BLACKMORE'S NIGHT - Autumn Sky

Universal
***1/2


blackmores

If you already know principle of Blackmore’s Night music and lifestyle, you probably won’t find anything innovative here. Blackmore’s family stay loyal to their own sound composite of rock, folk, renaissance similitude, echoes of Scottish and Irish world music etc... CD contains couple kinds of compositions (fairy tale illustrations full of fanfares, romantic ballads in minnesingers style, syncopated rhythm gallops, simple folk historical salutations and noble castellan instrumental themes). Dispersion moves within Blackmore’s river basin and there are no such a blind stream branches as Can’t Help Falling in Love cover was before. Every style has its own orchestration – here more acoustic, there recruited by rich keyboard sound, there with accent on wind instruments, electric or MIDI guitar. There are also employed some synthetic arpeggiators, but only in temperate way. Of course, you can’t await any sound purism and overall effort for reconstruction in the way of that-period-sound. You find rather postmodern misch-masch sounds and colors instead. (Picture of Ritchie dressed in historical outfit with dark glasses on is, for the album, more than significant.) But we have to say the sound proportions are fine balanced. Arrangements dynamically pulses let us take breath. Variety of dynamic and frequency spectrum finds sensitive spots for changes that bring life to music. Album describes colorfulness and chastity together. Listener’s perception is not overloaded. Music is smooth - just sometime more wild, but still living. Music does not harass by its artificial seriousness. A lot of schemes are used here, but the main thing is written impliedly. Contest of songs is maybe important to authors, but from listener’s point of view is meaning of the words coming often just additionally and overall atmosphere is what comes first. Candice singing makes it sometime too sweet and sentimental, but mainly august and mystical. That feeling serves like invitation to times passed by. Listen to Blackmore’s Night is like read a book, which takes us to wild autumn landscape - on the road between castles and villages of old Albion. It makes our imagination alive and let live its own life.

Martin Chrobak
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