Damsel Elysium - Whispers from Ancient Vessels (2024) [Hi-Res]

AD 93 venture Damsel Elysium’s debut of shadowy chamber music doom; an anthropomorphic voicing of natural beings - trees, the sea, and inner self - including the human voice of Dr. Mike Bintley in a medieval or olde english tongue.

Leading on from Finlay Clark’s outstanding ’Sicko’ tape, the occultish occlusions of ‘Whispers from Ancient Vessels’ introduces the elusive silhouette of Damsel Elysium to AD 93’s swelling fold with a brooding 6-part grimoire focussed on “reflections of relearning to join with nature again.” Equal parts dungeon synth, chamber doom a la Pan’s Mohammad ensemble, and the sort of regressive fantasy outlined in When’s ‘Black Death’, the album says its thing succinctly and enigmatically, giving voice to those parts of nature - death, decay, evil - that are usually swerved in favour of more bucolic, optimistic perceptions of ostensible beauty.

Conveying ideas thru a texturally rich palette of electro-acoustically processed chamber strings and vocals variously found diffused in the aether, or centred like a great oak’s subvocalisation, the album carries active imaginations into a theatric dramaturgy of elements where Damsel Elysium sings the woods’ worries on the title piece, and wraps wraithlike around the string timbres in ’Shoreline’. Dr. Mike Bintley, a lecturer specialising in the literature, material culture, and archaeology of medieval England and Scandinavia, lends a properly compelling vocal to a highlight ‘Dream of the Rood’, in a tongue that could be olde english, or a Scandinavian language - we’re really not sure. Damsel Elysium’s closer ‘You’re Mine’ more fully reveals their voice in careful theatric cadence over prickling harpsichord, like a tulpa of Scott Walker, leaving everyone guessing ’til the end.

Tracklist:
1.01 - Damsel Elysium - Speakings I (0:54)
1.02 - Damsel Elysium - Whispers from Ancient Vessels (4:44)
1.03 - Damsel Elysium - Shoreline (5:54)
1.04 - Damsel Elysium - Dream of the Rood (3:08)
1.05 - Damsel Elysium - Speakings II (1:46)
1.06 - Damsel Elysium - You're Mine (4:23)