Short introduction… After Nightside Valkyries (early 2019; initially independently and digitally released, shortly after also physically issued via Naturmacht Productions) and The Ætheric Pathway (Spring 2022, also available via Naturmacht Productions), Firmament, an outfit by German musician J.K., return with a third full-length album, called Reveries Of A Forgotten Spirit, released via the very same unique label. The instruments were recorded in Autumn 2023 in the city of Krefeld, while the vocals, as well as the mix and mastering, took place during moments in 2024 and 2025 in Wershofen, little more to the South (and in one of my preferred regions on this globe, for what it’s worth).
This third full-length has a total running time of almost forty-seven minutes, carefully divided into seven compositions (amongst which one shorter instrumental piece). The compact disc exists in a ‘jewel case’ format, as well as on digipack (six-panel), including a bonus track (i.e. a Dimmu Borgir cover) Evidently, it does go on in the vein of the former material, and that’s quite easy to describe: Epic Atmospheric Ambient Black Metal. Here you are…
Let’s start with the cover artwork, which was created by Maura Beusch. Well, it’s a perfected visual expression of Firmament’s sonic output. It’s nightly, breathing nostalgia, memory and spirituality. The dark color palette, based on blue and violet variations especially, strengthens the melancholic and personal identity; with ‘personal’ reflecting of mythos, introspection, metaphysics, nature, and the inner quest towards comprehension, concept and admission; the acceptance of our inner being as futile part of a vast cosmic concept, the connection ‘by the great forgotten spirit that dreams all existence into being’. From the most distant celestial bodies to the smallest grain of sand, surpassing all elements, water, ether, stone, Reveries Of A Forgotten Spirit narrates about Origin and its remembrance through, as mentioned, Epic Atmospheric Ambient Black Metal.
So, I’ll go over to the aural content of the album. Firmament focuses on that nightly atmosphere in the first place, but that does not mean that the aural part sounds soft. There is that touch of melancholia indeed, yet not from a depressed, grievous viewpoint. There is a certain tristesse, yet rather being canalized into a proud, confident form of knowledge and experience. The album opens with the aptly entitled piece Into Nocturnal Wilderness, which opens with an illuminated Winter Synth like intro, dreamy, mesmeric and fair. It carries the listener on a soft cloud through cosmic dimensions. After 66,6 second (more or less, I admit), guitars and drums (programming?) join, opening the portal towards modest intensity and limited vigor. Then also voices unite, having a very dry and raspy, distant, even reverberating timbre. Oh, it all fits together. Further there is an ambient intermezzo, before reforming the fast-paced, victorious energy. These harsher and more triumphal parts have a certain Falkenbach alike approach; even some whispers, cleaner vocal and choirs parts appear. Slower excerpts interact organically with faster ones; once in a while rather blasting. Also folksy, acoustic and Ambiental-atmospheric chapters appear and reappear, carefully in equilibrium, hinting of Summoning inspired splendor and spiced by a certain Hammerheart ensouled elegance.
‘The majesty of Nordic nights awaits as you embark on a journey through vast, starlit forests and across the cosmic waters of ancient myth.’
Through The Enchanted Woods opens with a short acoustic introduction, yet soon floats over into a fast-paced and robust yet solid emphasis. Here too, clean choir-like vocals, ambient additions and acoustics intercommunicate swiftly yet manifest with more potent and acute rougher parts. Well, actually this goes for several other hymns on this album too, that balance in between heavier, often bathorian blackened Metal (inspired by the likes of aforementioned Falkenbach, or even Burzum’s Filosofem era, Harvst [yet lesser explicit and confronting], Evilfeast, you know), and tranquil, integer excerpts (mind the short instrumental title-track): Over Old Hills And Far Away (as the title suggest, it does come with lyrics from the poem by J.R.R. Tolkien), From A Cosmic Shore (with a [not that] subtle hint of Midnight Odyssey, Spectral Lore or Nebula Orionis) or the longest piece out of seven, i.e. finishing The Seven Daughters Of Dreamtime (which does include exquisite, emotive and chimerical female guest vocals by Lady Pavlina Westphal), which guitar sound sometimes sort of exhales a texture comparable to Cold Wave. A piece like Her Eyes In The Lake, then again, stands for purest Lustre worship, though maybe little less elongated, and more extended when it comes to the six-strings and the vocal variation.
‘Carried by nocturnal winds you voyage from the woods to the stars and back again to the sea - the ancient thalassic cradle from which all life once emerged’.
https://naturmacht.com/firmament-reveries-of-a-forgotten-spirit/
https://firmamentnp.bandcamp.com/album/reveries-of-a-forgotten-spirit
https://jkfirmament.bandcamp.com/album/reveries-of-a-forgotten-spirit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i03WG7Jwrks