Musk Ox - Woodfall (2014)

I first became aware of the Canadian neo folk band known as Musk Ox back around the time of the bands debut self titled album (2009), which I seem to recall being released by some notable metalhead who passed away shortly thereafter, although feel free to correct me on that. Even as I did keep tabs on things the album somehow slipped through my fingers and I never actually got my hands on a copy. As such, it wasn't until more recently that I became more in-tune with Nathanaël Larochette's music via his collaboration on the recent Agalloch album, The Serpent & the Sphere. Years after the debut and a few compilations appearances, as well as, the colabs with Agalloch & Woods of Ypres, Musk Ox returns in 2014 with, Woodfall.

Again, I'm going off of memory, but I believe the debut from Musk Ox was purely acoustic guitar based and sounded akin to the acoustic folk creations of Ulver or Empyrium, whereas Woodfall expands upon that sound immensely and here the band sees there sound moving much more toward neo classical.

Woodfall welcomes in Raph Weinroth-Browne on cello, whom you may know from progressive death metal band, Cholera or his Dead Can Dance-ish sounding project, The Visit. Nathanaël, of course, handles all of the classical guitar work, while Evan Runge rounds out the line-up on violin, and although his name isn't familiar in the metal or neo folk scene, he does have experience working in the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra.

While I'm sure the comparisons to Ulver and Empyrium have been made, what instantly makes Musk Ox a unique entity is that their songs are enormously long, with two of the songs reaching the seventeen mark, while the shortest is just under ten, and the whole five songs clock in for nearly sixty sixty minutes of music. The songs carry a very interesting progressive or even post like structure where they often times start in one direction and then develop over several minutes into something grandiose. The music itself is often times very melancholy and poignant to my ears, which makes it a challenging album to listen to, but a worthwhile one, because frankly, its gorgeous. I've enjoyed this album while painting a few times with my better half, and I felt that the music really brought something enormous out of me when the two arts were paired.

Each members performance is simply flawless, there isn't a misstep to be heard on the recording, and when I stop and think that there's just three instruments involved I'm quite astonished, because it sounds much, much more than that. I should also mention that the album is entirely instrumental, although such flavorful and immense tunes speak their own words and tell their own story as you journey through, Woodfall.

Its challenging to pick a favorite, but somehow Part 3 - Arcanum really strikes a chord with me and brings random bits of nostalgia to my mind, both happy and sad moments, while, Part 4 - Above the Clouds, has more bombastic moments and much as the title would suggest, it has the tendency to just send my spirit soaring.

Woodfall truly is a remarkable album and is surely a must for anyone that enjoys neo classical with a neo folk back bone to it. I mention that the neo folk is more of the backbone here, because the cello and violin do dominate the sound, but is doesn't steal anything away from the album, but may be different for fans of the bands earlier work. Nevertheless, I'm overly pleased with this recording and will surely have to invest some time into the bands earlier work to see what I've been missing out on all these years.