EP REVIEW: Eg Er Framand – Sylvaine

Ahead of a solo UK/EU tour later this year supporting EIVØR, SYLVAINE has rid herself of the banshee howls and blackened blast beats found on 2022’s Nova. Katherine Shepard, the woman behind the moniker, is credited with vocals, church organ, guitars, synthesisers and percussion on the quiet Eg Er Framand, a monochromatic entry in her project that since 2014 has used the language of metal and of sorrowful laments to speak to our transitory souls. Translated from its Norwegian origin, her writing on this EP longs for the solace of the peace and calm from before we were born and to which we will all someday return. This is a record that begins as ‘the last moments of day fade away’.

These sparse compositions centre around Shepard’s voice, with its bone-chilling clarity and mournful cadences. Drawing inspiration from the folklore and forests of her country, she relies on the universality of minor key melodies to envelope the listener in her meditative aura. Somewhere between a lullaby and a siren’s call, Eg Vest I Himmerlrik Ei Borg gives worship to a place of no sins, sorrows, woes or tears, yet it is draped in dread, rejecting its promises for fear of what it means giving up in return. Therein lies the seductive appeal of SYLVAINE’s music, where the prospect of salvation is tainted by its own sense of inhumanity. She describes her music as encapsulating ‘the inherent struggle of being an entity in this world, yet not entirely of it’. Shepard sounds trapped; desperate to remain among the living, but lured unwillingly towards something sublime.

Relying largely on drone accompaniments, on the few occasions when the instrumentation does take focus, it has more than a little in common with dungeon synth. As Dagsens Auga Sloknar Ut unfolds, it plunges into a retro and fantastical landscape, hidden away from the light so much of the record seems drawn towards. When unaccompanied, Shepard’s voice inspires a kind of hushed reverence, just as one would adjust their behaviour in a cathedral. She is in full command of her instrument, filling it with fragility. The closing title track is like a lit candle with no wick left, flickering before becoming part of the ether. Like that, almost without noticing, it’s over.

As comfortable with delicacy as she is a more abrasive palette, the SYLVAINE project channels Shepard’s connection to the world and otherworld around her. It is an inherently dramatic prospect, most obviously so when drawing from a black metal pot, but here, gentle soundscapes speak just as loud, resigned to stare at the void, feel its embrace, and surrender to its inevitability.

Rating: 8/10

Eg Er Framand is set for release on March 22nd via Season Of Mist.

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