Tabernis
Seasons Of The Dark Hive
Napalm Records
Outside of certain Celtic circles, you really do not hear all that much of bagpipes, do you? Well, if you yearn for Highland not-horns (they are woodwind), then the masked duo, Tabernis, will see you right with their mysterious debut musings on ‘Seasons Of The Dark Hive’.
What do you think of when you imagine typical or traditional folk music, especially in films? Honestly, you would not need to go much further than the likes of “Tenebrae” and “Florenscentia”: excitable, jumpy melodies courtesy of the pipes, with driving percussion that conjure imagery of dancing, merriment and a roaring, celebratory campfire. Hell, the appropriately-titled “Hive Dance (Bransle Du Maître De La Maison)” owes plenty to a late medieval French dance tune, and captures the zeitgeist almost perfectly.
While the album maintains an upbeat quality for a good portion of its runtime, the likes of “Noctilis” and “Apiare” add a drop of darkness to the fold, with the former droning contemplatively, whilst the latter moves from an almost-Irish jig to war-dance by its end. The droning tonic note from the bagpipes gives a subtle nod to the bee-theme present throughout (alongside the occasional buzzing sound effect and effected spoken-word passages about beekeeping), but the stars of the album are the melodies and percussion. It is easy to get lost amidst the bouncy melodies from the pipes, but those rhythms provide vibrancy and energy that feels so compelling.
You could argue that ‘Seasons Of The Dark Hive’ is brave from Tabernis to debut with. An instrumental folk album that draws heavily on the medieval and primarily uses bagpipes and duval should find itself squirrelled away somewhere in the realms of “niche”, but the life it
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Review by Lee Carter