Genre: Neo Folk
Track Listing
01 The Blood of my Lady (Part I)
02 Who has seen the Wind
03 Echoes in Den Wald
04 The Tomb of your Remains
05 Vengeance
06 I will Lead you Down
07 Our Palace of Ice
08 A Cold Winter (February)
09 For all my Broken Promises
10 The River and the Hawk
11 Fly on the Windscreen
12 The Blood of my Lady (Part II)
13 She is Everywhere and Nowhere
From the isolationist mind of Michael Laird we are enchanted by the subtle susurrations of pure love, and all of it’s manifestations, from the depths to the heights and also the highest love, the love of the blood of the lady as it courses amidst our being. Many are called, but few are chosen to partake of this sacrosanct libation and exalted celebration. Michael Laird recorded this album in complete isolation from the teeming masses of the world, free from constant bombardment of humanity to receive the purest essence, that of our lady, our goddess extended through thirteen glimpses of her many faceted jewel as Michael Laird himself states “These thirteen spells were conjured for silk and bone”… A very curious statement, giving a great key to the ideas and feelings represented here… The blood of our goddess and the blood of our lady is indeed everywhere and nowhere….
We begin our journey into her sacred gardens with “The Blood of my Lady (Part I.) a creation evoking deep feelings of nostalgic wonderment and imparting us to seek out the true voice of our lady within all of existence, within pools of sand and blood, within the dew that gracefully forms and falls from the trees to spring anew within her everlasting caress. From this iteration, we are drawn into the streams of the eternal goddess, from “Who has seen the Wind” the wind in her invitation of wild abandon, to the deeply nostalgic, obscure potencies of “I will lead you down”, which by reading the lyrics, one may mistake to be a statement of misogyny, but this is just a mask of a sequence of events of the highest alchemical gnosis and the primordial and unfettered love, which exalts and glorifies the lady of our blood in all and in nothing. Following this and other shards of her essence in musical form, we arrive through the eyes of the “Fly on the Windscreen.” At first glance, I did not feel this song to belong to this paean of our beloved goddess and her unknown fascinations. Performed originally by Depeche Mode, Unto Ashes recreates this song of depth concerning the mysteries of Sex and Death… Thanateros… Thereby, bringing it to perfection. This golden offering then ends with “The Blood of our Lady (Part 1)” and the equally haunting “She is everywhere and nowhere” Exhorting all who may experience the hidden gestures within to seek our lady everywhere and nowhere, for she is indeed, everything and nothing and the hidden formula that excites these two opposites.
In recent years the Projekt label has grown from releasing Darkwave to producing some amazing neo/ambient folk music, the inherent essence of which is on a higher level of understanding and wisdom, than many may associate with the offerings of Projekt. I myself was quite surprised to experience such an opus of this magnitude and I am equally surprised this release had not beckoned to me before now, I will now have an attentive eye upon the Projekt label and all of you should as well. Michael laird has bequeathed us with a journey of hidden libations, to be drank in, as every moment stirs and passes, for it is surely her movements which arouse the passions of life and death within us all… Michael Laird has also a wide array of guest musicians to complete his divine vision, including Sonne hagal, Kim Larsen,, Josie Smith and William Wiegard, amongst others enfleshing his vision in stone, bones and the blood of our lady which resonates with those of the blood. In summation to this album, as Michael Laird has received and uttered “ Now that the Blackbird took my eyes, I can see. I am no one, I am no one, I am no one. Unless I fly into the Winter Night….”
