Elane
The Fire Of Glenvore

For some time now, I have begun to discover and appreciate a new musical world: that of medieval and neo-folk, particularly rich in interesting bands and experiencing great success in recent years. I thus discovered the existence of music capable of completely alienating the listener from the banality of everyday life, transporting them to a distant world, steeped in magic, melancholic yet soothing at the same time. Listening to records by bands like Narsilion, Trobar De Morte, and Dargaard is, first and foremost, a magical experience.

Untouched landscapes where unicorns ride peacefully, enchanted forests illuminated by mysterious lights, bonfires around which witches celebrate their rituals, enchanted lakes, sailors who let themselves be seduced by the song of sirens, medieval villages from whose houses the familiar and welcoming light of a hearth filters, knights traveling to distant lands facing long series of dangers to save their kingdom, and fragile maidens who with delicate songs mourn the absence of their loved ones. These are the images that stand out in the listener's mind during this particular emotional experience.

We are therefore facing a fantasy imagery that perfectly marries the music of Elane, a German band that embodies the medieval-fairy tale sphere of the neo-folk scene. Distant are the pagan traditions of Corvus Corax and Faun, as well as the electronic contaminations of Andrea Haugen and her Nebelhexe project. A band similar to Elane, both for the instrumentation used (violin, flute, piano, synth, acoustic guitar, and percussion), and for the voice (ethereal and evocative), and for the proposed imagery, could be Empyrium, but also the Iberian Narsilion. They are close to their compatriots especially for the common nocturnal and melancholic mood and for the inseparable relationship between emotions and nature that finds its sublimation in music reminiscent of the romantic authors of their homeland Germany. Unlike their Spanish colleagues, however, Elane are unfortunately less concrete and deep but nonetheless more dynamic musically. The band's style indeed changes from one song to another, moving from the lightheartedness of "Trace of the Flames" and "Shule Aroon", to the nocturnal dance of "Nebeltanz", from the epic "Nightride to Glenvore" to the tribal "Sleeping in Flames" to the cinematographic effects of "Now and Then". There are also small surprises at the sound level: "Tears and a Perfect Light" and "Sleeping in Flames" are enriched by the contribution of an electric guitar, and in "Come to the Sea" a male voice accompanies the singer in a delicate duet.

Fantastic is the triptych placed at the closing. Listening to "Incendium", we find both the electric guitar and the male voice, which in perfect sound symbiosis with the rest of the instrumentation, carve out the most exciting episode of the album. The piano introduces and supports the sixteenth track, a cover in a nocturnal key featuring a beautiful guitar solo of a great pop hit from the 90s: "Moonlight Shadow" by Mike Oldfield, the second gem of the album, which closes with the romantic and autumnal piano ballad "Roselake".

The strength of Elane lies in their ability to never let the listener's attention drop (which, for the proposed genre, is an absolute guarantee of quality) thanks also to a not particularly marked pop attitude and a great stylistic variety. The other side of the coin is the strong dosage of emotions: unfortunately, we are still far from the heights of Argine, true kings of the scene.