MONO: Hymn To The Immortal Wind (POST ROCK): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

There are sounds so beautiful, that they create silence. There are sounds so majestic, that the world freezes for a moment to listen to them. There are sounds so profound that they touch the senses and the essence, the material and the nothingness, the body and the soul, linking shape and substance in a unique whole.

Rarely has an album name been chosen with such great accuracy: "Hymn To The Immortal Wind". After all, this only brings out a little more the first characteristic of this work: the consciousness with which it was composed. Because one does not reach such a degree of perfection guided by chance, one has to surrender oneself absolutely to the effort one is about to make.

"Hymn", the term in itself, is a harbinger of greatness, nobility and strength. Each composition here responds to these three qualifiers, giving a multiple dimension to each term.

Strength first, synonymous with a brutal melodic power on the electric and symphonic crescendos and unleashed finales of "Ashes In The Snow", "Burial At Sea", "Pure As Snow (Trails Of The Winter Storm)", "The Battle To Heaven" and "Everlasting Light". But the strength comes as much from the soft intensity of the developments of these tracks as from their vibrant guitars, their restrained and ample arpeggios, their cinematographic narration, their sensitive strings and their purified piano. Thus, "Silent Flight, Sleeping Dawn" or "Follow The Map" are soaked with an energy that is never reduced.

The greatness and nobility too, because one calls the other. Throughout this musical incantation, these two friends embrace each other, these two alchemists sublimate in turn the sweetness and tenderness, the fury and the ardor. Each development takes the time of the accomplishment, reaching zeniths that we could hardly have dreamed, so much they are situated at the borders of our perceptions, like the indescribable final of beauty of "Everlasting Light".

There are sounds so beautiful, there is music so absolute, and there are so few words. It is more than time to be silent, to step aside to let four Japanese and one element express themselves: Mono and the wind. - Official website

MONO

HYMN TO THE IMMORTAL WIND

AUTRE LABEL

POST ROCK