Acid Folk review page : Cain Da Breth

demo Cain Da Breth -3-track demo- (CZ,2007)****

This Czech quartet has so far only recorded three tracks (which you can hear on myspace), but they sounded so promising I preferred to give them a short review on my pages. The front cover of the demo is a bit confusing, because it all looks a bit Celtic, but just in case any categorizations would be a bit too lazily made in that direction, the group immediately says in the introduction they would prefer a categorization like ‘acoustic doom metal’. With a name like from front lady "Damonica", and with Samuel Hain’s past in doom metal bands also this association is understandable, but does not span their expressions.

The first song is a more happy nature song about the moon. A bit of violin, tambourine and guitar accompany this. The second track sounds a bit more medieval in melody, with more dual vocals and a larger violin introduction. Also here, moon and magic spells is in the imagination. Damonica’s voice is fresh and clear and will always give lightness and feminine purity to no matter what dark associations creeps into the corners of each song. The last beautifully sadder song is arranged well with some extra guitar by guest guitarist Jan-Matej Rak.

Cain Da Breth consists of Damonica, on vocals and acoustic guitar, who has a masters in archaeology. After having sung with metal band Katharsis she founded her own, acoustic group, with Samuel Hain. He sings and plays percussion. Originally he studied economics, but quickly he devoted himself to drumming. He mostly played with doom metal bands, but toroughly tried other genres too like jazzrock, blues, psychobilly,... Lenka Kavalova is a classically trained violincellist with a master degree in musicology. During her career she was part of different orchestras and ensembles, and still is part of Flores De Praga with one CD in 2004. Her interest outside classical music brought her to this band. Vaclav Polivka started very young as a choir boy, then studied violin, with a specialisation in Slovak folk music. For ten years he was a member of the Karmina Ensemble. Then he played Irish folk with Irish Dew, beside participating with chamber-music ensemble projects. He also is part of the Chorea Bohemica Ensemble and the band Jagabab, specializes in gothic and renaissance music. Here he plays mostly violin, viola and flute.

Audio : "Black Birds", "Moonlight Tune", "Moon Reflections"

Homepage : http://www.caindabreth.com and with audio : http://myspace.com/caindabreth ; official cd review ->

Plugged Rec.

Cain Da Breth: Sans (CZ,2008)***°

I think it is a great idea to put the cd with its lyrics in a book as if it is about literature put into a music level, more than the other way around like song music with included lyrics. The colours of the book from the outside sadly still makes it look more like a note book than an artistic project, or something in between, while it still makes the object like a treasure to keep, a reason why I shared my enthusiasm to have a real one in my hands. The provoked images and the complete content of the songs say more than the detailed language use itself, so that the song expressions without its folky are rather simple as poetry, with a dark nature, while the image underneath of its transcending process give already a deeper personalized poetic feeling, the music of course transcends this further. Some of images are being painted, elsewhere it is a fleeing into imaginations with symbols, personal processes can be very clear too. While the words come from a deeper inner darker nature of insecurity and not knowing what to do better, the expressions themselves seek the light and have the light of being able to. In this fundament of darker days folk (especially the sometimes slightly theatrical male vocals, the second voice), the female voice seems to be like the potential, while the violin improvisations and cello makes mystical waters with clouds, or (with the guitar, when getting a slightly Spanish touch) add an extra drama effect when necessary. I think for some songs and with the book as a concept in my hands I think a few illustrations would have made this a bit more complete, as a finishing touch because now the lyrics in the book form seems so much independent, while they need a bit more guiding context for the imagination, like the music, and especially for the projections of images. Just when hopes and insecurity are more clearly expressed this won’t be so much necessary.

The three bonus tracks I knew from the promising demo are in fact from a more fresh nature, sound lighter, more melodic and with a slightly more worked out musical ideas still sound more as the most potential and essential material to me, the dark nature of this conceptual book with CD still is very enjoyable.

Homepage : http://www.caindabreth.com and with audio : http://www.myspace.com/caindabreth