Širom
In the Wind of Night, Hard-Fallen Incantations Whisper
***and1/2 out of *****
The fifth album from the Slovenian avant-folk outfit Širom is an engaging mix of jazzy space, rustic interludes and expansive outings. In the Wind of Night, Hard-Fallen Incantations Whisper breathes with a sense of nature as the unique sounds and flowing passages ease out.
The trio of Ana Kravanja, Iztok Koren, and Samo Kutin play an expansive list of instruments including a bunch that are homemade and one of a kind. They get a lot of sound out of those instruments as the trio swell from simple textures throughout the record. The songs run long here based around various string outings as the trio are never in a hurry.
Opening with cascading strings of the album's best song, "Between the Fingers the Drops of Tomorrow's Dawn" is a perfect introduction to the band as light beats become propulsive then ease back as vocals flutter. Big deep drums join the fray at around twelve and a half minutes before a vibrating ending. The song feels natural and hypnotic, like it could roll on forever.
"Curls Upon the Neck, Ribs Upon the Mountain" is another long outing with strings as the central theme, starting with cheap fiddle sounds before rumbling with more bass before an ominous, but never too out there finale. The band seems at home when they stretch things out, the shorter tracks like the banjo strumming "No One's Footsteps Deep in the Beat of a Butterfly's Wings" and the humming "Hope in an All-Sufficient Space of Calm" can feel half baked and slight next to the longer paced offerings.
The extended "Tiny Dewdrop Explosions Crackling Delightfully" works best when the percussion is present to support the string work as the journey builds up with chaos. The album closes with two strong efforts, "The Hangman's Shadow Fifteen Years On" is almost twenty minutes of adventure as slow crawl of strings and woodwinds start the proceedings as moaning howls and possible gusts of actual wind color things as shimmering percussion eases the swaying tune along. Album closer "For You, This Eve, the Wolves Will Be Enchantingly Forsaken" is only six minutes, but it uses a pump organ like sound in front of soft vocals that makes for a very cinematic wrap to the album.
Unique, expansive and evocative, Širom's In the Wind of Night, Hard-Fallen Incantations Whisper sounds ancient and inventive in the same exhale, an excellent trick for enchanting music.
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