One of the most eloquent and narrative forerunners (even if we cannot say that that musical movement could not be considered so "brand new"... ) of the darkest side of the "grayest" gothic wave, Life in Sodom also known as L.I.S. officially come back with the album Alone â?“ published with LIS onwed label mark, Nutrix!-, an attractive collection of new and old tracks anticipated by an EP, The New Year, including some new works by the exquisite band concocted by the vocalist Gerrie Brand far back in 1987. Its attractiveness mainly derives from its accessibility: they reduced the electronic devicesâ?? presence to the basic without stigmatizing its importance in modern composition, even if it seems they want to seal their favorite authentic sound keeping their faith to the traditional form of the dark-wave even in the matters they sing about. Feelings of solitude, deep (sometimes described as necessary or forced... ) loneliness, desperation, confusion and delusion have been drifted and sometimes ruthlessly analyzed throughout this record, which could almost be considered a sort of concept album dissecting the state of loneliness and many different shades of meaning for this particular feeling, often inspiring a lot of musicians and poets. Maybe someone could argue that such an album should have been filled with more dramatic moments and a certain pathos, but Life In Sodom decided to use a simple and uncompromised language even from the musical viewpoint., giving the idea of a subdued reflection especially when Gerrieâ??s voice seems almost a plaiting with resigned sighs...

The profound introspection surfacing from the lyrics appears as something gentle and fragile, almost appealing to the respectful leniency of the listener even if he/she doesnâ??t consider him/herself alone in this world!!! Itâ??s not so difficult to notice a certain narrative approach of some tracks â?“ such as the introductive The lonely march (with its grave and obscure piano and a "bony" lead guitar howl... as tenebrous as Gerrieâ??s vocal guessed interpretation... definitively not a quote of Death In June... ) and the gloomy ballad Heartache ("a desperate song/to say no more/to signal a friend/when tears must fall/to wash away/this heartache â?“chorused â?“"... so lyrics say... ) as well as the catchy Tied Tomowind -, epic somber episodes â?“ the cloudy Faction, the touchy Dead Memories sung by the skilled Virginia Fuillerat with some eyebeams on some electro-prog foggy atmospheres, the march-like ballad Violenza, a track already appeared on Charader, the first full length by Life In Sodom â?“ and rock-propelled songs (such as the darkish Angel Alone, She Cried and Young Waste, a touch of nostalgia walking on the darkest path traced by Smiths in the 80s... ). The final Alone with the atmospheric trimmings and the stunning explosions of the sounds is a good way to close a nostalgic but pleasant album.

Tout est vibration... Everything is vibe! Thatâ??s the hieratical preface adopted by the French duo of music therapists Crista Galli to explain their thaumaturgical audio-prescriptions based on natural soundsâ?? constant stimulation aiming at the harmonization of the human bodyâ??s parts with earth frequencies and we find a nice trick the contrast between the quiet audio-settings â?“ proposing a fascinating cross between Celtic sonorities and Asian scents, sacred music and perfumes of pagan rites, the deep and shamanic male voice by Jean Paul Trutet and the angelic and crystalline one by Sarah Trutet aka Shayna - and the title of the album, Hayaku, a Japanese expression meaning "hurry up!" or "faster!" as well as the name of a little poem inviting to a sort of return to life throughout a "new-age"-like elemental evocation (the translation of the lyrics says "Hurry up! The heart waits no more..Hurry up! The earth cannot wait longer... Hurry up! The light cannot wait... Hurry up! Humanity cannot wait... [... ] Where is my dream? Where is my love?[... ] The sea is beautiful" and so on... ). Filed in the Mandala series â?“ the ethnic-meditative one -by the French label Prikosnovenie, Hayaku is introduced by the band itself as the portrait of a long spiritual journey towards the realm of earth and light â?“ beware!!! thereâ??re a plenty of references to Aquarian cultures... but we argue that youâ??re going to appreciate their music even if you consider oddities such cromotherapy, mesmerian pools or crystal therapy (as well as cds filled with seagulls, bird choirs, sirens, waves and so on normally sold at newsagents... ) a plenty of bullshits invented just to grab money from depressed or stressed people... - . departing from luminous tracks such as Armor Mirror â?