OF DREAMS FORGOTTEN AND FABLES UNTOLD

Prolific Hungarian duo "The Moon and the Nightspirit"'s debut occupies the inclusive tier shuffling between BLACKMORE'S NIGHT and LOREENA MCKENNITT, substituting predominantly violin for harps and other acoustic instrumentation. The group's moniker and album title elicit a longing for connection to ancient earth centered gentility in a world run amok even before 2020. And indeed the overall mood is appropriately somber and hypnotic with gusts to delicately defiant. "The Secret Path" is one of the better examples, though the intro is so mystical that I question whether it might have been developed better without lyrics. "Pagan" plays upon a bouncier rhythm than heard elsewhere and is better for it. The main issue I have here is the lack of a buildup and ultimate release that distances the satisfying works from the simply good. I don't feel there is any progression; almost every number would be just as effective in compilation as here, actually more so, because the MOON And THE NIGHTSPIRIT have hit on something here, perhaps just not insistently enough to secure it in place.