When faced with an artist like Nordic Giants, it is impossible to write without resorting to increasingly creative forms of writing. The Brighton duo are one of those rare acts who, even in the harsh glare of the social media spotlight, have managed to maintain a sense of mystery about them, the costumed performances and cinematic projections proving to be far more alluring than the thought of yet another band in jeans and t shirts staring moodily out of a Facebook page. In other words, to all intents and purposes Nordic Giants have succeeded in achieving what so many bands claim to strive for – it’s all about the music. And what music! Signed to Kscope, the home of so many wonderful artists, Nordic Giants still manage to shine as masters of the post-rock genre, their music as beautiful, as unique and captivating as the very name post-rock sought to suggest when it was first coined.
‘A séance of dark delusions’ opens quietly. Amidst a dark synth haze, ghostly voices vocalize and guitars slowly reveal their presence amidst layers of echo. It’s an introduction that stirs the emotions, a soundtrack to an unseen movie, perhaps scoring a long sweep of the camera over the ancient and decaying ruins of some long lost, yet grand civilisation. The music is regal, majestic, and as it swells toward its conclusion you can feel a pit slowly open in your stomach in anticipation of what is to come. The music segues into ‘evolve or perish’, a track that features crystalline synth lines reminiscent of fuck buttons, distorted drums and rich piano. The melody is unutterably beautiful whilst the haunting sample form which the track gained its title suggests an unimaginable cataclysm for a humanity that continues on its current path of self-delusion. The third track is the beautiful ‘rapture’ featuring Beth Canon. It is a piece of music so impossibly lovely with its soaring chords, pounding drums and, at the heart of it all, Beth’s stunning voice, that it makes you want to chase out into the bright daylight and run until your heart bursts, and as the music builds and builds you’ll feel that that is exactly what is about to happen. Surely the album’s unofficial title, ‘give flight to your imagination’ is a sombre, subtle piece that is almost the exact opposite of ‘Rapture’. Where ‘rapture’ takes flight like the soundtrack to the climactic moment of an Olympic race in which the listener is emotionally invested in the fate of the winner, ‘give flight to your imagination’ is a slow, sparse piece of music that features lovely, understated vocals from Freyja and drums buried so far in the mix so as to be barely audible and yet which simultaneously drive the piece forward. ‘Dissolve’ (featuring Saturday Sun) similarly opens on a thoughtful note, replacing banks of synths with a picked acoustic guitar, only to explode into a thousand points of blazing light as the melody takes flight. Like Sigur Ros, Radiohead and Toro Y Moi all rolled into one immense moment of shimmering beauty, it’s heart rending and stunning in equal measure.
Opening in an echo chamber, ‘illuminate’ is piano-led, featuring echoing vocalizations that tie the piece together as the duo add layer upon layer of synth until the track becomes a monster, a peak that stands tall amidst the other mountains with its wide-eyed innocence and wonder. ‘Futures dark’ (featuring Nadine Wild-Palmer) reverses the trend, opening with a tsunami of sound only for it to be reduced to the most skeletal of backdrops, fully allowing Nadine’s rich vocals to dominate the track. A rare moment of ambient drone, ‘Black Folds’ starts off deep in the subconscious and slowly brings a haunting trumpet to the fore until it feels like you’re standing alone and clad in black next to an unmarked grave before the track segues into the epic, concluding piece ‘a thousand lost dreams’ which features blazing, reverb-drenched guitars and one last aching crescendo before ending in some far-off, mystical place. As such, when the album ends, it’s like being snapped out of a reverie and all you want to do is return to the start and live it all over again.
To look at the artwork for ‘A séance of dark delusions’, you’d be forgiven for anticipating a none-blacker ride through the very darkest aspects of humanity soundtracked by music akin to Axis of perdition. And yet, what you get is a sense of utter wonder and beauty as the duo sculpt immense imaginary castles in the sky. Nordic Giants’ grasp of dynamics is immaculate, their ability to both build and restrain their music impeccable and, in doing so, they produce a living, breathing work that ebbs and flows across a run-time that seems to vanish within the blink of an eye. The sort of music that focuses and amplifies whatever emotion the listener is feeling at the time, ‘a séance of dark delusions’ can stir up great joy or gentle melancholy and it is hard to imagine a more stately, wondrous example of the post-rock genre. Intelligent, imaginative music that will burrow deep inside the listener’s psyche, ‘a séance of dark delusions’ is an essential album for anyone who loves music thanks to the stunning melodies and its seemingly limitless replayability.
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