26 May 2025

DOR KOREN – Freedom Lights (Where Hope Remains) (2025, EP CD, Outdors)

RELEASE INFO:

Label: Outdors

Format: EP CD

Release Date: 22 Mar 2025

I don’t know how many of you are familiar with the name Dor Koren. He is not new on the scene. He has (at least) 20 years of experience. He was/is the force behind the Psychedelic Rock band, Tree (releasing 2 fantastic LP albums in 2011 and 2015. Dor also released an awesome album in 2017 as Bigfoot. He was also an active member of Ouzo Bazooka. He shared the stage with legendary Damo Suzuki… Dor’s 2 greatest passions are nature and music! Relocated for the last few years to the countryside in Greece, during the day he is dealing with the land and at night he writes songs, beautiful Folk, Country, and Psych-related songs, ones that a troubadour would write back in the day. So, he gathered a few of them, recorded and mixed at his home studio in the country, and self-released this wonderful EP entitled “Freedom Lights (Where Hope Remains)” with 8 songs in total. The opener “Ocean” is a short intro with lots of sea waves and seagulls, the scenery is ambient-like, kind of creepy, and full of mystery, I must admit. The same sea waves are the intro for the second track “All Is Well”, but there’s a significant change here, no dark or mystery or creepy things, this is a song that welcomes sunshine with a lovely Folkie acoustic motive, it feels like a duet between Dor and his acoustic guitar, pictures run through my mind, pictures of me lying in the sun, listening to this, while Nature Grows… The acoustic soundscape continues on the next one, “Freedom Lights”, a faster Folk-Rock track with a slightly Eastern touch and some really interesting lyrics. “Don’t You Mess Around” starts, and this is where “Acid” steps in, it’s unbelievably amazing how Dor creates such a Freak-Out Psychedelic-Folk atmosphere with just his acoustic guitar and a small (I believe) tambourine… The definition of “simplicity” concerning production, composition, etc., can be described here with this fine example called “Hope Remains”, a plain, austere, and beautifully “naked” acoustic Folkie tune… “Unspoken Pain” is a sad MAJESTIC track, flirting with Psychedelia, and moving into an Acid-Rock path, a mournful song full of sorrow about the losses as a consequence of this fucking war… “Hope Will Carry Me” is a banjo-based, thrifty, acoustic Country-ish track, while the EP closes with “Country Road”, a fantastic country-folk song full of nostalgia, recollection, sadness… So, to whomever out there that might come across Dor’s path, it’s surely a path of hope and light, of nice acoustically blended country-folk-psych songs, that will lead you to this place among the hills, called Pleasantville… Grab it! TimeLord Michalis