“ how many seagulls!!! â?“ and Procession â?“ really intriguing track evoking ancestral Tibetan monksâ?? choirs introduced by the siren-like "ohhhhhhh" by Shayna... even it seems that the lyrics are taken directly from the mysterious words written in an archaic partially deriving from Latin and partially from Celtic language on a 2000yrs old stele, which seems to be a dedication to Caticatona, an unknown Goddess related to Earth and natural forces... - to more obscure and mysterious ones â?“ we love the bell chiming and the Tibetan howling bow in the lovely Ambre et violet as well as the first gurgling chant by Shayna (Alleluyah!)in Joies et mysteries, a delightful hymn with a minimalistic piano session -, from intriguing natural snapshots â?“ such as the enchanting Messager de la pluie (Messenger of the rain) featuring an hypnotic zither session, a string instrument belonging to the same family of koto, harpsichord, dulcimer and guzheng (the Chinese zither) as well as the dreamy state of the heart-catching Clair de la lune, one of my favorite track of the whole album... . - to ancient cultures quotes â?“ have a listen to the hypnotic mantra in Pakawa Shaman!!! â?“ and sacred music gems â?“ such as the above-mentioned Joies and mysteries and Seacht ndòlàs nà Maighdine Muire (Gaelic expression meaning "The Seven Sorrows of Virgin Mary"), which are two intriguing and mysterious songs belonging to the Gaelic tradition, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, two wonderful historical pieces telling how the Gaelic culture absorbed the Catholic one... -. Hayaku is not only a rendez-vous of different cultures and natural elements, but even a rendez-vous between sounds as some ethic instruments (such as Celtic harp, Balkan zither, Jewâ??s harp, the ancestral sound of didjeridoo, the Japanese koto and a plenty of percussions belonging to different musical traditions) meet the canonic cello and piano! We could easily confirm that this album is a lovely spiritual voyage even if you dislike new age oddities and DIY devotional cults! And youâ??ll agree with me after listening to this graceful work...

We like to imagine that the Italian composer â?“ recently re-emerged from the deeps of the infinite musical abyss by Gus Van Sant who choosed some pieces of him for the soundtrack of Paranoid Park â?“ Nino Rota has awaken all the fairies with the help of the eccentric notes of "Il Giardino delle Fate" and subsequently the guys behind the French label Prikosnovenie temporarily compelled them to record their tunes in a studio in order to enhance human lives some times ago, revealing their spells and their enchanting choirs drop by drop as this magical series of compilations entitled Fairy World (..if youâ??re lucky enough, you should find a special limited edition including a dvd, containing some live recordings from last year edition of La Nuit Des Fées and ten nice clips of musicians enriching the label roster... ) has already reached the fifth volume. And a warm welcome is given to listeners absorbed by Tolkien-like reverie as well as Celtic and Breton fables by the Russian symphonic 7-piece orchestra Caprice, able to immediately set the distinctive atmospheric aura of this collection with trembling, tinkles and dreamlike sounds in Sage: the sample of a laughing baby seems to evoke a narrative set as well as the notorious myth according to which fairies love to show themselves to little babies. The fairiesâ?? attitude to operate similarly as suffragettes is partially confirmed by the lovely Me and Rose by the lovely pop-folk English singer Mel Garside (formerly of the Medieval Babies), taken from the third album of her solo project Maple Bee; the title (and the song of course) could have some references to her personal biography, referring to Rosie, the small yacht on which she spent her childhood travelling across the oceans. A touch of Nordic taste has been thrown in the cauldron by the enchanting voice of Valvran (... have a look to the curious legend about this ravens according to Danish folklore... ), reminding to our minds other great Nordic female voices such as Mari Boine. More or less on the same frequencies, the "Nostalgica Avanguardia" by Italian Riccardo Prencipeâ??s project Corde Oblique mixing folk Mediterranean elements and minimal classical music (reminding to us pianists such as Ludovico Einaudi or Max Richter) on melancholic lyrics drawing a desolate world and wishing the advent of a "new humanity" mediated from "synthetic fables and mechanical diseases" -!