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How sad that I discover the music of EMPYRIUM only to find they are no more. As the saying goes, it is better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all. Well, this loss is as sorrowful as the last notes played on Weiland, their swan song. EMPYRIUM exemplify romanticism and sadness like nobody else, where Weiland truly conjures imagery of a darkly weeping forest playing kin to marshland moors and grieving parent to departing streams into still ponds.
Broken into three chapters, each piece characterizing a differing geography and its tragic mysticism, Kapitel I: Heidestimmung, roughly translated to Chapter I: Disposition of the Moor, introduces the sun-setting twilight upon marshland where shepards fire glimmers no more into the quagmire, only to hear above the winter dead choir. Unlike the first two EMPYRIUM efforts, as majestic as they are, Weiland comforts itself with the warmth of pure acoustics as they did with Where At Night the Wood Grouse Plays, the resonance echoing the talent of the musicianship by Schwadorf (instrumentalist). The vocals by Helm are drawn out as subtle male soprano and completely entrenched within his German dialect. The poetry is both whispered and sung, and so beautiful in its form that translation would be nothing short of clipping its wings.
Kapitel II: Waldpoesie, translated to Chapter II: Poetry of the Forest, is an entire composition that reminds of the moving woodland at every nuance. What rustles behind the shrub there? What moves in the wood continually? Who howls in the distance? It is only my spirit that thought to play me a stroke, for here is nothing - only night, only night, only night!. Absolutely magnificent in its rendering, the poetry sung to this dying light is met with the most mournful string section I have heard. The three-piece notes, played at ascending and descending scales simultaneously, brings halt to the listener dead in his or her tracks. [If this music were to be played at a funeral, the attendees would no doubt feel the urge to climb into the coffin with the deceased, expecting nothing less than burial with the dear departed its that somber.][/FONT]
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Kapitel III: Wassergeister, translated to Chapter III: Spirits of the Water, truly resembles the migration path of the springs to parting streams, through reeds and waterfalls into the oil-blue ponds. Again, the imagery is remarkable with a sense of loss as the notes typify the final journey, almost hearing the conclusion of EMPYRIUM in knowing their final act was upon them even before leaving the orchestra.[/FONT]
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Note the metaphoric contrasts, where for example, AGALLOCHs Of Stone, Wind, and Pillor personifies the impetus of autumn creeping into winter, trundling along a yarn by Keats and Weiland arrives to close the book to let sleep and mourn the inhabitants of the land. Likewise, ULVERs Kveldssanger brings forth the folklore of a winter mountain setting at daybreak and Weiland sits at the foot of that hill, entrenched within its own forestry and water-smoothed river stones. To surmise, if there is energy that flows between these entities, that mystic dissipation magnificently captured on TENHIs Vare would accompany the fluttering of Weilands water and forest spirits.[/FONT]
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All congratulations to Schwadorf and Helm, where this final EMPYRIUM masterpiece is nothing short of spectacular, and receives my first perfect score rating. My articulation does not come close to doing the justice that EMPYRIUM so much deserves. All I can offer is a solemn promise that these collected orchestrations on Weiland are almost certainly better than anything sitting on your shelf of CDs.
10/10
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How sad that I discover the music of EMPYRIUM only to find they are no more. As the saying goes, it is better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all. Well, this loss is as sorrowful as the last notes played on Weiland, their swan song. EMPYRIUM exemplify romanticism and sadness like nobody else, where Weiland truly conjures imagery of a darkly weeping forest playing kin to marshland moors and grieving parent to departing streams into still ponds.
Broken into three chapters, each piece characterizing a differing geography and its tragic mysticism, Kapitel I: Heidestimmung, roughly translated to Chapter I: Disposition of the Moor, introduces the sun-setting twilight upon marshland where shepards fire glimmers no more into the quagmire, only to hear above the winter dead choir. Unlike the first two EMPYRIUM efforts, as majestic as they are, Weiland comforts itself with the warmth of pure acoustics as they did with Where At Night the Wood Grouse Plays, the resonance echoing the talent of the musicianship by Schwadorf (instrumentalist). The vocals by Helm are drawn out as subtle male soprano and completely entrenched within his German dialect. The poetry is both whispered and sung, and so beautiful in its form that translation would be nothing short of clipping its wings.
Kapitel II: Waldpoesie, translated to Chapter II: Poetry of the Forest, is an entire composition that reminds of the moving woodland at every nuance. What rustles behind the shrub there? What moves in the wood continually? Who howls in the distance? It is only my spirit that thought to play me a stroke, for here is nothing - only night, only night, only night!. Absolutely magnificent in its rendering, the poetry sung to this dying light is met with the most mournful string section I have heard. The three-piece notes, played at ascending and descending scales simultaneously, brings halt to the listener dead in his or her tracks. [If this music were to be played at a funeral, the attendees would no doubt feel the urge to climb into the coffin with the deceased, expecting nothing less than burial with the dear departed its that somber.][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]
Kapitel III: Wassergeister, translated to Chapter III: Spirits of the Water, truly resembles the migration path of the springs to parting streams, through reeds and waterfalls into the oil-blue ponds. Again, the imagery is remarkable with a sense of loss as the notes typify the final journey, almost hearing the conclusion of EMPYRIUM in knowing their final act was upon them even before leaving the orchestra.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]
Note the metaphoric contrasts, where for example, AGALLOCHs Of Stone, Wind, and Pillor personifies the impetus of autumn creeping into winter, trundling along a yarn by Keats and Weiland arrives to close the book to let sleep and mourn the inhabitants of the land. Likewise, ULVERs Kveldssanger brings forth the folklore of a winter mountain setting at daybreak and Weiland sits at the foot of that hill, entrenched within its own forestry and water-smoothed river stones. To surmise, if there is energy that flows between these entities, that mystic dissipation magnificently captured on TENHIs Vare would accompany the fluttering of Weilands water and forest spirits.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]
All congratulations to Schwadorf and Helm, where this final EMPYRIUM masterpiece is nothing short of spectacular, and receives my first perfect score rating. My articulation does not come close to doing the justice that EMPYRIUM so much deserves. All I can offer is a solemn promise that these collected orchestrations on Weiland are almost certainly better than anything sitting on your shelf of CDs.
10/10
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