reviews / 2023

OJERUM - Coiled Souls

Name: OJERUM – Coiled Souls
Item: Coiled Souls
Rating: 6.5
Author: Valerio D'Onofrio

2023 (Somatic)

folk-ambient

by Valerio D'Onofrio

6.5

The guitar is certainly not the preferred instrument of Paw Grabowski, mastermind of the now well-established project Ojerum. As far as I recall, there's only a hint of it on “Vaev“, while the human voice was practically unheard of in his work. “Coiled Souls” breaks both these taboos, becoming his first LP for guitar and voice, while of course still staying within the bounds of meditative music, which in this case we might call folk-ambient.

The voice becomes a mere whisper with barely perceptible lyrics, while the guitar acts as accompaniment, an instrument suited to building a dreamlike landscape. Grabowski doesn't seem remotely interested in folk music in any conventional sense. Rather, the guitar seems simply to be a different tool for continuing his long-running devotion to ambient music.

Tracks like “Embrace The Serpent” or “Silvery White Clouds” (though really, any track here could be cited) sound like extremely minimal incantations, as with all of Grabowski's work, far removed from the certainties shouted daily by social media or TV. The artist builds his usual alternative world of silence and meditation, where ambient is not just a musical genre but an untimely approach to existence itself.

A purely lo-fi record, in which the guitar weaves loop upon loop, creating atmospheres very close to the post-rock of Labradford. Best listened to alone, trying to forget everything.

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28/02/2023

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This article is an English translation of the original Italian text by Valerio D'Onofrio, published on OndaRock.it. It was translated with the help of artificial intelligence, under the editorial responsibility of OndaRock's editor-in-chief, Claudio Fabretti.

Read the original in Italian · About the English edition