The Joy of Nature/Novemthree - Auguries Of Innocence / Meandering In Streams Of Reflection (2009)

This split between The Joy of Nature and Novemthree comes as a 2 X 3” CDr in a little digipak in a plastic sleeve. Each disc contains about twenty minutes of music that is no doubt highly inspired by nature, folklore and the times of yore.

The Joy of Nature is the sole project of LC from the Azores, which is a Portuguese archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean. His music is within an acoustic/neo folk style with a very dreamy and mystical feeling to it. The songs generally consist of just lightly strummed acoustic guitars, keyboards, piano, percussion and the appearance of some woodwind instrument of some variety plus vocals. The actual songs are a bit hard to describe as I already mentioned they have a very dreamy and mystic feeling to them, but they also sound very timeless and antique sort of sentiment to them. It’s almost as if these are pieces of music from people and cults of the Azores of many centuries ago reworked and refined in modern times. LC’s vocals are fairly well performed and blend in perfectly with this sort of music. In any case this is some very beautiful and enduring music well worth exploring.

Novemthree on the other hand is an American project headed by Pythagumus and once again his music is a blend of acoustic instruments and voice creating some sort of forest folk music that perhaps could be compared to bands like In Gowan Ring, Tenhi or Sangre Cavallum. The songs generally consist of just an acoustic guitar, percussion, flute and voice, and let me tell you this is some really beautiful music. I must admit, Pythagumus’ voice is subtle and soothing and works wonders with this sort of folk music and much like The Joy of Nature I find this music to have a very timeless quality to it that takes my mind to past and embraces my heathen soul. However it is once again hard to fully describe this release but I can tell it’s quite gorgeous and enjoyable in its entirety.

As far as I know this release is still in print so if you’re looking for some interesting folk music than do get yourself a copy before it disappears.