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Band: Darkher
Album title: The Kingdom Field [EP]
Release date: 14 November 2014
Label: Prophecy Productions
Tracklist:
01. Ghost Tears
02. Hung
03. Foregone
04. The Kingdom Field
Enchanting, dark and beautiful must be the first words that come in mind while listening to Darkher first proper release, the EP named The Kingdom Field. And indeed this four songs bring the right sonic waves for this autumnal/winter days just to let it go into the misty, shady, but yet warm and confortable places buried deep there in the imagination. It's nothing strange that one of the most prominent record labels out there, Prophecy Productions, noticed Jayn H. Wissenberg, the British flame-haired vocalist/guitarist/composer aka Darkher and welcomed her into their roster. Jayn's fragile figure does not only show elegance, but behind that is hiden a charismatic British siren, the creator of a powerfully emotive work. Jayn is known from before by being a member of epic dark folk band The Steals, but with her solo outputs she brings forth even more enigmatic sounds.
The Kingdom Field stands above all the recent releases in the field of atmospheric dark folk music, each one of four tracks brings kind of an unique ambiance and feeling that plays with listeners hiden emotions. Jayn's idyllic and fragile, but overall sensual, yet ethereal and somehow psychotic voice gets under the skin already with the first verses on the opener "Ghost Tears" and mesmerizes by its evocative beauty. Slow and creepy strong bass lines and carefully treated hypnotic drum beats make an astounding dark veiled line, but the gloomy moaning cello and rasping guitar in the background replenishes the atmosphere in such an intriguing manner that you're soaked in an instant. You won't even notice when Jayn captivates with hypnotic words, "Come to my / Stormy Waters / I'll lead you by / Stormy Waters", and leads into the soothing acoustic chilling loneliness of "Hung". Underneath its folkish character depicting waste isolated plains, making it simply breathtaking, lies a dark soul with kind of a avantgardish compositional sense. But all this just prepares the listener into the menacing storm explosion in magically building scales of atmosphere in "Foregone". This one leans more towards post-rockish, yet a bit psychedelic waters but not going that far away from the initial direction. Being strong, almost claustrophobic, but still full of contrast and dark power, with it's sinister doomy riff and estranged breathy voice gets you goose bumps. "It's foregone / all foregone / the River's rising", are the last words you'll hear before the last one, album titled instrumental softens the heated up ambiance and sentiments.
Darkher,... The Kingdom Field is a soul-rending musical journey bringing forth in a way kind of esoteric splendor and deep spiritual confidence. The only bad point is that it finishes too soon, but still it leaves almost transcedental haunting aftertaste that lasts long after the final notes end. Can't wait for the full-lenght album, but for now I must be honest with you and tell you that this is an absolutely unique experience and a must for each and every darkened soul out there.
Review written by: T.V.
Rating: 9/10
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