Album Review: Release The Long Ships - Wilderness

When thinking about post-rock, we are used to imagine bands with a big equipment and several members including two or three guitarists, bass, synth, drummer, drum machine and so on and not to forget a talented artist for covers and artworks.

Release The Long Ships is Kapiller Ference, a Hungarian guy who produced the whole album with an acoustic guitar and an old computer, as well he painted the beautiful cover album. This is what he said about it in a recent interview for Arctic Drones

I have never been a musician but I was a huge music listener. I started to create music in the fall of 2011, with only a microphone and an acoustic guitar just to embalm ideas; then a friend taught me the basics of recording and production. I made Wilderness with a 7-yrs-old PC and a cheap guitar, so it’s far from audiophile quality but I tried to do my best.

My greatest inspirations are nature and music (the atmospheric kind). If I had to name a few albums that stand out as main inspiration, I would mention Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd, Souvenirs D’un Autre Monde by Alcest and Sea Of The Dying Dhow by *Shels. There are no hidden messages; this is an album inspired by nature and saving nature is the only chance for mankind to live a future, but hopefully everybody knows that already.

When listening to this record, it is strange to believe that it comes from an one-man-band since in it's rich selection of  digital (synth, samples,mixing) and analog sounds (acoustic guitar, cellos) everything is tied together perfectly.

The songs are merrily evocative, the theme of nature as forests, snow and ancients myths is strongly present in the whole album. The first song has a pleasant ballad rhythm. Snow and I Am The Sun follows the classic post-rock progression with a Celtic folk influence. Moving on, The Earth Of The Mountain is the more acoustic whereas in I have Never Seen The Light Ference smartly combines digital production and string instruments for a delightful end.

You are free to listen to it download the full album for free or name your price and make the artist happy!