Nad Sylvan - Spiritus Mundi

(CD 2021, 48:13, Inside Out Music)

The tracks:
  1- The Second Coming(7:00)
  2- Sailing To Byzantium(6:41)
  3- Cap And Bells(4:47)
  4- The Realists(2:18)
  5- The Stolen Child(4:58)
  6- To An Isle In The Water(4:36)
  7- The Hawk(4:09)
  8- The Witch And The Mermaid(1:57)
  9- The Fisherman(5:28)
Bonus Tracks:
10- You've Got To Find A Way(5:55)
11- To A Child Dancing In The Wind(5:08)

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Nad Sylvan's trilogy of albums following the tale of the Vampirate (Courting The Widow (2015, see review), The Bride Said No (2017, see review) and The Regal Bastard (2019, see review) was a real blast to me; I still listen to these spectacular albums a lot!!

Now, for his new album Spiritus Mundi, singer, Nad Sylvan, chose a rather different approach, meaning: more vocals, lots of lyrics and I truly miss the electric guitars as most of the nine tracks “only” have acoustic guitars, vocals and lots of orchestration and atmospheric sounds. Spiritus Mundi is almost entirely based around the vocals of Sylvan and for me that tends to become a bit boring in the end as I truly miss the musical diversity which featured on Sylvan's three previous albums! Even the notable cast of great guest musicians like Tony Levin, Jonas Reingold, Mirkko De Maio and Steve Hackett does not change the musical “simplicity” on this album as many of the song structures are relatively sparse featuring only acoustic guitar and vocals. Lyrically this album centres around the poems of Yeats (1865-1939) and musically it really nods towards 1970's British prog rock.

Do not get me wrong; Spiritus Mundi is definitely not a bad album, but I expected something more like in the veins of The Regal Bastard, but Sylvan decided to do something else, which is of course his right to do so.... Check it out for yourself, and of course Sylvan's vocals are again outstanding!!

*** Martien Koolen (edited by Tracy van Os van den Abeelen)

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