(Dreamy Dark Folk) Novemthree & Arrowwood - Split - 2007, MP3 , 192 kbps

#777Tender and mournful, the guitar’s minor arpeggio’s slowly undulate with the open dirgeful maw of drawn strings and sombre flute, husky and etherious vocal harmony glaze a forested dream. Novemthree is the handmaiden of Pythagmus, with two additional presences adding male and female voice and piano, and it is an oneiric forest, adrift in limbo, cast in fog and sluggish somnolence. This affection is steeped in folk, lamenting ancient byways into the eld woods. The six tracks vacillate ever so slightly in melody but keep the consensus of the outpouring of hushed paganism.
Arrowwood, the second disc in this release offer a similar dolorous mien, but perform it in tremulous and shimmering glitter. Here the moss-encrusted guitar is bequeathed to the husky and feminine grace of Chelsea (accompanied the aforementioned Pythagmus with singing bowl and woodwind). It is a dichotomy of unison, that these two artists should come so close yet be opposed in the digipak on separate discs. Providing more song-form with lyrical content, Arrowwood are the folk equivalent of Lycia, but more poignant.
This release is an extremely pleasant surprise, one of dry tears and ancient haunts, with a production that elevates the minimal instrumentation into gossamer dream, the folk is pure and unconditioned by modernist overtones, stripped back to haunting harmony luxuriant and empathic. Gorgeously gentle but darkly disturbing, where resolution is relative. Both discs are complimentary, yet subtle in divergence. The only complaint can be a recorded clip on track four of Arrowwood that brings one sharply out of this forest of dreams to the realisation one is not lost asleep.
Unique packaging is always a special treat and with this dual 3” CDr from Little Somebody Records they deliver with a flip-sided printed gatefold in full colour with spine. Within the discs are recessed into sleeves backed with oak leafed cloth with each silvered disc screened with the respective band. It is a delightful duality of green and grey.