THE JOY OF NATURE

"The Empty Circle, Part II:
Rastos De Sangue e Fragmentos Da Tradição"

Ahnstern - 2009

CD

Here comes the second chapter in "The Empty Circle" trilogy, conceived by Portuguese (actually based in the Azores Islands) project The Joy Of Nature. After last year's interesting first installment, they are back with a more organic, song-oriented release, which will surely find appreciation among the neofolk audience. With the help of various guests (including members of Sangre Cavallum) and a wide range of instruments, this journey along "trails of blood and fragments of tradition" takes the form of acoustic ballads, hymns and traditional songs, conjured by both male and female vocals.

If compared to the first part of the trilogy, the new CD follows mostly a folk path, so no dark ambient or experimental tunes are to be found here, making the fourteen tunes here featured very homogeneous, and maybe a bit repetitive once you have listened to the half of them. Anyway, "Rastos De Sangue e Fragmentos Da Tradição" is an atmospheric and well-executed album, that won't fail to find consent among the lovers of neofolk, medieval and acoustic music. A final note concerns the language used in lyrics and song titles, which is always the band's native Portuguese, as opposed to the English used previously.

- Simon V.

Website: http://thejoyofnature.blogspot.com

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

Related articles:

THE JOY OF NATURE - The Empty Circle, Part I - Ahnstern CD