Another pre-ordered album that I’ve been waiting for. Another band that I discovered because of its connection to Eluveitie. And another beautiful masterpiece that I’m enjoying massively now that it’s finally published.
And thankfully, by now I have also received my physical copy of the album. Here’s my opinion on TVINNA’s second album „Two – Wings of Ember“.
The artist
TVINNA is mainly a project of Laura Fella, the singer of FAUN. She’s working closely together with her husband Rafael Fella, the guitarist of Eluveitie (who happen to be one of my absolute favourite bands and are the reason why I discovered TVINNA in the first place. I’ve seen them live at the Schlossfest in Merseburg last year where I basically went to see Eluveitie). Since their first album „One – In the Dark“, the line-up has changed completely except for Laura and now the band is completed by Eluveitie’s drummer Alain Ackermann and Sascha van der Meer as bassist and background vocalist (also don’t forget to check out Sascha’s band Solarcycles, an incredibly good folk metal band from the Netherlands).
With the new album, the sound has changed significantly. In comparison to TVINNA’s first album, there’s a lot more electric guitars and I’d say the genre is now more progressive rock. It’s still very atmospheric and I personally like the sound of this album a lot more than the previous album (which was less heavy).
Several singles had been released before and since I was at their show at PLWM in December, I also heard a few of the new songs live for the first time.
The songs
The album starts very atmospherical with a song called Nénupher. It’s calm and a nice intro to the album. It’s dominated by beautiful, melodic vocals.
The second song is called Dawn of Mine and I liked it from the very beginning. The guitars in this one are particularly catching and I love the overall vibe. I’m a big, big fan of the vocals as well. The song unfolds slowly and the more I listen to it, the more I love it. I love the contrast between the softer, more „fragile“ vocals versus the very strong voice. It’s a perfect mix that is very powerful.
Song number 3, Louga, is featuring Eluveitie’s singer Fabienne Erni, who adds an extra layer to the sound of the song with her strong voice. AND it features some adorable vocals of Laura’s and Rafael’s daughter, who apparently decided to sing along to the song. The lyrics, if I remember correctly, are in Old High German and it’s related to the overall topic of the album of fire. This song easily gets stuck in your head and once you’ve heard it, you’ll sing along to it for the rest of the day – even if you don’t understand what you’re singing. It’s very beautiful.
Irwahhên is one of my absolute favourites on this album. And it was from the first time I heard it. I love the drum part at the beginning, which already sets a nice mood. The melody of the song is beautiful, both vocal-wise and guitar-wise. I just googled to find out the meaning of the song title and learned that it’s Old High German for „Awakening“. I’d have to read the lyrics though to say more about the contents, but I honestly love the guitars in this so much. Yes, definitely a favourite song. I’d love to hear it live at their album release show in May.
The next song, Arma, was released a few days before the album came out and it’s also absolutely stunning. It came with an atmospheric music video they shot in Iceland (I believe alongside the videoshoot for Fortress). I fell in love with it the exact moment I heard it for the first time because of its beautiful melody. The entire song is mostly calm and atmospheric. The chorus reminds me of one of their songs from „One – In The Dark“, which also happens to be one of my favourite TVINNA songs, BUT I forgot the name 😅 Arma will probably join that list. I love the overall sound and I love how the song develops into a progressive sound spectacle that is just fun to listen to (says a person who used to think progressive rock is boring 😂).
When I first heard Wings of Ember I thought this was one of the songs I had to warm up with and it took me a few times listening to it to appreciate it. But the more I hear it, the more I like it. I love the lyrics. Also I’ve read on TVINNA’s instagram that this song includes hurdy-gurdy parts played by FAUN’s Stephan Groth. As a sucker for hurdy-gurdy, I was absolutely alarmed – but! Due to the distortion I personally haven’t even noticed the gurdy until the moment I am writing this. The way it adds to the sound of this song is amazing (and while I am not a big fan of FAUN, I am a big fan of Stephan Groth’s hurdy-gurdy play! When we saw them live I was super happy to be on his side of the stage because I could watch him work his magic on this beautiful instrument).
