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Band: The Moon And The Nightspirit
Album title: Metanoia
Release date: 17 March 2017
Label: Prophecy Productions
Tracklist:
01. A Hajnal Köszöntése
02. Az Elsö Tündér Megidézése
03. Mystérion Mega
04. Kilenc Hid
05. A Fény Diadala
06. Metanoia
07. Kristálymezök
08. Hen Panta Einai (Minden Egy)
After the mesmerizing album Holdrejtek, released in 2014, the Hungarian duo The Moon And The Nightspirit is back with another high class of enchanting mysticism transformed into sound, they gave it a name Metanoia. Singer/multiinstrumentalist Ágnes Tóth and lyricist/multiinstrumentalist Mihály Szabó are since their beginning in 2003 offering to their listeners enchanting and melancholic folk music enhanced by a bewitching pagan aura where threads of ancient mysticism are perfectly combined with phantasmagoric atmospheres. Metanoia is not an exception, even more, its fairytale-esque explorations takes us maybe even deeper into the magical world full of magical creatures that are swirling around like a soft breeze of cold air in the hot summer night.
The Moon And The Nightspirit offer on Metanoia a soundscape to make the listener return to the pristine and pure path of crystalline existence. The eight tracks featured on the album are boasting of multitudes of instruments and the beautiful, ethereal vocals of Tóth. It's like a dance of naked witches around the campfire deep in the enchanted woods. As magical and somehow psychedelic as it is, these soundscapes open up the gate into another dimension with use of various intruments like violin, acoustic guitar, woodwinds, piano, harp, dulcimer, flute, many different percussion and other instruments, everything so well intertwined with serene, mostly female, but here and there also male vocals, that are more or less used just as an another instrument to enrich the whole feeling. Even though the vocals are not something really extraordinary or any kind of vocal superabundance, are still mesmerizing enough and well fitting into the whole picture. Sometimes sparkling and danceable, sometimes almost flamboyant, quite melancholic and yet full of some kind of sweet darkness that adds to almost all of the tracks kind of a special mysterious aura, just listen for example to "Az Elsö Tündér Megidézése" or "Mystérion Mega". The atmosphere is often lush, but yet often somehow tender and delicate, like for example in the album title track.
The one who enters the musical world of The Moon And The Nightspirit with open mind can't be but embraced by its primordial force of rich soundscapes that in an impressive manner deliver hypnotic experience. The song structures are often becoming quite complex but are maintining the necessary flow all over the record. I was overwhelmed by the flute which plays so nicely its part in the pagan ambiances of bewitching "Kilenc Hid", as well by the emotional melody of soothing "A Fény Diadala" and of course by the enchanting ambiance of the final song "Hen Panta Einai (Minden Egy)", just to name a few. The ones familiar with this duo already know that the lyrics are all in the Hungarian language and believe me that use of this language is just another of many things that adds kind of a special mysterious note to the whole music.
Those of you who already enjoyed in the previous five albums of The Moon And The Nightspirit will find their peace of mind of course also in Metanoia, their sixth album in a row. The two don't offer something stunningly new, they rather stick to the approved formula of their trademark otherworldly folk/world music landscape. In a way this album is a proper follower of the musical world created on Holdrejtek, which was more philosopsical and a bit less romantic than its predecessors. Metanoia might be a bit darker, is very moody album, it's magic, an initiation, a rebirth, an awakening of the higher self, and the rekindling of an inner flame.
Review written by: T.V.
Rating: 8,5/10
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