-. Back-reversed recordings, new age essences and fascinating fawnings marks the collaborative projects Lys, founded by the Czech violinist Ivo Sedlacek (signing also the 11th track entitled Sun, which reminds to us those session of music therapist intended for people with mental diseases) and Frédéric Chaplain. The fact that national boundaries faded away in this selection is clear from the astonishingly wide range of folk influences: flavorings from Japan (Crista Galliâ??s Yama-Ho), Irish-Celtic (the ethno-meditative mixture proposed by Poussieres dâ??Etolies, Savaâ??s nice mixture of medieval artifacts â?“ an highlight of this sampler directly from Faunâ??s leaders! â?“ and the musical box-like harp textures by the interesting Moldavian harpist Alizbar), Balkans (Aman Doktor -Stellamaraâ??s reprise of a traditional old Turkish theme with the hypnotic vocals by Sonja Drakulich - and Star of the winds â?“ an impressive nocturne partially mediated by Balkan choirs and sacred music from the repertoire by Bulgarian combo Irfan â?“ guide listenersâ?? minds towards Eastern musical landscapes... ). But thereâ??re also strange mosaics of sounds from different contexts: have a listen for instance to Platoun by Omasphere combining tribal chants, middle-eastern chimes, medieval and electronic music â?“ a stand-out! -. The consuming pianistic reverie (Einaudiâ??s anthems resurface to our musical memories yet... ) and the touching lyrical session of Last Dance taken from Luigi Rubinoâ??s "A Theme For The Moon" stands as a powerful ending for this emotional sonic chipboard!

The Roman duo Alien Vampires made up of the showy characters of NightStalker (... and his gun-like electro-industrial shots of acid samples)and Nisrok Infernalien (... and his viscous sticky vocal emissions... who’s that bastard surgeon who transplanted to him a pharynx from a rabid cat suffering from adenoids? ) came back with another coarse intercourse entitled Fuck Off And Die, a storm of ebm and techno movements full of scrap iron-like sounds, interferences, dis/torsions and boomy 4/4 rhythmical patterns , which are an effective remedy for mummified dancers although it is quite uncouth and totally rough (... I’m getting allergic to synth-brass sessions inherited by some Italian hit-house... I’ve sneezed on the screen while listening to tracks like Far From Shadows even if it is co-signed by the Suicide Commando mastermind Johan V.R., which isn’t a greenhorn of this kind of records and brings his tribute to the microphones). We have to admit that Alien Vampires’ guys have hugely improved their formula if compared with their past productions even if there’s a substantial lack of refined tracks and it seems they’re just winking at ferocious and angry dancefloors (... maybe a choice partially justified by marketing considerations as most of their fans in Rome have been collected among disco clubs such as Alien or famous fetish parties such as Ritual from their very first steps in the scene... ) without any real innovation except of some tracks such as "The Convent Burns" or "Resistance Ain’t Futile" with a more darkish appeal and frightening atmospheres than just an obvious melting pot of harsh beats, hard rhythms, female whimpering and blasphemous lyrics. There’s a slight evolution towards better directions if you consider the fact that most of Alien Vampires’ notoriety was also built on cover artworks for collectors, satanic adepts and fetishists (one of the most funny as well as blaspheme one was that of Nuns Are Pregnant... ). The one they choose for Fuck Off And Die is even more elegant than the previous ones, maybe as even AV are conscious of the undeniable fact that their sound got more refined than before!!! Some choices (including a graphical format between splatter and sadistic-pornographic references including the one of involving Laura Panerai, a fetish Italian porno star which recently decided to sell even used underwear and pubis hair, for some snapshots on the booklet... ) seems to be excessively stretching yet to persuade people having a refined "musical" palate to buy their record, but we could reasonably argue that this record will have a great success among aliens, vampires and above all people boasting of both of these qualifications! A part of Johan V.R., we have to mention the presence of some other famous collaborators such as Jouni from In Slaughter Natives (... leaving his mark on the obscure march introducing this record... ) and Noisuf-X (the technoid manifestation of Jan Lehmkamper aka X-Fusion, treating the title-track adding some ingredients from breakcore style).

