This weeks ONE TO WATCH is something really special and comes from a band that released an album back in January of this year, and I have to say, it made a big impact on me personally, it basically left me floored!. Great bands are a plenty, as are great musicians, and in the case of Lucida Dark, both of these essential ingredients were in abundance. However, the secret ingredient, the one that makes it stand out from all the rest is Lucida Dark’s gift of writing music that is often heartbreaking and forlorn, but underwritten with a warm, consoling and often uplifting undercurrent.
When I reviewed Of Death, Of Love earlier in the year, I wrote, “Lucida Dark have written an album that tips the scales between darkness and light, harmonising these polar opposites through an odyssey of love and death” and with the release of Ordiri a two track mini EP, those words still ring through. The title track is an epic ten minute journey, a tapestry of glorious post-rock that holds within its grasp, a broken heart that aches and bleeds crimson melancholia. It begins with heavy atmospherics, solemn guitars and drums that wisp and blow, all serene and all consuming. The track eases itself along, in a mid-tempo trance, all the time building on intensity and emotion without ever losing it’s flow. When that first big crescendo hits however, the hairs on your neck raise and a chill runs down your spine. The immediate effect of Wren Soryn's mixing and Magnus Lindberg's mastering becomes crystal clear. Those shredded tremolo guitars tear through your body, powered by a ferocious bass and pummeling drums. Like the raging seas, these moments of utter potency and might ebb and flow, each time drowning in heart-wrenching guitar solos and weatherbeaten rhythm sections. When the waters do ease and rest, you’re left with a calm and broken piano that brings this behemoth of a track to a close.
The second track is a remix of the brilliant On That Dark Immortal Shore, from the album Of Death, Of Love. The mastermind behind this mix is the hugely innovative and avant garde Ryan Osterman of Holy Fawn. On paper you wouldnt believe there’s a way of reinventing the original track in a way that it elevates it to a different place without losing the essense of the track, but Ryan has done just that with great care and attention. It surges over the initial blueprint, immersing it in a warm synthesised glow befor exploding into a multicoloured aural experience thast overwhelms and engulfs the senses. It’s different and it’s a breath of fresh ocean-sprayed air.
Quite an extensive write up for just two tracks, but at the end of the day they are not “just” two tracks. They’re a rollercoaster through deep swells of emotion, intensity and power, a really beautiful place to be. Release date is 28-10-2022