FLUXEUROPA: THE MOON LAY HIDDEN BENEATH A CLOUD: A NEW SOLDIER...

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THE MOON LAY HIDDEN BENEATH A CLOUD

A New Soldier Follows The Path Of A New King
1995
ART CD

THE MOON LAY HIDDEN BENEATH A CLOUD (Albin Julius and Elisabeth) contrive to produce a very full sound on A new soldier follows the path of a new King (1995 ART 3 CD), their third full-length CD. Elisabeth has a powerful voice and sings well in English, the melodies are distinctive and the whole is presented with a keen sense of drama.

Unfortunately the CD comes in one of those cardboard sleeves which won't fit into a conventional CD rack, and has no track listing. The names used below, therefore, are conjectural.

The first track is a mediaeval dance tune played at an unmediaeval speed, but the second track soon establishes their demonic 'dark folk' credentials with its synth drone, and angrily and menacingly declaimed lyrics. It concerns Crowley and a comparison of pre-Christian, Christian and Islamic culture.

'God and His Angels' (Track 3) loops a sound clip from Kenneth Branagh's Henry V over the background of a powerful synth build-up. 'Death by fire' (Track 5) is very compulsive and strangely familiar. It is simultaneously sung and shouted over by Elisabeth, a treatment repeated on other tracks and something of a leitmotif. It also features very effective use of percussion and good synthesiser sound effects.

'Swiny Preachers' (Track 6) provides some light relief. Set to another mediaeval or traditional folk tune, this song continues the folk tradition of the bawdy cleric:

T'is no safety from their pike - for virgin, poultry, nun or dyke!

Following Track 6 there appears to be a silent gap, but it is actually a very, very quiet beginning for Track 7 which gradually builds up. Tracks 8 & 9 both sound like traditional folk tunes, but by now everything also begins to sound suggestively 'dark', whether it is or not!

Track 10 has a softer, light and breezy, style reminiscent of 70s 'contemporary folk', and contains an element of the tune used for 'We Three Kings of Orient Are', but lest this puts anybody off, the words here, in French and English, do not appear to have any connection with this Christian carol. Track 12 is more industrial and dark, and appears to represent the ravings of an incarcerated lunatic.

Some tracks have a distinctly Scottish association, especially Track 16 which has the tune of the Scots border ballad, 'The Twa Corbies', which is merged with another soundclip from the Branagh film. Track 18, 'Holy Nation', is some sort of call to arms, while Track 20, with a strangulated, slowed-down, voice-over, provides a suitably eerie finale.

Many thanks to Albin and Elisabeth for supplying a review copy of this CD.

Rik - Dated: 19 December 1995. Revised: 23 January 1996 and 16 March 1996