Band: LYSA GORA
Country: Poland
Title: Oj Dolo
Label: Independent
Year: 2019
Style: Acoustic Neo-Folk

Review:
Usually Vilcin takes care of reviewing Folk-related material here, but this time he sent me Lysa Gora's new album Oj Dolo for a review. I haven't heard of this band before, nor had any info on them before playing this 11 tracks work, so I'd speak strictly on what I was able to hear and what my perception on this music is. We're dealing with an acoustic form of Neofolk, and I think the term is good enough since they are not focusing on local folk but prefer to gather and express influences from various countries (Balcan and Slavic) with a modern touch here and there. Their music is mainly based on vocal performance blending different female vocal tonalities and experimenting a lot within that blend, with even male vocals supporting at times. The instrumental part is mainly repetitive and hypnotic making use of plenty of traditional acoustic instruments reminding me of the middle ages music; through all the diversity of instruments used and the multitude of subtle hooks used all over the place it can be repetitive and at the same time complex and surprising to the unsuspecting listener, which one of the main features of this album. At times (especially on the title-track) the music becomes majestic, goosebumps provoking and requires absolute devotion from the listener, it just can't function as background music while doing other things, and thinking twice I think this is what the band succeeded better on this album: it offered a thought-provoking, part meditative and part playful, well-documented piece of Folk art. I'm not an expert in this, but I have deeply enjoyed this album.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: -/10

Contact:
lysagorazespol.pl