Ef - We salute you, you and you! (2022)

The fifth album in the Swedish band's discography came after a long, almost a decade-long hiatus. But it was worth waiting for as We salute you, you and you! brings what best in the Nordic way of approaching post-rock music.

In their music the lively guitars and beautiful strings coexist with the Immanu El-like atmospheric vocals. The single's Moments of Momentum is the perfect example of this brilliant way of building compositions, the best way to end up with an instant post-rock hit in my opinion. There's a healthy dose of the music mystery and atmosphere without being too bland. And while the opening track is mostly focused on the mood, the Swedish prove that it's also possible to use guitars and string in more energetic, louder way.

I can't say if what strikes in their music the most is the airiness or the energy. Even the most ethereal tracks like Hymn of... can very quickly transform into almost post-hardcore passage of gloomy aggression (which is a nod to the artists' past in hardcore music). The whole album is a bag filled with various moods with an ambient Leuven added for a good measure, and this is what makes it a spectacular comeback. It is such a bliss that, also thanks to the uneventful life in the times of the pandemics, the band decided to come back together.

We salute you, you and you! costs whatever you want to pay.

Check: Moments of Momentum

Country: Sweden

Genre: atmospheric post-rock

Label: Pelagic Records

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Cecilia::eyes - Sore Memories Always End (2021)

For Cecilia::eyes, Sore Memories Always End is their fourth album already. But somehow I have never really gotten to know them, perhaps because the last album was released in 2014. Now, seven (!) years passed and their new dose of ridiculously ethereal post-rock came to make this winter more mysterious and beautiful.

I can't help but compare the Belgians' music to what we know and love Immanu El for. It's the same vibe of slower but carefully developing, epic but intimate, and massive but cozy post-rock. It gives the feeling of not hurrying anywhere, much rather slowly progressing from one audio wonder to another. The guitars build up slow but steady, making the walls of noise overwhelming and crushingly beautiful, but it never feels like it's meant to crush the audience - quite the opposite, the melancholic sounds have rather an uplifting influence on you. Especially when the vocals hit - again, coming back to Immanu El, their pitch is completely different but they convey the same exceptionally ethereal and very sad expression.

The whole atmospheric melancholia type of mood is present from the very beginning of the album to its very end. But it's best tangible in the longest tracks that have even more time to get into the mesmerizing instrumental parts (the whole album is already a longer one, it takes some time to feel it to the end) like the ones in In a Blue Cold Cloth and, as one could expect, in the album's slow-crescendo finish in Frozen Sand. I can't wait to experience all this live during the next year's Dunk!Festival. 

Sore Memories Always End costs 8 EUR.

Check: Twin Mountains

Country: Belgium

Genre: ethereal post-rock

Label: dunk!records

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