Earlier this year I heard Wekraum’s ‘Unsere Feuer Brennen’ album and had deeply enjoyed the bands concoction of neo folk, neo classical and ritualistic ambient music. Now in late 2005 Wekraum has released a six song MCD with guest appearances from Nick Nedzynski of Lady Morphia, Robert Taylor & Nicolas Tesluk from Changes, and Antje Hoppenrath. What’s different about ‘Kristalle’ compared to Unsere Feuer Brennen is that all six songs are performed in a neo folk style.
The album opens with ‘Queen Mab,’ a very warm gentle folk song with lead vocals by Nicolas plus some very elaborate guitar work by main member Axel Frank. ‘Crystals’ is a bit livelier sounding, with stunning vocals from Nick Nedzynski, plus some nice percussion and again great guitar work. ‘Hoerne’ is a short, but pleasant, slow instrumental piece with light guitar and low whistle, while ‘Wunde und Dorn’ is the only song with German lyrics. The song has a very calming feeling to it with light percussion, fastly strummed guitars, and features both the dazzling voices of Antje & Axel here. ‘Ornament’ is a very intimate love song that features Nick & Antje’s voices plus a nice assortment of instruments played by Axel. Lastly, ‘La Fee Verte’ the most marvelous and my personal favorite song from Kristalle. The song features utterly breathtakingly beautiful guitar work from Axel, and the usual stern voice of Robert Taylor. Robert also wrote the lyrics to the song and those that are familiar with Robert’s poetry should know it’s some of the best in the dark folk scene.
Ultimately ‘Kristalle’ is one of the best neo folk releases of 2005, and certainly shows that Werkraum has a very bright future ahead of them.
January 2, 2006
By JJM
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