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Nad Sylvan: Spiritus Mundi
Nad Sylvan - Spiritus Mundi Album Art

Nad Sylvan: Spiritus Mundi

Melodic Rock
3.5/5.0

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InsideOut Music
Words: Craig Hartranft
Added: 31.03.2021 | Released: 09.04.2021

Having finished The Vampirate Trilogy, Swedish songwriter, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist Nad Sylvan embarks on a new project, Spiritus Mundi. The album finds Sylvan collaborating with American vocalist and guitarist Andrew Laitres with whom he wrote The Lake Isle Of Innisfree, appearing as a bonus track upon Sylvan's The Regal Bastard. Listening to more of Laietres' demos, Sylvan offered to continue their partnership and Spiritus Mundi was born.

Nad Sylvan - Click For Larger Image

Nad Sylvan

The songs of Spiritus Mundi features mostly the vocals of both artists, but also Laitres talented and sublime guitar work. Also, as with his recordings, Sylvan has recruited other folk from the progressive rock world including Steve Hackett, Tony Levin, Jonas Reingold, and Mirkko De Maio. While not a concept album, the songs include lyrics adapted from Irish poet William Butler Yeats. The aforementioned The Lake Isle Of Innisfree is based on one of his poems. Sylvan remarks, with some humor, "It was just kind of nice not having to write the lyrics and focus solely on the music." Additionally, according to Yeats, Spiritus Mundi is best translated World Spirit.

As for the album and songs, I found Spiritus Mundi to be a somewhat slight departure from Sylvan's previous works. The music is largely light melodic rock with emphasis on three things: the vocals, Laitres' guitar lines, and the lyrical content. The song arrangements are quite sparse then, lacking any definitive complexity and with little orchestration. Some, perhaps most, listeners would be hard pressed to find Spiritus Mundi to be progressive rock. There are a few songs that are a bit more lively or "bolder" in the melodic rock context including The Stolen Child, The Fisherman, and the more robust (in context) The Hawk, my personal favorite of the album. By way of summary, another way to describe Spiritus Mundi would be to say that Sylvan and Laitres have set poetry to music. In this case, William Butler Yeats's poetry has been given a voice via their melodic rock compositions.




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The Bottom Line

One way to describe Spiritus Mundi would be to say that Nad Sylvan and Andrew Laitres have set poetry to music. In this case, William Butler Yeats's poetry has been given a voice via their melodic rock compositions.

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