Vowels - Seasonal Beasts

Vowels - Seasonal Beasts (Sun & Moon Records, 2014)

VOWELS approaches from North of Italy, the cosmopolitan town of Vicenza known as a ground for culture, especially music and theatre and there you have the major kits you will notice when you will listen to the magical new LP “Seasonal Beasts”:  you can sense from the first note that this is an Italian band, only they can make music so graceful. Besides that, there is also the theatre stage sensation plus a cinematic mood. It’s like they just walked out from Fellini’s “La Strada”.

There is blood and beauty in every note of this album. The region where the band comes from has a rich history, and has its wounded backgrounds. But there is also beauty to mankind, not just blood. VOWELS is not just a “band”, it’s a solid brotherhood. With “Seasonal Beasts”  (their 2nd full-length after the experimental dark debut “Hooves, Leaves & the Death/As December Nightingales” released by Sun & Moon Records) VOWELS tries to reconnect with their heritages, not just the Italian past, but also the ancestries of mankind and the origins of music and composition. This 4-piece orchestra tries to go back to the foundations of the old ways and hook that ancestral mood. “Seasonal Beasts” is the music the cave dweller would make with today’s potentials, just listen to the primordial ritualistic buzz in their art.

There is a dark, but clean, atmospheric but elegant sensitivity in their music you can only find in artists like TENHI, or DEATH IN JUNE. You also have the subtle dark jazz orchestrations reminding you the nostalgia of the 60s Italian movies, so fans of ANGELO BADALAMENTI or BOHREN UND DER CLUB OF GORE could favorably enjoy the art of these four gentlemen.  VOWELS is the Paleolithic man trying to find his place in the asphalted metropolises of the new age. An album which didn’t falls into any trends, not even traditions. One of the pleasant surprises of the year.

Written by Rob

February, 2015