Sol Invictus
In A Garden Green

Elsewhere I have argued that Sol Invictus have not given birth to any true masterpieces. And if I gave 5 stars to "Against the Modern World" it is more for the historical value that this EP holds, both for the band and for the entire genre (a bit like the 5 stars we can attribute to works like "Scum" by Napalm Death and "Deathcrush" by Mayhem). And if I now find myself giving 5 stars to this "In a Garden Green," it is not because we are facing a true masterpiece, but rather to give the proper tribute to an artist like Wakeford and the talent of the exceptional musicians who have accompanied him for some time now in his crusade against the world.

The enchanted violin of Matt Hodwen, the mournful trumpet of Eric Roger, the distorted bass of Karl Blake, the fantastic voices of Sally Doherty and Jane Hodwen reach sublime heights here, merge into miraculous intertwinings, carve out moments of protagonism, accompany and support, obscuring the overwhelming ego of the hefty mastermind.

"In a Garden Green," not coincidentally released in 1999, is certainly a product of the experiences matured within L'Orchestre Noir, constantly recalled to mind for the sumptuousness of the arrangements, the richness of the solutions, the care of the sounds. "In a Garden Green" thus comes to represent the formal perfection of Sol Invictus, the place where all the pieces finally find a happy placement and where a long-sought harmony is achieved and only now fully attained.

I have, in fact, always found in Sol Invictus albums a constant fluctuation between well-achieved episodes and more anonymous ones, or at least, not sufficiently incisive. More than anything, I have always suffered from a certain underlying monotony, due to the compositional and execution deficiencies of Wakeford himself, to whom, however, an undeniable talent must certainly be recognized, especially for having managed to forge a sound undeniably personal, evocative, and rich in visions, but to whom evident limits must also be attributed, both as an artist and as a musician.

For this reason, I find myself loving "In a Garden Green," precisely because Wakeford is less present than usual. With his hand firmly on the ship's helm, he chooses to scale down his overflowing protagonism and let the artistic flair of his capable collaborators speak. And so, more director than leading actor, Wakeford is able to stage the work of his maturity, a heartfelt, intimate work, paradoxically the least apocalyptic of his career. The epic and restless tones that characterized previous works are indeed dampened into a melancholic and vaguely nostalgic mood. It is no coincidence that the album is dedicated to a certain Elsie Kate Wakeford, who I deduce from the photo (a woman playing with a child) to be Wakeford's mother. The album constitutes a journey back in time to rediscover the sweetness and innocence of childhood. And the image of the garden comes to represent a place of peace, play, and lightheartedness. A serenity sadly lost forever, now unreachable, but which survives in memories and whose sweetness the spirit drifts and finds comfort in.

The tracks follow one another harmoniously and compose an intimate and fantastic journey, among dreamlike Pink Floyd-like digressions and flashes of unabashed romanticism in Cure style. A journey through the gloomy and desolate landscapes of "Europa" and the fresh and soft meadows of "Song of the Flower", a path that turns black with the dark lullabies of "O Rubor Sanguinis", and is cloaked in the sacred with the sublime vocal evolutions of "Ave Maria". Moments of tension are interspersed with physiological reflective pauses, like the melancholy of "The Praties Song", in an exciting continuum that never leaves space for boredom or irritation.

Wakeford's guitar is a distant strumming, overwhelmed by strings, winds, female choirs, and minimal electronic inserts, while his voice becomes the protagonist in only four tracks, and for this, it is even more appreciated. It is the morning awakening of "Come the Morning", the nine fantastic minutes of the title track, undoubtedly the emotional peak of the work, the sweet and almost Morrissey-like singing of "No One". But the concluding "Europa Calling" brings us back to the true Sol Invictus, which reprises the theme of "Europa", and returns to us the most unyieldingly apocalyptic Wakeford: "We are all brothers, Cain and Abel" are the disturbing and ambiguous words with which this poignant and painful work closes.

"In a Garden Green" is an album that, while sounding 1000% Sol Invictus, constitutes an atypical episode in the history of the formation: it shows us an unedited side of Wakeford, it seems to constitute a truce, a need for humanity, a crack in the cynical and disenchanted world that has always animates the artist's poetics.

Recommended not only to fans of the group and the genre, but to anyone who loves dark and gothic music, and more generally dreamlike and melancholic atmospheres.