KAUAN

This debut album by Tenhi sets a solid precedent and blueprint for the style that reached its apotheosis on their third album. Taking up the torch of Ulver's haunting Kveldssanger, it presents a lush style of dark folk music that explores brooding, esoteric atmospheres that at points come close to the less martial industrial-influenced sections of neofolk. (In particular, where neofolk would tend to slip in industrial influences, Tyko Saarikko's synthesisers here are instead deployed with a much lighter touch.) But there's an epic sweep to proceedings which reveals in it the kernel of Tenhi's distinctive sound. Tenhi would eventually produce better, but this is already a very good start.