A Tree Inside The Wolves
CD-R released by Jewelled Antler in April 2003. Settings of Rainer Maria Rilke poems from the Neue Gedichte in English translation and one instrumental.

Wilted
Before The Summer Rain
The Courtesan
The Lute
A Sibyl
The Pavilion
Comforting Of Elijah
Gravestone Of A Young Girl
Lunatics In The Garden ~ Dijon
The Lunatics

Recenzje

Dead Angel
Author: RKF
September 2003
Smolken sure has a thing about wolves, doesn't he? As usual, I can't tell what the lyrics are actually about, but this doesn't stray from the sound he's favored on recent releases -- mainly country-death folk with drones that come and go, and silences. Lots of silences. (I like that the liner notes include "all silences dedicated to kris lapke.") This is one of the better-quality recordings from Dead Raven Choir, and restrained enough to not totally freak out someone who's never heard it (well, at least until they get about halfway through "the pavilion," maybe). As usual, the artwork is lovely, the paintings this time by Jan Stanislawski. For those discriminating country folk with a wee taste for the gothic, o my yes.

Aquarius Records
April 18, 2003
Weird-folk musician Smolken is from Poland, lives in Texas (to be closer to Jandek?), and records prolifically under the name Dead Raven Choir. Following up January's "Armoured Wolves", this is his second release on San Francisco's Jewelled Antler cd-r label, who must really love DRC since they usually only draw from their own Collective ranks for releases. According to Jewelled Antler's Glenn Donaldson, this was originally supposed to have been a collaborative project between DRC and Furisubi's Kris Lapke. But before Smolken got his tracks to Kris (or while he was waiting for Kris to complete them, perhaps?) he happened to send 'em to Glenn, who immediately persuaded Smolken to release them on Jewelled Antler just as they were, without any additions. The resultant spaciousness of the songs (a direction DRC was heading in anyway) really works well, and in the liner notes these silences are dedicated to Kris Lapke, so Glenn's story holds up. Harsh acoustic guitar strum, tangled melodic picking, droning strings, tape hiss, sudden voids of sound, and Smolken's dark, dramatic, accented vocals (lyrics this time all taken from Rainer Maria Rilke) -- it all makes for a stark and beautiful listen, the sparseness making every sound all the more portentious. It's (old-)country avant garde poetic stuff with a spooky black metal spirit, perfect for the campfires of your imagination. Smoken's voice is sometimes multitracked, spoken, whispering, and not quite as "difficult" as on some past releases, but every bit as eerie. Very nice.