Somnia is another song that almost slipped my attention when I first listened to the album. At first it didn’t stand out much, but this is another case of „the more I listen, the more I love“. Probably because in the first half it’s a very calm song and my brain tends to block out calmer songs so that I hardly notice that I’m listening to them. Very sad, because Somnia is very beautiful. But at the same time, in contrast to the other songs, the beginning is almost inconspicuous. It sounds very magical, but it’s lacking heavier parts that scream „Here I am!“ until in the middle, where the guitars and the vocals become a lot more prominent. The second half almost feels like a completely different song. And I love it. But my brain just treated both parts as separate songs as first.
Actually, I think this song will end up on my writing playlist because it’s very inspiring and it fits the vibe of one of the stories I’m planning to write.
Two Staves is another one of my favourites on this album. It was released as a single a few months ago and I loved it from the first moment. Already the beginning with the soft vocals and then the intense, almost psychedelic guitars send shivers down my spine. The layered vocals are super atmospheric, so are the lyrics. If you ask me, this is definitely one of the best songs of the album.
Fortress starts with a strong vocal part. Generally, this song’s lyrics are powerful and uplifting. And so is the sound. The song was another single that was released a few weeks ago, alongside with an absolutely amazing video clip shot at the black beach in Iceland. The music video is visually pleasing and perfectly underlines the music, so that the song gains even more strentgh. I’m a big fan of this one.
The second to last song is The Fall, which comes with another feature with Stephan Groth. This time he adds background vocals and they’re a perfect match for this song. I was so surprised to hear them, and pleased in a very positive way. To me, the song has an almost melancholic sound. Some of the drum parts remind me of a ticking clock, which adds to the melancholy of this song. Generally, the instruments in this song are rather inconspicuous and the sound is dominated by the vocals, even when it’s just syllables sung. The ending with Laura’s and Stephan’s vocals supported by the song of birds is pure beauty.
Finally, the album ends with a song called Der Weg – German for „the path“. Yet, the lyrics are in English. The song is basically pure vocals with only few instrumentation, part of which sounds like a viking horn to me. I think it’s called Bukkehorn in Norwegian and it’s an old Scandinavian instrument. That’s incredibly powerful! It’s very calm and melodic, a nice closing for the album.
All in all, I love the album dearly. It’s just plain beautiful and while I’m usually not so much into calmer music, TVINNA adds some magic to my life. I love their current sound and I honestly wonder if they’ll stick to it, or if there’ll be another change in the next album. As far as I understood, each album seems to be dedicated to one of the elements, so going for an entirely different vibe (while sticking to certain TVINNA characteristics) wouldn’t be that much of a surprise. But I truly love this album
The bundle
Actually I had preordered the album from their label ByNorse’s online shop. Unfortunately, while everyone else was sharing their received CDs on social media, I noticed two days before the album’s release date that my order hadn’t even been processed. I wrote an e-mail and didn’t get an answer and so I finally decided to cancel my order and order the album again, directly from TVINNA’s own shop. Good idea, because TVINNA has great bundles in their shop. And a few days earlier I had read that there was a bundle including a candle made by bassist Sascha (matching the fact that the album’s element is fire).
So I ordered Thursday night (after whining on Instagram about my unprocessed order) and when Laura saw my whiny post she made sure to ship the parcel on Friday ♥ I am beyond thankful for that. I picked up the parcel from the DHL Packstation Saturday night after a Lyrre-concert.
I’ve added a photo of the album (signed by Laura) and some of the other stuff that was included in the package below. I love the candle very much and the photos are also absolutely stunning (taken in Iceland when they were shooting music videos there). So are the photos in the booklet by the way. The entire album is a true piece of art. I am more than happy to have discovered this band.
I can’t wait for their album release show in May. We decided to go all the way to Munich to see them because none of the shows is in our area and the Munich concert is on a Saturday, so travelling is possible even for me as a teacher (be careful with your job choice – as a teacher I can’t take days off when I might want or need it and it’s driving me insane).
(Small side note: Yes, I am still practicing taking aesthetically pleasing photos. I have zero experience with flatlays, still-lives, product photography or anything alike. Gimme some time. It’s not even been long ago since I bought an external flash 😂)