Artist: Lindy-Fay Hella
Title: Seafarer
Genre: Norse Ambient / Ethereal / Metal
Release Date: 20th September 2019
Label: Van Records
Album Review
I was on a train travelling from Oslo Sentrum to Skoppum. As the train exited the city tunnels I played LINDY-FAY HELLA’s new album ‘Seafarer’ on my portable telecommunications device. I sat back and just let the music wash over me and enter my body through ears, nose, mouth and pores. I looked out the train window at the cityscape around me, looking at the concrete and the Norwegian words on billboards, on signs and on the sides of buildings. My mind set to work on what the words that weren’t obvious to me meant before I meandered down a path to another thought. I’m now in the country. The train travels through cuttings, where the rock had been blasted away by dynamite and finished with pick axe and shovel. Man’s unquenchable desire to overcome all obstacles. This great expanse of nature moulded and tamed and shaped to a particular requirement. There are trees of all varieties dressed in leaves in the throes of colourful metamorphosis that eventually will culminate in a skeletal winter nakedness. And on I travel. The easy flow of the music suffused with keyboards and wind instruments interplaying with a wispy vocal, the music inspiring more reverie. I travel without and I travel within, in the future I’ll write stories about the places I’ve been.
Finally, I arrive in Skoppum. My travel companion piped through headphones had been played twice in the time it took to get here. From Skoppum onwards I would walk all the way to Borre to experience Viking burial mounds and an impressive Gildehalle. LINDY FAY, my companion who put me in the right mood, her magic working a treat. The vocal is quintessentially Scandinavian in tone, not at all sounding like WARDRUNA. And it has a hauntingly ethereal, pure gossamer and fragile quality to it! The track I play as I write is called ‘Three Standing Stones’ I saw three stones in the water off Borre Beach, the sky was overcast and the ghosts of past times I see coming ashore on ghostly ships. Another track I love is ‘Tilarids’. This is a name inscribed onto the spearhead of Kovel, a city in north-western Ukraine. “Tilarids” means either “Target Rider” / “Sure Hitter” or “Thither Rider” The name “Tilarides” emphatically incanted until it embeds into your being, just like a spear!
To backtrack to the beginning of the album, the title track ‘Seafarer’, an ode to travellers sailing out to look for a new home in pastures new, the stars shining as guides and beacons of hope. The lyrics are sung in an incantation style to positively reinforce good fortune. ‘Skaddo’ is haunting and brooding with Gaahl’s low tones ensconced in the shadows whilst flutes dance in the foreground. In ‘Bottle of Sorrow’ one wishes for the low mood to go away, to drown in the sea, I like the phrasing. Again a song that is not lyric heavy but incanted over and over with charming phrasing. Tracks like ‘Nake Du Finn’, ‘Mars’ and ‘Horizon’ are all vocal but not lyrical. They are pensive, reflective and atmospheric, almost trancelike. Also the thing about the album is the fact that once you have listened to one track and designated it a favourite then the next track overrules the previous and takes its place so at the end of the day I’d say that the whole album is a fine piece of work.
The day after I came home I went to see Lindy Fay and Gaahl at the Black Heart Pub in Camden Town. The show excellent. To start with we were warmed up by an artist by the name of Kate Arnold, who I’d never heard of before. She was like a one woman version of Liz Fraser and DEAD CAN DANCE all wrapped up in one interesting package that included songs sung in various branches of Old French and bound together with violin and dulcimer loops. I found the set intriguing and I pondered this question a few times: When will Kate and Jo Quail alchemically entwine to form some sonic newbie? Possible? We shall see. The stage was crowded out with various instruments and stands along with effects pedals strewn across the floor making movement precarious and minimal at times and there were intervals where the looping had to be created and built into layers before things really started moving. But, that’s to be expected, I mean backing tracks could have been used but then the organic nature of the performance would have been non-existent. Patience is required and patience was given. Kate Arnold is someone to add to my “Must explore more” list...
...And now for the main event that we have all been waiting for, the room fills up to capacity and LINDY FAY HELLA takes to the stage around 9:30pm along with Christian Espedal. The performance starts with no preamble, which is fine by me, because the charisma oozing off the stage does all the talking. The first song played is ‘Tilarids’, I watch the intensity in Lindy’s eyes as the words are delivered and I say to myself: “This is going to be a sure hitter!” And the set was a sure hitter, a set of songs delivered with a magical precision conjuring up vivid images in my mind along with shifts in emotional state. As the album did the previous day when I was on the train to Borre. I was in the kitchen a few moments ago making tea and I could hear the tripe my neighbour was playing through his overtly powerful speakers and I started to chuckle to myself. Jo Quail said that you shouldn’t use effects because you can, you should use effects because you have to.
Both Lindy’s album and performance are not overdone. There is space and texture and the electronics compliment the other elements, not dominating them which in the end makes for a listening experience that’s enjoyable, most definitely not exhausting or irritating. During the rendition of the title track ‘Seafarer’ I could hear voices in the crowd. Was it the crowd joining in or was it an echo created by the excellent soundman? I’ve not decided yet but the effect added to the ethereal atmosphere all the same which was a nice touch. The new album is a great travel companion, especially for journeys made after the Autumn equinox when the quality of light changes and the autumnal colours assert themselves albeit briefly. And the live show was a great warm up for Lindy’s next London show in November supporting HEILUNG up the road at the Camden Roundhouse. I advise you dear reader to mark your diary and come along because that is going to be an event you don’t want to miss!
Tracklist
01. Seafarer
02. Two Suns
03. Skaddo
04. Bottle Of Sorrow
05. Nake Du Finn I Skogen
06. Mars
07. Three Standing Stones
08. Tilarids
09. Horizon
Line-up
Lindy-Fay Hella - Vocals
Gaahl - Backing Vocals
Roy Ole Forland - Electronics, keyboards
Ingolf Hella Torgersen - Percussion
Jan Tor Ness - Percussion
Website
https://www.facebook.com/lindyfayhellaofficial/
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 9
Sound: 9
Total: 9 / 10
Live picture by Cimmerian Photography
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