Aural Music have always been a fascinating label, releasing music which is way out in left field, often with a very heavy base, but in all the years I have been listening to them I can honestly say it is the first time I have come across an album they define as “mourning folk”. This is the debut of карити (kariti) – (‘mourn the dead’ in church Slavonic, an antique Slavic liturgical language) – a Russian-born artist based in Italy, and apparently it represents a cathartic peregrination through bereavement. Kariti provides most of the music herself, which is generally fingerpicked acoustic guitar. The album itself was recorded and mixed in an old secluded countryside property by Lorenzo Della Rovere, (who provides acoustic guitar on a couple of numbers, while Marco (Grime) who provides electric guitar on two songs and it was mastered by Lorenzo Stecconi (Ufomammut, Zu, Grime).
This is dark music, and the sounds of a storm at the beginning of “Крещение Ведьмы (The Baptism of a Witch)” certainly fits in perfectly with the album. In some ways this made me think of Jo Beth Young, but one who is very much on the darker side of life. Many of the songs are in English, with just a few in Russian (I guess), but I would have been more than happy to have the whole album in her native tongue as it allows the mind to concentrate on the emotions and feelings being conjured by this incredible album.
Releases from Aural Music tend to be a lot heavier than this and I can only hope that people who may not normally associate the label with folk will look past that and discover what is an incredible piece of music which has spoken to me deeply. Available on Bandcamp, it actually isn’t released until September but until then it is possible to hear a couple of tracks of some simply stunning material. If Candice from Incubus Succubus joined forces with Jo Beth Young in her cottage in the wilds of Ireland, then I can imagine them coming up with an album like this. There is a purity and wildness here, a delicacy combined with inner strength and darkness, being given voice by a wonderful singer.
Rating: 9/10
Links:
https://www.facebook.com/karitimourning/
https://www.auralmusic.com/
