There are times when one comes across music so haunting and beautiful that one can only sit there with headphones on and be taken on a journey to a very different world indeed, and that is what we have here with Antinoë, the one-woman project of pianist and vocalist Teresa Marraco. It is neoclassical, with occasional orchestration, but for the most part is just her wonderful ethereal voice and stark, piano-driven arrangements. It is Enya, but instead of coming to us from ambient Celtic, Teresa is instead from atmospheric metal which provides an edge which is very different indeed. It is dark, emotional, full of loss, taking us on a journey which is less a dream and heading more to a nightmare, full of beauty and shade, as opposed to light.
In the past she has collaborated with bands such as Coldborn, Elffor, Balmog, and Empty, and recorded the piano/keyboard parts for Dimmu Borgir’s live performance of “Det Nye Riket” at Beyond the Gates Festival. Her 2023 debut, ‘Whispers from the Dark Past’, was an acoustic reinterpretation of 90’s Norwegian black metal classics, which I have not heard but sounds truly intriguing. ‘The Fold’ is her first album of original material, taking us through the journey of the acceptance of death and working through the different stages of death. It is a delicate album which is full of depth and strength, combined with space and simplicity, the result being something where there is no room for the musician to hide, no studio trickery, just some reverb and clarity of thought.
It may be neoclassical, but it is somehow linked to black metal as well, and part of me wonders if this was recorded live as there are a few notes in “Flock” which are offkey and I cannot decide if it is for jarring effect, or if they were mistakes and were kept in. Either way, they somehow make the end result more human and somehow wake us from the reverie as this is an album which takes us to a different state of mind and is certainly not something to play when driving or using heavy machinery.
This is incredible powerful, like a spider’s web made out of high tensile steel, and demands the listener play on headphones when they have the time to properly devote themselves to the experience. Superb and sublime.
Rating: 9/10
Links:
https://www.facebook.com/antinoeofficial
https://darkessencerecords.no/