VARUNNA

"Cantos"

Hau Ruck! - 2007

CD

After a few extremely limited and even more extremely fast sold-out vinyl EPs, another rising name of the Italian neofolk scene comes to its debut full-length. Varunna is the brainchild of Alessio B., by now well-known for his collaborations with Der Blutharsch and other names of the Hau Ruck! rooster. It's not surprising, then, to find Albin Julius himself and Jörg B. (of Allerseelen, Blutharsch and Graumhad fame) playing with him on "Cantos". The title obviously calls to mind Ezra Pound's most famous work, but not much is explained about the CD, lyrics are not included, the booklet only features a few blurred pictures of old rusty machineries, and the digipack itself is absolutely aseptic.

Varunna, alongside The Green Man, Spiritual Front, and a few others, understood the necessity to part from an embalmed neofolk formula to move towards new territories, and indeed what you find on "Cantos" is a collection of fierce and epic folk-rock anthems, with Jörg B.'s electric guitars playing a central role alongside keyboards, drums and other elements. The electric and rocking edge of the songs is certainly the most interesting feature of the CD. What doesn't seem to work too much are Alessio's vocals: it sounds like they were recorded too low, making it most of the time impossible to understand the words if you are Italian, and generally sounding quite a bit out of place.

Rather than to neofolk, Varunna's music is today closer to an Italian protest folk-rock band of the 1970s' (not by chance one of the songs is titled "Piombo '70", in reference to the "years of lead" of Italian terrorism). With its epic aggressiveness and a better, more refined and powerful vocal support, they could potentially achieve very interesting results.

- Simon V.

Website: http://www.varunna.org