LIVE FROM THE WOODEN REALMS

The Finnish instrumental rock band THOBY LOTH released their live DVD the same year with the debut album (reviewed by me yesterday). Understandably then, the track lists are nearly identical. The roughly 50-minute concert shot at the church ruins of old Vaasa begins and ends with a non-album track ('Skymningsdalen' and 'Älvprinsessan'), otherwise it represents the album Lägereldarnas Tid in the same running order. That can be thought of as a theoretical weakness for a DVD because one could expect more from a DVD release, but I must point out that if you were to choose between the CD and the DVD, the latter is the nicer purchase (even if my 3½ stars are this time rounded down). This is very well done, and the music gets extra interest from seeing it performed live. The composer Tobias Tåg is busy playing keyboards, flute, tin whistle and recorder in turns, and all members seem to enjoy the playing.

There are enough cameras to make it lively and nicely balanced between close-ups of the musicians and views of the whole band. The presence of the audience is almost unseen/unheard; this DVD is a total opposite for a seedy bootleg stuff, done so carefully that there's a rick of a little clinical taste to it. There's no fancy visualistic show on stage, but in front of it you occasionally see some fire artists at their work. Between some tracks you get few brief interview cuts of Tobias Tåg, telling about the formation and the goals of the band. And sometimes there's also some outdoor visualization (a forest, a campfire, a stream, etc), briefly at the beginning of a couple of tracks.

What would have increased the interest value is for example some guest performance (vocals or whatever) or otherwise unsimilar versions to the album tracks, or music outside the album, but this is pretty good as it is. For the music itself read my album review.