Vestfalia's Peace
Loneliness

Vestfalia's Peace

"Loneliness"

2017

Label: Swiss Dark Nights

Tracklist

1. Loneliness

2. Wet Ferns Shine

3. Behind The Court

4. A Sad Image

5. The Muse

6. Before The Storm

7. Farewell

8. I Think I Should Leave

9. The Peasant

10. Tale From The Summer Dew

11. The Apple Boughs

Vestfalia’s Peace are Eugenio Auciello, Gianni Caldararo, Duccio Del Matto, Salvatore Pallotta.

This first full-length album is released twenty years after the inception of one of the few dark-wave musical projects from Molise origins (with a Tuscan presence within the band), whose beginnings trace back to 1997. One might comment on the very long gestation period if it weren't for the fact that this album only partly represents the continuation, not at all linear, of a discourse started in the '90s: rather, it is the latest incarnation of a project that has taken on different forms and features over the years, while remaining recognizable, faithful to itself, and unchanged in spirit and membership (the group members have always remained the same).

The album, which is sold in an elegantly designed digipack, actually consists of eight new tracks and three tracks, the last ones, re-proposed from a previous self-produced demo, "The Peasant," dating back to 2004.

The genre of Vestfalia’s Peace is a rather classic dark-wave, with romantic nuances and leaning towards the melodic and sometimes the ethereal, except for some more nervous and rhythmic excursions. The stylistic-instrumental aspect and the "color" of their sound are well-curated, which, despite the preference for rather muffled and tamed sounds by an almost omnipresent flanger, does not punish the drums, which on the contrary are always prominent, nor the bass, which is quite marked and metallic; a sound that, moreover, does not disdain genuine moments of guitar playing (decidedly predominant in the band's beginnings, albeit more nuanced today) or even bolder excursions into electronic effects, although few and very controlled. The vocal lines are often highlighted, also to gratify the inspired lyrics. As in their latest demos (which will be mentioned later), the male voice often intertwines with the female voice and choruses, creating a very evocative and in some cases highly impactful vocal architecture.

The production is good and favors a sound that, while sophisticated, is never over-arranged, instead resulting at times even sparse, but always effective. This underscores, among other things, the mature and inspired songwriting, with moments and entire tracks of great and in some cases exceptional expressive and compositional elegance ("A Sad Image," "Farewell," "The Peasant," "The Apple Boughs").

The group's influences are quite explicit, bordering on citation in some cases. Vestfalia’s Peace actually have soundscapes that openly recall the primarily British and "late" post-punk, new wave, and dark scene, that is, from the second half of the 80s. The group, in other words, does not reiterate the standards set by the genre's godfathers (Joy Division, Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and The Cure, the latter certainly more present) during the late 70s and early 80s, but rather shows a clear tendency to revisit the later and more refined scene: one name above all, the decidedly present and cited And Also the Trees (both from their beginnings and, especially, from the more mature "Virus Meadow"). Not uncommon are the more ethereal and dream pop turns, where the reference canon is instead that of the 80s productions of 4AD – mainly Cocteau Twins, This Mortal Coil, and the early Dead Can Dance –, with hints in some cases already frankly Shoegaze (Slowdive). In the more keyboard-centric parts, one can trace back to the early Clan of Xymox and their interplay of acoustic guitar and synthesizers, while the singing and some atmospheres sometimes recall the less dark Scott Walker of the second period (which begins precisely in the 80s). Unlike their side project La Pietra Lunare (which will be mentioned in the final lines of this writing), a project more indebted to sounds, atmospheres, and themes dear to Italian and European songwriter and neo-folk scenes, the influence of folk noir in Vestfalia's Peace is marginal. Totally absent, however, are industrial or EBM nuances.

Among the few flaws of the work, one could mention a certain occasional imbalance of the volumes (but this circumstance can also be interpreted as a precise stylistic choice), and, rarely, slight dissonances. These flaws, however, do not at all affect the overall quality of the album, which remains very high, often bordering on excellence.

It is worth remembering, at the conclusion of this review, the previous works of Vestfalia’s Peace, namely the previous self-produced demos during their twenty-year career, which are "Sleeping After Dawn" (1999), "Fun in a Word" (2000), "The Peasant" (2004 – entirely republished in the album reviewed here), and "Tra Mari, Pantani e Ponti Rotti..." (2005). Each of these demos, or better of those not yet republished, contains at least one hidden gem that would deserve to emerge from the oblivion of self-production. Or at least this is what the writer hopes for, who knows these works well – I add a biographical curiosity: I received the first demo of the group, contained in a music cassette that I still jealously keep, in the now distant 1998, and I possess the others in the same format.

In 2015, however, saw the release of the album La Pietra Lunare, for the Lichterklang label, recently re-released by the Italian SPQR. It is an album conceived and created by Del Matto and Caldararo, being two of the four members of Vestfalia's Peace. An alternative and parallel project, but in which it is still possible to trace, although differently declined, a common thematic and stylistic denominator with Vestfalia's Peace – particularly with their "demo" incarnation later on, that of "Tra Mari, Pantani e Ponti Rotti..." (2005), a demo where several traits that will then be appropriately developed with the project La Pietra Lunare are present in germinal form.