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Band: Musk Ox
Album title: Inheritance
Release date: 9 July 2021
Label: Self-Released
Genre: Chamber Folk, Neo-classical
Tracklist:
01. Inheritance (Part 1 - Premonition)
02. Inheritance (Part 2 - Hindsight)
03. Memoriam
04. Ritual
05. Weightless
Musk Ox is a Canadian chamber-folk trio featuring Nathanael Larochette (classical guitar), Raphael Weinroth-Browne (cello) and Evan Runge (violin). Formed in 2006 by guitarist Nathanael Larochette, Musk Ox's enchanting self-titled debut was released in November 2007 and re-released about a year later. An astonishing feat for a meditative collection of acoustic elegies to the Canadian wilderness, composed and performed by Nathanael Larochette. That same year (2009), cellist Raphael Weinroth-Browne joined Musk Ox, and the two began performing live while collaborating on new material. After two years of meticulous composing, the band welcomed violinist Evan Runge to round out the lineup, and in June 2014, the sophomore Woodfall, already a masterpiece and widely celebrated, followed. Seven years later, Musk Ox presents its new masterpiece - Inheritance. Almost 48 minutes-long five-track record was self-released on 9 July 2021. According to the band members, Inheritance contains some of their most ambitious and intimate material. It is a cathartic collection where wordless hymns of worry and wonder form the stirring soundtrack to an uncertain age of reckoning, reflection and resilience. And so it is.
Although I'm more into some other music genres, or if rephrasing, it just doesn't occur to me to listen to a piece of acoustic and, in addition, instrumental music, I decided to give it a shot. Now I kind of regret I haven't done it before. Especially since I was once in love with the guitar - even learning to play on it when I was a child and later fell in love with the cello, which I've never even held in my hands. Fortunately, Nathanael, Raphael and Evan once held their instruments, and years later, the guitar, cello and violin couldn't sound better. And, following each other sounds with perfect mutual comprehension, the three instruments are - in this amazing album - telling stories of inner happenings - lightly, yet with such a power that consumes you all. In each of the five tracks, there is so much nostalgia, though a gracious one. Listening to Inheritance makes you remember things that passed and will never return, or think of things that have never happened, and you wish they would have. But there is this graciousness I mentioned that somehow prevails over nostalgia. It is like the Inheritance brings peace of mind - not merely an acceptance but a joy in it. These sounds are beauty in sadness or maybe even beauty of sadness itself.
I've listened to the Inheritance several times and plan to continue. While I heard the cello and the guitar clearly, I struggled with hearing the violin. Not to write something stupid, I asked Rafael for instructions since he also wrote all the violin parts on the record except for the first track, which the trio composed together. He explained to me he often kept the violin in a lower-mid register so that it blended more with the cello, and he often made the voices cross so that the cello was playing higher notes than the violin. Namely, when the violin plays very high, there is a big register gap which makes the music feel less cohesive and unified because it sits on top of everything, and that is precisely what Musk Ox was trying to avoid. The aim was to make the cello and violin equal partners that trade-off and exchange dialogue while also playing very close interlocking harmonies. Although Rafael's explanation helped me understand "the point", I still have some difficulties distinguishing between the two instruments.
The Inheritance is a music of versatile three-sounds combinations. Sometimes playing all at the time, the same or different melodies, sometimes one at the time, subtle leaving the space for another. All sounds are clear - there is no "Apocalyptica-n" distortion - yet in all this clearness, they tend to grow heavier and hunting from time to time, especially in the last three songs. There are some traces of dark genres, though not much and not very obvious. To me, it's neo-classical music, not much folk sounds either, rather medieval in some parts. While the cello seems to prevail (well, it has the most powerful sound by itself), it is more like to be regarded as a conductor. In the end, all three instruments shine equally and again, perfectly.
If I had to pick my favourite album's song, it would probably be "Premonition". But it just seems inappropriate to expose one since they so lovely belong together. Perhaps only the 17 and a half minutes-long "Hindsight" could have been shorter, but regarding its title, it takes time - looking back. So it's OK.
I'm not well educated in music theory, but to me, music is not to be discussed, not even only listened to - it's to be felt, to be consumed by it. I'm aware of that when I get this floating feeling and shivers on my skin. It happened with the Inheritance. Nathanael, Raphael and Evan, congratulation on the Inheritance - a masterpiece that, at least in my opinion, deserves all the attention and admiration.
The review was written by Jerneja
Rating: N/A
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