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Nebelhexë @ Reviews


Essensual @ Virus!
9 out of 10
One of the perks of being a reviewer is that you are sent quite a few CDs by artists you've never heard of. And sometimes, it happens that you get an album that just clicks immediately. Your mind and body react to a melody, to a voice, to an atmosphere. Nebelhexë's Essensual is such an album: a rich, soothing, ritualistic river of honey poured over your senses.
Since her appearance on the underground scene in 1994, artist Andrea Haugen, aka Nebelhexë (fog-witch), has been a very active member of the Magic, Wiccan and Pagan circles. Her universe is absolutely fascinating: it encapsulates Magic, occult rites, Northern pagan traditions and free artistic expression, all expressed both in her music and in her published work - books, letters and articles.
Andrea has collaborated with Dark Ambient project Aghast and recorded three albums under the name of Hagalaz' Runedance; her guest appearances include Cradle Of Filth's The Principle of Evil Made Flesh and Satyricon's Nemesis Divina.
Essensual is Andrea’s second album under her artist name of Nebelhexë. For this release, she has abandoned the realm of northern pagan traditions to concentrate on "hidden feelings, various thoughts within the psyche, the bad experiences that shape us, thoughts about our real being".
The result is mesmerizing. The songs all have their very own identity, with a deliberate glossy finish. Underworld, Invisible Entity and Dreams of Little Girls are dominated by delicate, brooding electronics that seem to brush off your face like butterfly wings.
I liked the hypnotic feel of Sungod and the dark, intricate loops and hooks of the ritualistic Erzulie's Charm, a track that makes us look over our shoulder, expecting the sudden appearance of a magical creature. Some songs allow for a rockier sound, as Their Dead Poetry, but it is the cover of The Cure's The Figurehead that makes the most of the gloomy, gothic guitars. I shivered, as Andrea's resonating voice sang the heart-rending lyrics. I will conclude this review with the poignant, pared-down and funereal Living Trash, a track describing the horrific vision of "waste-bins of bodies" of animals "piled like trash", thrown there by the laboratories.
Thanks to this review, I have discovered more than a musician and singer: Andrea Haugen is a complete artist - a wise, knowledgeable and complex character, whose writings and life are very inspirational, indeed; she reminds me of a Nordic Jarboe and that is a hell of a compliment, by the way!

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