Search - Orplid :: Orplid

Medieval German Folk.

IcemanJ | Ohio, USA | 12/03/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This atmospheric neo-folk or folk-noir CD is surprisingly quite diverse. There are plenty of transition songs with just vocals or whispering and background noise. Some songs really sound like you're inside an ancient castle in medieval times. Particularly tracks 1 and 10 have a very "castle" feel. Track 1, "Das alte Jahrtausend," starts off with rudimentary drumming, trumpets, and a low-tune violin. Track 10, "Jenseits von Hier," is complete with deep trumpets and a medieval instrument harmonized by male and female vocals. This cd contains many atmospheric acoustic tracks. Many tracks have chanting style vocals similar to Ulver's "Kveldssanger" so, if you have that, check this out, and vice-versa. I first heard of Orplid from John Haughm of the band Agalloch, in an interview. Then my buddy mentioned he was getting this cd so I checked it out and shortly got it too.The transition from track 1 to 2 is superb, going into a beautiful, relaxing, outdoorsy twin-acoustic melody, which later reappears in the song. It also has the sound of bells and a more upbeat chorus. Track 3 has the sounds of horses running through the frosty cobblestone streets and harmonized chanting vocals which later fade into sinister murmuring and a menacing organ melody. Track 4 is completely different with dark yet beautiful piano playing and a sad flute melody, and male and female harmonized vocals. Track 5 has another haunting acoustic melody with lots of unsettling vocal samples and whispering. Track 6 starts off with another beautifully played acoustic tune with whispering, and a much more upbeat chorus with harsher singing (maybe it just sounds harsh because its in German)Track 7 is basically just vocals without any instruments, only some background noise. Track 8 is a standard song with awesome acoustic melodes. Track 9 is a short instrumental consisting of a straightforward, twin-acoustic melody. I've explained Track 10 above, and is quite different from most songs. Track 11 starts off with the sound of a nightclub for a few seconds and then goes into the standard song structure of this album. Track 12 is another short vocal transition type song.Track 13 is particularly interesting. It's the longest song, and the first 3 or so minutes sounds like a dance club, with a steady beat, people cheering, screaming, and screaming. It slowly fades out into the sound of rain and a gentle, tranquil, welcoming yet slightly disheartening acoustic melody. It's probably the oddest song here and could make one envision all sorts of things. There are still 3 more songs after this, but I don't think they were on the original CD. They are included on this repressing. They are still worth listening, of course.If you like folk music of any kind, or think you'd like it, this is a wonderful album. It's plenty long too, about 75 minutes, so at least most of it should fulfill anyone's expectations."