A significant start to the new year, the first part of 2026 also brings Erika Azzini/Kæry Ann‘s second album, the follow-up to her 2023 debut Songs of Grace and Ruin. Of which, two tracks are part of the soundtracks of the film “Birth/Rebirth” and the TV series “Brennero”.
The new album of Kaery Ann, Moonstone
The seven new compositions that make up Moonstone confirm the interpretative qualities of the young author. Whose voice rises from the liquid sound substance that coagulates sacred doom and rarefied psychedelia. Indeed, by tracing a solemn and measured pace, as well introduced by the opening track Putritatem tuam interiorem serva, which today can be read as a warning.
An invitation to temperance
Also, an invitation to temperance but also a rebuke that pierces wayward souls, like Todenslied, which it uses as its reinforcement, a further and more resolute call. But Moonstone does not (only) wear the cloak of monastic steadfastness; The Road broadens the perspective to which it refers, assimilating the expository principles developed (even the title of the song can lead us to this suggestion) by Messa.
The two singles
A sensitivity possessed by few, a shared vision with other eminent artistic personalities, and this cannot be merely the result of chance coincidence. Hero and Leander is, along with the aforementioned Todenslied, awarded the status of presentation single. And it fulfils its task well, being a composition with a vigorous structure, infused with the indispensable melodic element that is characteristic of a mature inspirational effluvium.
The easy attraction that the extreme impulse could exert is rejected by resorting to the beautiful harmonic openings of Mariner’s Song. Indeed, it is a highly inspired episode that attracts particles of shoegaze dust. Not for pose or fashion, but for obvious narrative needs.
“There is no sense of indecision”
As, the author possesses the necessary experiential baggage that allows her to avoid resorting to these artifices. Moonstone is an album that draws its evocative power from the apparent fragility of its seven songs. In which there is no sense of indecision. Actually, they reveal a personality that, while already sufficiently defined, shows further, ample room for progress. The artist does not revel in the glory she has acquired. If anything, which it can serve as a springboard for further momentum.
The epilogue of Moonstone
Moonstone entrusts the epilogue to White Dress, a chant similar in spirit to Shores in Flames. In which it precedes by one stop and gradually becomes more insistent. Pushing us toward a choral finale of great intensity. Then, slowly, everything quiets down, leaving us suspended in the immeasurable Time of waiting.
Track list
- Puritatem Tuam Interiorem Serva
- Todeslied
- The Road
- Hero and Leander
- Mariner’s Song
- Shores in Flames (Bathory cover)
- White Dress