Circle — Leviatan

Leviatan finds  Circle in a more mellow, laid-back & stripped back sonic mood. The albums nine tracks offer up a more kraut-rock focused acid folk vibe, with the whole thing been  based mainly around acoustic instrumentation, taking in banks of strummed guitar,  bouzouki, acoustic percussion, banjo, and dulcimer- all topped off with layers of moody Finish & English vocals, & subtle keyboard / organ traces.

Following on the tread of Circle’s more recent output over the last few years the tracks here a less epic in their length- with each of the nine tracks here lasting between four to six minutes. Yet the bands trade mark repetitive yet entrancing riff structure is still very much firmly in place.  And though all the albums tracks featuring similar stripped back sonic setting, there is enough variation in both moody & type of track to keep you interested through-out. Going from more moody & atmospheric, onto more tuneful, hazy & stoned, through to more up-beat, urgent & rousing. 

All in all Leviatan is another great addition to the Circles large discography, and it’s great to see that even after the bands twenty plus years existence they are still managing to release work that  both sounds different & rewarding, yet still very much has that distinctive Circle flavour to it.