If youâ??re not totally unaware of the German Gothic-folk and Medieval scene, itâ??s possible you already heard something about Violet â?“ or maybe you were lucky enough and see them perform on the same stage with renowned acts such as Corvus Corax, Faun, Saltatio Mortis or Persephone... - as well as their side project Violetta, one of the most intriguing medieval music project from the German fertile ground, which gained a considerable acclaim among people addicted to that enchanted imagination crowded with princesses, knights and sometimes dragons, witches and necromancers and perceives as still anchored to forgotten habits and values clashing with modern times! If you already follow this band, you probably know that just one year ago they composed a sort of soundtrack for The Book Of Eden, the best selling book of the fantasy German novelist Kai Meyer... Well, that book begun as a sort of spiritual journey of a group of heroes starting from the Parisian Tour Eiffel - a steel giant which could be considered as one of the most emblematic symbol of the modernity â?“ and going towards orient. It seems that for Modern Life, the same heroes come back to the modernity to fight against the false gods and believing of Modern Life. Such an interpretation could be easily verified since the beginning of the record: while Exult is a sort of ironic statement dealing with the misunderstanding of the concept of self-fulfillment â?“ often confused with ephemeral material wellness... - with an apex reached in the final strophe ("they say itâ??s healthy to be just a little selfish/to be a liar and a bitch sometimes/they say itâ??s fine to be a little egocentric/just in case it suits you well"), Modern Life is the introduction to the other side of the so-called modernity, speaking about the sense of denying and annihilation of personal identity and the need to emerge of people laying like numbered balls in a ballot box hidden into an anonymous crowd. The first part of this record winking at rock-orientated dynamics end up with Home, which seems to be the page of an intimate diary inviting the listener to find home inside itself while walking on the endless path of life. Thereâ??s a touching cover of Wreath Of Barbs â?“ famous and lovely piece by the legendary Bavarian dj Rudy Ratzinger (just to dispel any doubt, heâ??s not related to the Pope... as a body of evidence we could cite of the highest point of the insensively spiritual lyrics of this song sentencing "the injection religion/has a comalike effect/and bodies lay in decay/dreaming of a greener day"!)- with a goth-folk flow and a distinguishable oriental fragrance. Youâ??ll probably stand on ceremony after having a listen to a musical version of the Ode to Francisco Salinas, originally written by Fray Luis de Leon for this revolutionary musical theorist and organist, blind from birth (sometimes itâ??s not a limit... ), who starting from the theories by the Franciscan monk Gioseffo Zarlino about music in High Renaissance (the "ars perfecta" in its own words!) elaborated some interesting theories frequently applied in modern music about harmony and rhythm, intuitions which according to the literary tenor of this ode are compared to the vision of high spheres ("alta esfera"), even if his scores have been lost and no one knows anything about his compositions for organ; the combo has chosen an elegant texture of dubby rhythms mixed to latin and celtic sounds with an oriental touch, a pot-pourri highlighting the intent of this exquisite combo to go over the stylistic boundaries. Oda a Francisco Salinas is not the only song entirely sung in Spanish, being the other one a foggy habanera interpretation of the famous caricature-like poem Poderoso Caballero by Francisco de Quevedo (words such as "poderoso caballero es don dinero" â?“ "brave knight is mister money... !- reminded to us the El Pais reportage on Italian prime minister, the cavalier Berlusconi... .!!!), a poet, politician and nobleman who was endured by political persecutions for its frequent attacks on avidity and vices of the Spanish political establishment. The nice male/female vocal duet in White and the easy chords of the ballad Read My Lips are the more poppy acts of the whole album, while the formula mixing Celtic suggestions and athe brightening pop-rock melodic ballad in The Web could be perfect if Equinoxe will decide to issue a single from this album. Cembalo, guitar and bagpipe together with the mournful sing of Bianca Stücker in the melancholic vibes of I Wonder Why and the ritual appeal of Come Closer To The Fire close an album persuading us of the musical skills of this six musicians combo and even if they prefer to call their style "Medieval Crossover", they demonstrate their ability in drifting different style in their boiling pot. Hope to see them perform somewhere during the forthcoming summer as their live-shows are often enhanced by entrancing oriental dance elements and theatrical ones.