WILDWOOD MORNING – Hurt No Living Thing (2024, LP Dynamite Platten) 

RELEASE INFO:

Label:  Dynamite Platten

Format: LP, Album, Limited Edition, Black Vinyl (comes with lyrics inlay)

Release Date: 21 June 2024 

Wildwood Morning is a new Italo-German – Wife and Husband – Folk Psych Rock duo based in Berlin. They released their self-titled debut album in 2020 through Dynamite Platten, an independent record label. “Hurt No Living Thing” is their sophomore album released also through Dynamite Platten this summer (June 2024). The label’s press release mentions: “Italian-German folk psych rock project, consisting of Laura Lazzarin and Henning Wienecke, who have recorded their second album with the help of some friends and top musicians. All songs were produced by Henning and mastered by Eroc (Krautrock legend and mastering guru). Garage rock meets Italian Velvet Underground. Folk rock combined with kraut and prog rock elements. All 8 songs impress with their stylistic versatility and catchy melodies, as well as lyrics whose themes are both timeless and current”… 

All songs are composed and recorded in their flat in Berlin-Neukölln, in the bathroom, in the kitchen… when the children are sleeping or at school. From dark folk ballads to children’s rhymes, their themes are also intimate and existential like the time going by and the mutability of all things. The information through their Bandcamp is also interesting: “The Berlin-based folk-psych-pop-rock project is releasing eight new and very different songs that unfold freely from currently common genres and formats. The basis of all songs is usually a relatively simple picking pattern, which was recorded and composed by Henning as a demo track and then built up bit by bit into a complex, multi-layered song, with clear and intentional references to the folk and psych rock bands of the 60s and 70s… Laura’s singing, as well as her English and Italian lyrics, fit perfectly into the sound of the music, which was then refined by many guest musician friends”…

The are a few people who contributed to the album, including among others: Kiryk Drewinski (Wedge, Ex Magnificent Brotherhood, Ex Liquid Visions), who often added that crucial something to the songs with his guitar solos. The album cover design is also his. David and Elias Engler (Tanga Elektra): electric violin and drums on 7 songs. Manuel Pushmann: (Ex Sir Robin & The Longbow Men) Farfisa / Synthesizer. Eva Ottmer and Tilo Schönknecht (Kiwanokey): Vocals and guitars.

The album title “Hurt No Living Thing” comes from Christina G. Rossetti, an Italian-British poet from the Victorian era, “originally a nursery rhyme, it becomes a heartfelt and tough appeal for peace and justice in a world on the brink of destruction”… Worth mentioning that after Henning did the production alone, he was able to get Krautrock legend and mastering guru Eroc to do the mastering! But, let’s move on and see/listen to what we’re dealing with…

The album kicks off with “The Mood I’m In” (a song originally written by Petr Pogodaev), an up-tempo happy Groove-a-delic track (sung in English despite its Italian intro) that equally flirts with British Popsike and with the Garage side of ? & The Mysterians! Reverbed guitars blend with electric violin on “Momento Perfetto” under a psychic folkie moody-like atmosphere (sung in Italian) spreading lots of melancholic vibes through the air while the sound of the violin is magnificent! Henning sings on “Into The Woods”, it’s a rhythmic ethereal tune with reverbed electric and acoustic guitars, a powerful track with a nice and catchy melody, and yes I can “detect” Americana (Galexico if you prefer) influences all over and I think you’ll have to blame the lovely trumpet sound for that. “Shut Out” is a mid-tempo kind of balladesque Folkie tune with a tremendous violin sound that adds a colorful mid-70s Progressive Rock touch, bands like Pavlov’s Dog come to mind (musically speaking of course)… “On A Windy Day” (one of my 3 favorites) is a fantastic dynamic power ballad sung by Henning, emerging an intense Folkie and Krauty feeling, the Flute tries to steal the show but combined with a wondrous guitar (electric and acoustic) sound the result is the listener’s transportation right in the middle of a Carol Of Harvest studio recording session, yes, that cool! Side ‘B’ opens in the most promising exciting and intriguing way with another HIGHLIGHT, the super fantastic “The Lady”, Laura sings in English, like telling a fairytale under an acoustic guitar intro, slowly the track transforms into a Folkie Ballad with a tremendous Progressive Rock soundscape at the background while the band slowly unfolds beautiful musical layers, flirting with Art Rock and Prog Rock, creating an unbelievable PSYCHEDELIC atmosphere, “where everything is shimmering in the Twilight”, then turning into a hot Rocking Ballad (of the 70s era of course), entering an interesting Prog path but soon to change that path and move into an Acid Folk one, and becoming extremely enchantingly dark… “Oh look at that sunset… I have never seen such colors before… it all seems suspended in eternity”… wait a minute this is from another song… Anyhow, I think I lost my way somewhere in there… but it’s OK, the band finally managed to bring that EPIC song back to its initial acoustic state, AMAZING! The next one “Who Has Seen The Wind” is an acoustic pop-folkie ballad with a rather strange and interesting instrumentation in the background, with wonderful double female vocals, a weird folkie balladesque windy tune… nice… Eventually, the album closes with the self-titled “Hurt No Living Thing” (my 3rd personal favorite), Wildwood Morning tries a deep dive into the mid-70s German Prog and Kraut from the very first second, there’s an acoustically slow trippy soundscape with male/female vocals sung in a kind of a narrative manner, slowly the scenery becomes more Progressive while a wondrous and gentle Sax sound adds a very romantic jazzy vibe to the track (and quite sexy I have to admit), but then we have another changing of the direction, the year is 1973 and I think I’m inside the famous Wegmuller’s “Tarot” album, but then there’s another direction change, feels like I’m inside 1975’s “In Trance” LP album, well, this is really magical, I’m amazed of how easily Wildwood Morning’s music can take you on a journey with your mind… And what a spacey “pompous” ending”, but you’ll have to listen to yourself in order to witness this kind of experience… Magical… One of the best albums of 2024. Recommended! TimeLord Michalis    

Tracklist

Links 

Listen / Buy through WILDWOOD MORNING Bandcamp

Get it via DYNAMITE PLATTEN Web

Visit WILDWOOD MORNING Facebook