ÀRNICA

"Viejo Mundo"

Percht - 2009

CD / CD box - 300 copies

We saw them about two years ago in Barcelona, at the unforgettable Mediterranean Autumn Festival. The Catalan trio offered a ritual and evocative performance, playing a rural and primitive folk, framed by a setting made of burnt incense, cones, goat skulls, large arnica branches and a skin totem. It's exactly this kind of atmospheres that the band now tries to capture on their debut CD, titled "Viejo Mundo". Àrnica's ancient world is a Catalonia that has little to do with tourism, beaches and discos: here they celebrate and live a savage land, its mountains (the Pyrenees) and its traditions, dating back at some remote period.

The music alternates hypnotic rituals around night fires ("Ilmatar", "Urogallo", "Galdr") to furious rides at the sound of bagpipes, flutes, pressing drums and snarling vocals ("Hijo De Deva", "Tu Miedo", "Caballos Solares" - the latter surely their best achievement). Similarly to other bands in the Percht roost, Àrnica sing exclusively in their native language, which are actually two in this case: Spanish (Castilian) and Catalan. The cavernous vocals, filled with anger, coupled with sounds of nature, such as those of the rain, wind, cicadas and birds, give strength and effectiveness to the record's atmospheres. If you're looking for stylistic refinements and instrumental skills, you'd better look somewhere else: "Viejo Mundo" is the chant of the earth, as ancient as the roots of the trees and the rocks of the mountains. Listen to it as darkness descend, far away from industrial civilization and the racket of the cities.

The CD is also available in a special limited edition box for collectors, including a CD 3" with three unreleased songs, written together with Andrew King, Max Percht and Dimo Dimov.

- Simon V.

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/arnicaband

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26 / 27 Sep 2008: MEDITERRANEAN AUTUMN FESTIVAL @ Sala Salamandra, Barcelona, Spain