In Harmonia Universali

Solefald | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 20, 2003)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Century Media
• ASIN: B000093W4J
• Also Available in: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #173,339 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Nutrisco et Extinguo

2. Mont Blanc Providence Crow

3. Christiania (Edvard Munch Commemoration)

4. Epictetus and Irreversibility

5. Dionysify This Night of Spring

6. Red Music Diabolos [Instrumental]

7. Buy My Sperm

8. Fraternite de la Grande Lumiere

9. The Liberation of Destiny

10. Sonnenuntergang Im Weltraum

Editorial Reviews

Experimental, majestic Norwegian black metal with gothic overtones. Century Media. 2003.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 9.25/10 - Incredible musical journey for the mind and body., May 25, 2003

By 

Mark R. Guglielmo "markgugs" (Wood Ridge, NJ United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In Harmonia Universali (Audio CD)

As originally written (by me) for RoyalCarnage.com:

I really don't know what it is about this record. It's by no means a simple album to digest, or even listen to. But for whatever reason, it hasn't left my CD player in well over a week (when you have over 2,000 CDs to listen to and/or review, you'll realize just how precious an entire week is). It's beyond strangely compelling. In Harmonia Universali is downright addictive.

If you took some of the proggiest YES moments from the late 1970s, added in various male choirs, a saxophone, church pipe and Hammond B-3 organs, and some extreme music loosely derived from post-modern black metal, you'd be somewhere in the ballpark of what SOLEFALD have created for the year 2003. But perhaps some notes from the CD booklet give further insight into the twisted minds [and intentions] of Lazare and Cornelius: "Ten songs, ten wheels of time / To be buried in the body / Grave of the mind / Chained to an infinite universe / Where night is the rule / Ten songs, ten pills / To make the known look unknown / And the ancient feel new / Pills against the ageless ills / Ten songs, ten rites / To purify the spirit / Demons talking hard / And demons talking soft." Woah. Somewhat pretentious yes, but when you create vast musical explorations as they do, perhaps it's ok. Let me give you a taste of what SOLEFALD incorporates into this album: multiple, perfectly harmonized male choirs; lyrics & vocals in 4 different languages (English, Norwegian, German, French); a saxophone; and a Steinway grand piano. Before you simply dismiss this as art rock fluffery, know that SOLEFALD takes each exotic ingredient and creates a recipe for musical brilliance unlike any I've ever heard before.

To just write a few notes here and there about particular passages within each epic, meandering track would be silly. In Harmonia... is meant to be absorbed throughout many listens, the music slowly soaking your being like daybreak over a hazy city street in the summer. A jazz note trickles out a window four stories above you while the distant honking of urban traffic permeates your consciousness. A steady, ever-loudening jackhammer pulverizes concrete and an industrial power saw screams and gnaws its way through steel girders. The relaxing sound of a classically trained choir's voices pierce strikingly through a jumbled mass of brick, mortar, concrete and steel, and a gaggle of children clamor with the excitement of the first baseball game of spring. And you just lay on the roof, miles away, soaking in the rays of the sun, soaking in harmonia universali.

I won't pretend to completely understand all that this album offers, not after only a few weeks of listening to it. But I will say that I'm drawn to the experience contained within, and I will keep coming back, and coming back, and coming back. Very highly recommended for all open-minded music fans, and fans of progressive, doomy, modern black metal.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 9.25/10 - Incredible musical journey for the mind and body., May 25, 2003

By 

Mark R. Guglielmo "markgugs" (Wood Ridge, NJ United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In Harmonia Universali (Audio CD)

As originally written (by me) for RoyalCarnage.com:

I really don't know what it is about this record. It's by no means a simple album to digest, or even listen to. But for whatever reason, it hasn't left my CD player in well over a week (when you have over 2,000 CDs to listen to and/or review, you'll realize just how precious an entire week is). It's beyond strangely compelling. In Harmonia Universali is downright addictive.

If you took some of the proggiest YES moments from the late 1970s, added in various male choirs, a saxophone, church pipe and Hammond B-3 organs, and some extreme music loosely derived from post-modern black metal, you'd be somewhere in the ballpark of what SOLEFALD have created for the year 2003. But perhaps some notes from the CD booklet give further insight into the twisted minds [and intentions] of Lazare and Cornelius: "Ten songs, ten wheels of time / To be buried in the body / Grave of the mind / Chained to an infinite universe / Where night is the rule / Ten songs, ten pills / To make the known look unknown / And the ancient feel new / Pills against the ageless ills / Ten songs, ten rites / To purify the spirit / Demons talking hard / And demons talking soft." Woah. Somewhat pretentious yes, but when you create vast musical explorations as they do, perhaps it's ok. Let me give you a taste of what SOLEFALD incorporates into this album: multiple, perfectly harmonized male choirs; lyrics & vocals in 4 different languages (English, Norwegian, German, French); a saxophone; and a Steinway grand piano. Before you simply dismiss this as art rock fluffery, know that SOLEFALD takes each exotic ingredient and creates a recipe for musical brilliance unlike any I've ever heard before.

To just write a few notes here and there about particular passages within each epic, meandering track would be silly. In Harmonia... is meant to be absorbed throughout many listens, the music slowly soaking your being like daybreak over a hazy city street in the summer. A jazz note trickles out a window four stories above you while the distant honking of urban traffic permeates your consciousness. A steady, ever-loudening jackhammer pulverizes concrete and an industrial power saw screams and gnaws its way through steel girders. The relaxing sound of a classically trained choir's voices pierce strikingly through a jumbled mass of brick, mortar, concrete and steel, and a gaggle of children clamor with the excitement of the first baseball game of spring. And you just lay on the roof, miles away, soaking in the rays of the sun, soaking in harmonia universali.

I won't pretend to completely understand all that this album offers, not after only a few weeks of listening to it. But I will say that I'm drawn to the experience contained within, and I will keep coming back, and coming back, and coming back. Very highly recommended for all open-minded music fans, and fans of progressive, doomy, modern black metal.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a MUST listen, August 30, 2003

By 

B. Frey "Doomlord" (Prairie Village, KS USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In Harmonia Universali (Audio CD)

I got away from writing these snippets of my musical musings for quite awhile, but this one was just begging to be raved about in a review. This was my first exposure to Solefald, and I must say, I'm blown away.

The diversity of instruments alone make this album so unique: saxaphone, spanish guitars, synths, a Hammond organ, grand piano...blastbeat parts are interrupted by soft piano passages, real angry and aggressive vocals are followed by some clean choirs...there's so much happening in just a single song it simply isn't possible to name any other band as reference (but a blending of Borknagar, Vintersorg, Dimmu, Mr. Bungle(!), Arcturus, and Crematory are all acceptable attempts). This album may not be very easy to get into as it incorporates various styles of jazz, thrash, speed, black and melodic death but once you do it'll take you brain hostage. Conjuring music like this just isn't human. There are pieces of literally everything waiting patiently to be found within this album.

What makes this CD even crazier is that it's sung in four languages: English, Norwegian, German, and French. These words I'm writing just can't manage to convey how amazing this album is, so I'm gonna quite trying. Go discover Solefald yourself!