Lunar Womb - The Sleeping Green demo III 1999

Lunar Womb - The Sleeping Green unreleased demo III 1999
1) The Sleeping
2) The Awakening
3) Through Ages
4) Öinen matkaaja
5) Vaipuminen

Yandex / Sendspace
Bandcamp

Alright, I promised a special post and here it finally is, after ~17 years, the third Lunar Womb demo. Master Sorvali sent me this just a few days ago after I once again pestered encouraged him to get it finished. Well, all he really had left was to do last touches to the covers, if you can speak of such with a digital release, so it was (surprisingly) quickly completed. Thank you again for agreeing to share this recording with us! It should be vigorously emphasized that everything was made in '98 - '99 and remastered last year, so I'll repeat Henri's words from the cover:

"The Sleeping Green was originally intended to be released as a cassette demo in 1999, but due to personal and artistic reasons it was never published.

It describes my deepest respect for the nature, the Finnish vast landscapes and beliefs age-old wrapped into a musical form.

The recordings were found from my personal archives in 2015 and carefully remastered from the original tracks afterwards. All the song-titles and artwork was inteded for the original release and while nothing in this release is matching the quality standards of 2016, I hope the music will take you where it took me over fifteen years ago as well... where I still dwell."

Illustrations for each of the tracks, art by Rudolf Koivu.

As you see, this one has the most songs out of the three but they're generally shorter (compared to the other demos, that is!) so the total running time is slightly over 34 minutes. The music here is more consistent than on the preceeding demos and clearly a concept work instead of a compilation of tracks, while the individual songs still have their own character. Compared to "The Astral Grief" the sound is more refined, part due the remastering I assume and music is generally more varying, complex and sophisticated. It has, depending on the track, both soundtrack-like and neoclassical qualities as well as trollish dungeon synth moments surrounded by an overall folkloric, national romantic feel. Fits very well with the artwork borrowed from Rudolf Koivu. Some sound effects and vocals are used, first one more liberally but not overbearingly and second one very sparingly which matches my policy and tastes.

Was it worth the wait then? Yes. The moods are generally more light, wistful and nostalgic rather than dark, moody or warlike and there is a certain sense of wonder present. Beautiful stuff and essential to any fan of Henri's work and generally recommended if this sort of music appeals to you at all.

UPDATE: Henri has also made it available at "name-your-price" option, lossless files, at his bandcamp page. So if you feel like supporting, scurry over there and throw your currency at screen when prompted!