Title: Wenn die ersten Blätter fallen
Artist: Walden
Rating: 4.0 / 5
Genre: Acoustic Folk
Year: 2013
Country: Germany
Label: self-released
Walden is a nature inspired Folk project from Germany which is primarily performed on classical guitar. The style is somewhat similar to the Norwegian folk band Vàli, although I find myself enjoying Walden a little more. Walden’s songs are all instrumental, sometimes featuring tambourine, flute, or clean vocal humming, but the guitar is always the center of the music. The band’s mastermind Danijel Zambo creates guitar melodies that are dark and memorable. For example, the main hammer-on/pull-off melody in Wanderung im Moor stays in my memory long after I’ve finished listening to the album, sometimes entering my mind randomly at night.
It is clear that Danijel is a professionally competent musician, who can not only play his instrument well but is able to write and structure guitar-based music very well. The song Sonne erhellt das Nebelmeer reminds me a lot of John Williams’ guitar interpretations of Vivaldi’s sonatas (a huge compliment, as Vivaldi is my favorite composer of all time). However, I find it best to not focus on the songs individually, but to listen to the entire album from start to finish and be transported in the forests and mountains of Germany. Walden is the perfect music to listen to in solitude, and while the music is dark and somewhat melancholic, it is in no way “depressive”. For all those who have ever stopped to admire an old tree, the falling of leaves, or the weeping of a river, this music is meant for you.
