(Jester Records) Total Time: 40:05
Home of the odd, sponsors of the obscure, scourge of the mainstream, Jester Records (no, I'm really not paid by them – I just like their music, especially ULVER and ARCTURUS release another particularly weird record, by WHEN. This is my first contact with the band. However I understand that it is the child of Norwegian musician Lars Pedersen, whose work reaches out to the early 80s. I'm afraid that I cannot comment on previous work, as I'm not familiar with it. “Pearl Harvest”, however, is a blast from the past – taking a page from legendary experimentalists TANGERINE DREAM, it is how folk-rock/psychedelic rock from the 60s might/should have sounded today. Reminiscent of bands such as MAGNA CARTA and SADDAR BAZAR, “Pearl Harvest” is a folk/psychedelic rock album, with few electronic/industrial influences. Inspired by 101 Arabian Nights, “Pearl Harvest” has strong middle eastern music influences, featuring mostly ethnic instruments (percussions/strings/flutes) and is to a large extent instrumental. Vocals are used, however not very often, and are usually sampled, processed or even used as loops. The songs range from folk/rock (The Ebony “Horse” / “Prince Kamar”) to simply weird (“Keys”) or even obscenely weird and even slightly annoying may I add (“Goose, Poor Goose” - are those some ANGIZIA/ARCTURUS/KOROVA/ULVER theatrical elements I see there?). Production of the record is excellent – Bear in mind, though that that this release has exactly 0% to do with metal. If you do like the aforementioned bands, folk and rock from the 60s/70s and even the neo-folk of Loreena McKennitt (although a lot less commercial) and Hagalaz' Runedance, you might wish to check this out. With an open mind (and bearing in mind that it's one of the more different records in my collection), I give it a
