Fire + Ice
Rûna

If Ian Read's art is based on the idea of research, "Runa" is the album of research par excellence. Research, once again, guided by the intent to grasp the secrets hidden behind the enigmatic signs passed down to us by the ancients: the runes. To us laymen, no more is allowed to be known, for Read's journey begins with elusive premises and is marked by equally indecipherable symbols, and where communication is minimized, what matters is the rigor, tension, and passionate drive with which this research is conducted and pursued.

Intended as one great composition, "Runa," released in 1996, is perhaps Ian Read's most complex album, and certainly the one that most deviates from the rest of his discography. Not because it somehow deviates from the artist's identity, but rather because "Runa" is the place where that identity is fully and perfectly realized, finally freeing itself from the genre's clichés and references to the work of other musicians from the apocalyptic scene.

Whether it is a masterpiece is hard to say, especially since the album does not lend itself to easy interpretations and presents itself to the listener as an impenetrable fortress shrouded in the dark mists of mystery. What is certain is that "Runa" constitutes the formal and conceptual pinnacle of Ian Read's art: well-produced and with attention to the smallest details, the album sounds almost cerebral (an unusual thing considering the high emotional rate of Fire + Ice's offerings) and undoubtedly requires several listens before its essence can be penetrated. Indeed it is Read’s most introspective and least immediate work, and what surprises us is especially the vague abandonment of the folk/acoustic sounds that have always characterized his music. The guitars, which still remain strongly present, are relegated to a secondary role, fulfilling mere ornamental functions. Instead, the airy keyboards and dark martial percussions dominate, intertwining the ethereal sound of entities like Dead Can Dance and Ataraxia with "soft-industrial" digressions that reveal the apocalyptic DNA of the English formation. Consistently, Read's singing becomes even more minimal, settling into a dark and evocative narrative, not without that pathos and epic tension that have always distinguished it.

No guest stars this time to enliven the situation, but paradoxically this seems to be the added value of the work, which shines with a rigor and compactness made possible precisely by the absence of external contributions that would likely have distracted attention and diverted the mind to other musical entities. Accompanied only by Matthew Butler and Ian Pirrie, who navigate with simple elegance among the most diverse instruments, and by Katerina and Ingrid Wultsch, who enrich the work with their sporadic vocal incursions, Ian Read delivers HIS album, a unique, intimate, in some ways unclassifiable album. "Runa" is undoubtedly the album where the artist Ian Read emerges most prominently, and for this reason, in my opinion, it marks his artistic peak, even though those flashes of genius and peaks of intensity found in previous works and expected in future ones are not present here.

The first impact is understandably not the most enthusiastic, and everything might seem rather flat and monotonous: however, subsequent listens will reveal new facets and bring out the emotional climax that forms the essence of the work. A subtle, elusive, thoughtful work. A work with a thousand nuances and multiple conceptual layers, a spiritual journey that recalls, although the form and intents are different, the unsurpassed "Of Ruine or some Blazing Starre" by Current 93. An experience to be lived in its entirety, where the individual episodes do not shine so much for their own light but for the meaning that arises from their placement along the path. A path that naturally has a starting point and an endpoint and, in its progression, takes on the appearance of a metaphysical path opened within the dense branches of a dark forest. The rhythm is that of the cautious step of the wanderer, and the images evoked paint the moods of the seeker. And how can we not mention in this regard the masterpiece within the masterpiece: "Weirdstaves", a composition divided into three movements that, in its 15 minutes of duration, between delicate guitar arpeggios, ethereal keyboards, and mystical organ openings, guides us into the recesses of Ian Read's restless, troubled, and tenacious soul. If the artist's career is a Search and "Runa" is the album of Search par excellence, this "Weirdstaves" is the track of Search cubed!

More Ian Read than this, you die.