Vindoseni’ begins with the feeling that I had come to expect from Barbarossa Umtrunk at that point in the album: reverbed-out spoken word, the sounds of wind, and medieval battles behind ethereal synth strings, which–with scant warning–breaks into a grinding, sludgy distorted guitar riff which marches along for two minutes and then stops just as abruptly. It’s an awkward segue into the track’s more ambient free-style ending. ‘Cantlon’ is the most varied track on the album, but having the only distorted guitar makes it stick out awkwardly, and leaves me confounded at its inclusion.
As for Pale Roses, they sound like a bedroom project of middling production. Instrumentation consists of somberly plucked guitar, bass, or piano, with only a rare synth line to fill out the sound. The distorted bass tone which provides the rhythm for two tracks sounds like it was recorded underwater and through a pawnshop fuzz pedal, while Arnaud Spitz‘s slightly wheezy, unsteady vocals are high and dry in the mix, overwhelming this minimal backing and monopolizing attention whenever they appear. I found myself startled towards awareness every time their tracks came up; I would be lulled by Barbarossa Umtrunk’s solemn declarations, and then Pale Roses would break that mood, like a cold glass of water to the face.
The last two tracks, both by Barbarossa Umtrunk, do wind the album down well: ‘Les Chevaliers de l’Apocalypse’ is a long spoken-word piece that is backed up with sampled choir, strings, and piano. The track doesn’t push the envelope in terms of originality, but it is quite well-executed. The last track, ‘La Grande Courtisane’, showcases another long monologue, but the birdsong samples and solo violin make it sound like someone is making apocalyptic declarations outside of a bucolic provençal café at the turn of the last century (i.e., a bit incongruous). This track’s simple violin melody also smacks of the ‘sample an old song to end the album’ trope, as used to effect on some classic albums within the genre.
Barbarossa Umtrunk’s tracks offer an interesting blend of martial and ambient sounds that could benefit from some polish. Pale Roses’ contributions, on the other hand, elicited gritted teeth and raised hackles from this listener. Likely begun as a collaboration around two artists’ mutual literary interests, La Clairière des Eaux Mortes comes across like two collections of B-sides. There are gems hidden within, but on the whole La Clairière des Eaux Mortes could have benefited from sticking to the traditional split format and a more aggressive cutting process.
Track List:
01) Le Pays Perdu (Barbarossa Umtrunk)
02) La Chapelle Des Marais (Pale Roses)
03) Gwer Nemeton (Barbarossa Umtrunk)
04) Have You Been Here Before ? (Pale Roses)
05) A L’Ombre Des 7 Cromlechs (Barbarossa Umtrunk)
06) Le Village Assassin (Pale Roses)
07) Le Secret Du Marécage (Barbarossa Umtrunk)
08) Gates of Hell (Pale Roses)
09) Cantlon Vindoseni (Barbarossa Umtrunk)
10) La Nativité Julienne (Pale Roses)
11) Les Chevaliers De L’Apocalypse (Barbarossa Umtrunk)
12) La Grande Courtisane (Barbarossa Umtrunk)
Written by: HD Atkinson
Label: Old Europa Café (Italy) / OECD174 / CD Digipak
Martial Industrial / Dark Ambient / Neofolk
La… Read Full Bio ↴Barbarossa Umtrunk and Pale Roses - La Clairière des Eaux Mortes
La Clairière des Eaux Mortes (or The Clearing of the Dead Waters) is a full-length split between two very different projects. Obviously inspired by their mutual reading habits, the title of this album is taken from a novel by French writer Raoul De Warren. As far as I can tell, it’s a horror-fantasy story centered around a cursed swamp, an ancient site of witchcraft and Satanic rituals. What I didn’t expect when I started reading up on this album was to find neofolk and martial music dealing with these more recent literary themes. Literature and mythology are common reference points, but standing away from the pack enough to title one’s album after a horror novel written in 1980 (imagine an American neofolk album called The Damnation Game or Salem’s Lot) is to both bands’ credit in a genre usually preoccupied with history, war, religion, and tradition. Barbarossa Umtrunk recites De Warren’s words from the aforementioned book and one other, La Bête de l’Apocalypse, on several tracks. This would not be the first time that I would end up wishing that I had paid more attention in high school French, or to my Québécois relatives, as no transcriptions of these spoken passages are provided in the liner notes.
