Northern Gothic
Apollon, 2020
8/10
The brainchild of SBM, who is also known as Spacewulff of Spectral Haze and Skrubben, as Wudewuse the troubadour brings meticulous guitar picking to a gothic forest-folk formula on this sophomore album.
“Amaryllis” starts the listen with a soft and expressive landscape of warm folk songwriting that’s both dreamy and soothing, and “Kirkegaardsvise” follows with a sparse but memorable delivery of gentle guitars and poetic singing
Close to the middle, the intricate picking of “Northern Gothic” mesmerizes with its organic beauty, while “Selene”, one of the album’s best, flows with sublime musicianship amid soft, elegant singing and synth stabs. “Halvgangar”, another strong track, then emits a cultured and dynamic display of skilled song craft that’s without words but still manages to instill vivid imagery.
Near the end the longest song, “Lucifer”, spends 7 minutes impressing us with a hazy, cinematic quality of sophisticated song craft, and “Hvem Kan Seile Foruten Vind” exits the listen breathy, bare and with a rare intimacy that’s stirring.
An album penned over 3 years while he was living in a forest and working in a graveyard, that experience certainly lives in the ballads here that puts Wudewuse firmly in a league of neo-folk that warrants being explored.
Travels well with: Brudini- From Darkness, Light; Pymlico- On This Day