Yndi Halda

Under Summer

Written by: LF on 03/05/2017 20:22:19

Yndi Halda is a British cinematic post-rock band who released their second album, "Under Summer", last year. It was underway for quite a while as their debut was released back in 2006, and the band has been touring from time to time since. The new album sees them expand into a different, lighter and more acoustical sound that also includes vocals as opposed to their purely instrumental music on the debut.

Just like their previous effort, this album consists of four long tracks that last just about an hour in total. The songs are beautifully put together with finger-played guitar and violin dominating much of the time, not least in album opener "Together Those Leaves". The vocals are layered and gentle, almost hushed and the strings and glockenspiel make the music reminiscent of not just delicate post-rock in the vein of Mono or ef but also simply of modern classical music. The post-rock staple of letting the songs build into loud crescendos and contrasting this with delicate, twinkling parts, is also in use here but in a way that lets the songs swell without ever letting go of the hopeful, yearning sound they started out with.

The more steadfast "Golden Threads from the Sun" is the one with the darkest undercurrent of the four songs as it moves into and out of some very firm and loud sections with crashing cymbals while a moving violin-part makes up the middle. It quickly builds up tension through a plucked lap steel or banjo-like sound that also makes it stand apart from the other tracks here. The magical, instrumental "Helena" constantly makes you notice it as it swirls through a bunch of very differently sounding sections for its 18-minute duration as the longest track on the album. To me, it was the most mesmerising of the tracks for sure, perhaps because of the lacking vocal contributions. The listener is just left to float around in her own thoughts and follow each part curiously until it develops into something else.

The final track, "This Very Flight", reintroduces the hazy vocals in a slowly moving song that builds into an almost upbeat tempo before it crashes and ebbs out in piano sounds. All these four songs are sure to be captivating when played live, although there is some difference in their staying power, recorded like this. It is thus a good, solid release in the post-rock genre, without being mind-bending, and the band can definitely be measured alongside genre-defining peers like Mono, Godspeed You! Black Emperor or This Will Destroy You that all have some of the same gentlenesses to their sound but without sounding quite like Yndi Halda.

8

Download: Helena, Golden Threads from the Sun
For The Fans Of: Mono, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, This Will Destroy You, ef, Silver Mt. Zion
Listen: facebook.com/yndihalda

Release date 06.03.2016
Big Scary Monsters

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