La Clairière des Eaux Mortes is an odd sort of split–one that I have seen occasionally before. The two artists have opted to alternate their songs, instead of each having their own ‘album side’. Interspersing the tracks this way can have varying results. In some cases it lends a sense of cohesion to an album that might otherwise lack it, giving the impression of one creative force instead of two distinct ones. In this case, these two artists are too divergent to make it stick. Although the wide stylistic net that Barbarossa Umtrunk casts on this album does suit the format, his spoken-word atmospherics are at stark odds with Pale Roses‘ plain, stripped-down sound.
Barbarossa Umtrunk
For Barbarossa Umtrunk, the most evocative track is ‘A l’Ombre des 7 Cromlechs’, mesmerizing with its drunken-jazz use of meandering, jabbering layers of trumpet and a conversation sampled from the 1981 film Excalibur. Arthur’s panicked dialogue among the chaos of the trumpets gives the impression of a man completely lost, adrift in his mind or in some unfamiliar alien world. ‘Cantlon Vindoseni’ begins with the feeling that I had come to expect from Barbarossa Umtrunk at that point in the album: reverbed-out spoken word, the sounds of wind, and medieval battles behind ethereal synth strings, which–with scant warning–breaks into a grinding, sludgy distorted guitar riff which marches along for two minutes and then stops just as abruptly. It’s an awkward segue into the track’s more ambient free-style ending. ‘Cantlon’ is the most varied track on the album, but having the only distorted guitar makes it stick out awkwardly, and leaves me confounded at its inclusion.
As for Pale Roses, they sound like a bedroom project of middling production. Instrumentation consists of somberly plucked guitar, bass, or piano, with only a rare synth line to fill out the sound. The distorted bass tone which provides the rhythm for two tracks sounds like it was recorded underwater and through a pawnshop fuzz pedal, while Arnaud Spitz‘s slightly wheezy, unsteady vocals are high and dry in the mix, overwhelming this minimal backing and monopolizing attention whenever they appear. I found myself startled towards awareness every time their tracks came up; I would be lulled by Barbarossa Umtrunk’s solemn declarations, and then Pale Roses would break that mood, like a cold glass of water to the face.
The last two tracks, both by Barbarossa Umtrunk, do wind the album down well: ‘Les Chevaliers de l’Apocalypse’ is a long spoken-word piece that is backed up with sampled choir, strings, and piano. The track doesn’t push the envelope in terms of originality, but it is quite well-executed. The last track, ‘La Grande Courtisane’, showcases another long monologue, but the birdsong samples and solo violin make it sound like someone is making apocalyptic declarations outside of a bucolic provençal café at the turn of the last century (i.e., a bit incongruous). This track’s simple violin melody also smacks of the ‘sample an old song to end the album’ trope, as used to effect on some classic albums within the genre.
Barbarossa Umtrunk’s tracks offer an interesting blend of martial and ambient sounds that could benefit from some polish. Pale Roses’ contributions, on the other hand, elicited gritted teeth and raised hackles from this listener. Likely begun as a collaboration around two artists’ mutual literary interests, La Clairière des Eaux Mortes comes across like two collections of B-sides. There are gems hidden within, but on the whole La Clairière des Eaux Mortes could have benefited from sticking to the traditional split format and a more aggressive cutting process.
Track List:
01) Le Pays Perdu (Barbarossa Umtrunk)
02) La Chapelle Des Marais (Pale Roses)
03) Gwer Nemeton (Barbarossa Umtrunk)
04) Have You Been Here Before ? (Pale Roses)
05) A L’Ombre Des 7 Cromlechs (Barbarossa Umtrunk)
06) Le Village Assassin (Pale Roses)
07) Le Secret Du Marécage (Barbarossa Umtrunk)
08) Gates of Hell (Pale Roses)
09) Cantlon Vindoseni (Barbarossa Umtrunk)
10) La Nativité Julienne (Pale Roses)
11) Les Chevaliers De L’Apocalypse (Barbarossa Umtrunk)
12) La Grande Courtisane (Barbarossa Umtrunk)
Written by: HD Atkinson
Label: Old Europa Café (Italy) / OECD174 / CD Digipak
Martial Industrial / Dark Ambient / Neofolk
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