EP REVIEW: Starlit Chronicles – Feyleryn
Welcome to 2024. It’s a brand new year and that often entails numerous people with many new year’s resolutions that usually fall flat sometime around February. For many though, those resolutions will involve wanting to listen to new music and if you’re reading this review, you’re in the right place. Whilst it’s still early doors, there has already been an influx of great new releases, and if you’re looking for something a little quirky and off the beaten track from your usual music taste, then look no further than Starlit Chronicles – a new EP full of fantasy-inspired grooves by Barcelona-based producer FEYLERYN.
Comprising only five tracks, Starlit Chronicles is a sprawling opus that takes you on a journey that feels like it’s guiding you through the cosmos of some far away realm. Containing very little singing bar one track, the whole EP gives off a sense of adventure which will have you ready and waiting to undertake an epic journey come the end of your listen. Opening track Wanderlust is a fun and funky offering with a wonderfully obsessive beat that almost feels like you could bounce along to it. It truly is the start of a journey that keeps building and building with an exceptional ethereal backdrop that makes it feel like you’re going to wake up and start wandering the streets of some kind of dystopian cyberpunk world, similar to that of what you see in Blade Runner.
The following track, Defiant Overture, upsets the apple cart slightly. Whilst maintaining the same sense of journeying through a distant world, it changes up its beat, this time employing a West-African sounding vibe to its drumming with the use of Djembe drums. It’s also the first time on the EP that any sort of vocals are used throughout, which brings a fairly trippy feel into the music whilst still employing the same epic scale as its predecessor.
The EP’s third track The Cathedral is the most radical change in sound throughout listening. It’s the only track that is a fully fledged song featuring the vocals of Norwegian vocalist Lars Nedland, who brings his Norse touch to the song. Opening with vocals that wouldn’t go amiss in some form of Norse folk music, it sets the tone for what is to come throughout the track. If you’ve listened to any of Nedland’s other work, you’ll see how his style of singing would fit perfectly to the grandiose scale of FEYLERYN’s music. On this track though, we see him using a more subtle approach to his singing which compliments the music perfectly. There is an enormous blend of styles throughout this track; some parts of it, particularly the chorus, are reminiscent of songs by folk duo SHOW OF HANDS (if you’ve never listened to these, change that!). You would also be forgiven for thinking this song is similar to that of Danny Elfman’s art-rock troupe OINGO BOINGO, and whilst it’s fairly different to other tracks throughout the EP, it’s definitely the most interesting one to listen to.
The back end of Starlit Chronicles sees FEYLERYN at his strongest. Penultimate track Noldor’s Deep sees him adopting a brooding atmosphere, whilst still employing the familiar captivating beats that this time offer a more moody tone. The music is so vivid that you can’t help but conjure images of futuristic settings; this tune definitely wouldn’t go amiss featuring in a scene set in a neon soaked nightclub bombarding you with its pulsating synths as you ponder whether or not you truly are in reality or somewhere much more sinister.
Closing out the EP is Soll, which is the most subdued track on the journey that is Starlit Chronicles. It’s a slow track that takes its time with a sweeping orchestral motif that almost feels foreboding as it plays beneath a sumptuous tinkering guitar melody. As the track moves on it almost feels like it’s going to build up to something huge, it leaves you on the edge of your seat. However just before it feels like it’s going to crescendo into something massive, it finishes. This time it doesn’t invoke any cyberpunk imagery, but instead helps you imagine you’re somewhere in the vast void of space as you venture further and further into the unknown.
Overall, Starlit Chronicles is an absolute joy to listen to. It’s compact and wastes no time sucking you into the world that FEYLERYN has conjured. If you’re a lover of film and gaming soundtracks of the science fiction and fantasy genres, then this is the perfect listen. It’s able to encompass the grandiose scale that those types of films (when made well) encapsulate, and it’s an EP that needs to be listened to as loud as possible as that will help you truly appreciate the majesty of it. The only downside is it’s far too short and will leave you wanting more, but whatever FEYLERYN has up his sleeve next, it’s sure to be one hell of a ride.
Rating: 8/10
Starlit Chronicles is set for release on January 19th via Freska Musik.
Follow FEYLERYN on Instagram.