Darkwood
Schicksalsfahrt

2013 will surely not be remembered as the year of apocalyptic folk. The recycling operation of Death in June’s “The Snow Bunker Tapes” and the beautiful double album from our Italian own Albireon, “Le Fiabe dei Ragni Funamboli,” would have remained the only noteworthy testimonies in this field, if the latest Darkwood hadn’t emerged to revive the fortunes of the genre.

With “Schicksalsfahrt” (kudos for the title, as usual simple and easy to transcribe and pronounce) the indefatigable Henryk Vogel reaches the milestone of the eighth full-length album, and he does so in the best way: delivering what remains probably his finest work to date.

“Schicksalsfahrt” is a concept about flight (the album is symbolically dedicated to two pioneers of the sky: the aviator/writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, author of “The Little Prince,” and Amelie Hedwig Beese, the first female aviator in German history), where the theme is filtered through the lens of the core elements of Vogel’s anguished poetics: a strong introspection, the bitter contemplation of the present, the gaze turned towards the past, the history and traditions of one’s homeland.

The "airy" nature of the themes addressed is tangible also at the musical level, especially in the lightness, the subtlety, the ethereality of certain episodes (a sensation due also to the choice of reviving the English language – used in as many as seven out of ten tracks – whose fluidity gives a renewed smoothness to it all). For the rest, there are no major stylistic upheavals in the tested sound of the Dresden minstrel, who indeed returns in a more classic form than ever, refining the modus operandi that was inaugurated with “Notwendfeur” (2006) and further perfected with the subsequent “Ins Dunkle Land” (2009): the intention, namely, to eliminate synthetic sounds (used in previous albums) and employ real instruments, in order to craft a more believable folk with crystalline sounds. The music of Darkwood continues to live essentially from Vogel’s voice and guitar, here and there accompanied by sparse interventions of strings (viola and cello), accordion, and female backing vocals. But the further step forward on the formal level, combined with high-level writing, make “Schicksalsfahrt” an in its own right sensational work, unmissable for anyone who loves apocalyptic folk, especially its Teutonic decline (Forseti, Sonne Hagal, Orplid, just to name the usual suspects).

But what makes this work so precious is a handful of truly outstanding tracks. Among these, the opener should surely be mentioned, the beautiful “Secret Places,” overwhelming, epic, indomitable, a perfect blend of Death in June, Sol Invictus (for the distorted bass plucking in Karl Blake style), and of course Fire+Ice, a central inspiration for Vogel. Ian Read's teachings inevitably remain at the center of Our Hero’s artistic vision (his restraint, crepuscular, severe manner is in fact connected to the work of the English master), although elements continually emerge in this release that evoke the ghost of Death in June. In this regard, “Nightwind” is gladly cited, which with its festive gait, dotted with xylophone chimes, greatly recalls certain moods of Douglas Pearce's recent production (bordering on the plagiarism of “Our Ghosts Gather,” proving how much the father of apocalyptic folk continues, even in a declining phase of inspiration, to influence the vast array of his disciples), and the little masterpiece “Dream of Flowers,” placed at the end, which calls upon Pearce once again, but this time the real one, the one of “But, What Ends When the Symbols Shattered?”. To be honest, the track would not have looked out of place even in Leonard Cohen's “Songs of Love and Hate,” which says it all about the songwriting maturity Vogel has reached in this work.

The rest of the album maintains a high level, and even where the tracks may appear overly similar in succession, it is the care employed in the arrangements mentioned above that upholds the work. Gems like “Fliegergedicht” (with formidable dynamism conferred by string inserts, hovering in interweavings that denote great harmony between Vogel and the ensemble members), “Der Letzte Fug” (again noteworthy is a fine job behind the mixer blending accordion and the lysergic sounds of keyboards) and “Silence at Night” (a ballad of unspeakable beauty, also smoothed by keyboards that, without suffocating it, steer it towards a dreamy dimension of suspension) are there to prove how Vogel’s formula, despite its simplicity, is a shell continuously revitalized by inexhaustible inspiration.

There is also room for a pleasant variation, and I am not referring to the pagan-like “Nightshade” (a dark ceremonial dominated by percussion and a reiterated harmonium theme, an episode that still fits within the folk-ballad scheme), but to the atypical “Scattered Clouds,” the only moment in which the legacy of an album like “Ins Dunkle Land” emerges, which in its final portion attempted to lay down a harsher and more martial sound: the track in question, the only one where the acoustic guitar does not appear, is an experiment (similar to certain things done by compatriots Orplid) that seems to orient towards post-punk territories and distinctly differs from the rest of the album due to the predominance of the bass and an unexpectedly drum-driven closure.

But beyond the singular detail, it is in the overall atmosphere that the album works: a work that flows smoothly and manages to land more than one successful blow. Just like fine wine, one might conclude, the music of Darkwood, aging, seems to improve.

And probably “Schicksalsfahrt” is the best that 2013 has been able to offer in neo-folk.