Jahrtal — Lichtbuch

Jahrtal make rich, soothing and sometimes sombre but always beautiful folk music lined with an earthy and warming 70’s spirit. All finished off with sleepy and hazy mainly male but sometimes female German singing.

Appearing on the always excellent Ahnstern lable, this is a lot more mellow, dreamy and contemplative than many of the labels releasers, it’s also a lot less experimental and daring in it’s mix of sounds, though it does still subtly mix in the odd torches of other genres such as ambient, jazz, discordant rock and haphazard world music influences. It slips and sooths by you, unfolding the tuneful rich acoustic songs at a heady leisured pace. Colouring and warming the songs acoustic guitar treads and picks with electric guitars, lute, banjo, dulcimer, gzitar, harpzither, psalter, flute, duduk, schalm, violin, organ and bird's voices. The tracks more often then not press on towards the 10 minute mark letting their vibe slowly unfold around you, nothing is rushed or raised above a gentle summers day stroll even when electric guitar is added it’s for contrast and never in angry or spiteful form. In all the album comes in just over the 75 minute mark, though it never feels this long as the tracks seem to pull you into their beauty and slumbering wonder so completely.

A album to slip and easy into, giving a feeling akin to lying on a comfy mossy bank miles away from civilisation with mid- afternoon summer sun warming your skin, and you near the edge of a peaceful  slumber.