Year: 2024
Total Time: 28:12
Label: Season Of Mist
Katherine Shepard, the visionary artist behind SYLVAINE’s musical project, weaves an intricate web of emotions through the language of music. A transcendent bridge between worlds, an enchanting duality that encompasses the beautiful and the harsh yet also the ugly, light and dark, peace and chaos and the delicate balance between the outer world and the inner sanctum of the soul. In 2022 we’ve introduced “Nova” album to you, with the hope of unhooking from ALCEST’ s bandwagon….so in “Eg Er Framand” SYLVAINE has managed to do this!
‘Eg Er Framand’ is a 6 track EP that lasts less than half an hour and that’s pretty good. The main difference lies in the fact that Katherine decided to introspect on her Norwegian roots by telling old myths and untold stories from the dark Norwegian forests. The first single released, “Dagsens Auga Sloknar Ut” is a devotional hymn written by Elias Blix, a late 19th-century Norwegian theologian, hymn writer, politician and Minister of Education, who is credited as the main person responsible for the Norwegian translation of the New Testament, who requested that this particular hymn be played at his funeral.
The inevitable comparison to the works of MYRKUR or even Kari Rueslåtten somewhat diminishes Shepard’s artistic vision but in no way degrades it because it is something completely personal. The recording was made at Kampen church in central Oslo and fully captures the warmth, jubilation and excitement of the soul. The artwork was edited by Helena Aguilar Mayans and features Shepard as a form of Queen Galadriel dressed in white lounging in the endless forests of Lothlorien.
Katherine Shepard guided only by her ethereal voice and the use of keys, whether a church organ or synths, creates an atmosphere that is mystical, ethereal and definitely seductive and traveling, not in the way of a road trip but of a descent into the three deep paths of the soul. Where she follows the light either as it departs to give way to darkness or to the realm of light with the company of other pilgrims seeking to immerse themselves in the light. This is certainly not a musical work that can be heard at any time and in any place, certainly in a forest in the afternoon or as the sun sets behind the mountains or even in a church with headphones. In any case, it is very different from what SYLVAINE has done so far, so unique and it certainly does not appeal to a wide mass of listeners.
Rating: 6.5/10
Editor: Dimos Karadimos
Related Link: SYLVAINE – Official Page
