Review Summary: A blissful amalgamation of fantasy and atmosphere.
Druid, the fourth full-length LP by Medwyn Goodall, distinguishes itself from most of his earlier works for a number of reasons. A pioneer of the New Age genre, the Yorkshire multi-instrumentalist characterises his late-80s-to-early-90s primarily-instrumental material based on layers of whimsical synths and soft programmed beats, often alongside some very delicate acoustic guitar playing, all with the express purpose of creating an aural environment that the listener can contemplate and relax to. However, while most of these albums do succeed in bringing the listener down to a comforting, ethereal level, they rarely allow time for being background music, as every track often features somewhat louder standout moments that attempt to showcase Goodall's proficiency as a musician, in addition to the very amateurish production that plagues the early stuff.
Druid deviates from this by being a much more ambient experience, while also adopting a more Celtic-based approach to the New Age sound that gives it more of a fantasical sense of character. As such, minimalism is the key here, as all of the five lengthy tracks revolve around slow, looping rhythms that develop into a lush wall of woodwind pipes, organs, guitars and hymns, led by some not-too-loud but still prevalent chamber percussion, amidst a slew of other instruments that all build on top of each other and amalgamate into pure bliss. The sense of progression these tracks go through is both quaint and mesmerising at times, knowing just the right moments before a section of the track becomes redundant to evolve into something else, before slowly fading out into a sea of atmospheric synths. It also helps that the production presents itself much more professionally than earlier efforts, with everything feeling very genuine and live, as opposed to doubting whether any of the instruments were achieved through a single synthesiser, and the attention to detail in the texture and mastering department is astounding.
It’s also easy to get swept up in
Druid’s adventure and fantasy elements. Labelling itself as a portion of “The
Druid Trilogy”, there appears to be something of a story afoot, but given the instrumental nature of the tracks, it’s more appropriate to form the music around your own concepts and themes. It’s no surprise that
Druid is heavily influenced by the larger-than-life, J.R.R. Tolkien world of swords and sorcery, and the scale definitely shines through, with most of the tracks feeling like sleeping giants; peaceful and complacent at first glance, but feeling epic in the grand scheme of things, like they could explode at any moment into big orchestrations. The quieter, dreamier sections of the album can be equally investing, as they present visions of tranquility and peace within woodland environments and stone havens.
Within Goodall’s lengthy discography there are a variety of styles from an array of musical cultures around the world to discover, but none encapsulate the degree of atmosphere, progression and texture quite like
Druid does, that appropriately make it one of his most popular releases after all these years. While at times tracks can potentially cross over into redundancy for recycled sections of compositions, and the tracklist is limited, Goodall does a superb job at paying tribute to the Celtic stylings of the past century while developing his own unique blend of icy downtempo music in the process. If you ever feel like your quest for ambient music has become repetitious, then
Druid is the perfect album to diversify your findings, and may even introduce you to a whole new world of ideas and conceptual, dream-like experiences that are the New Age genre.
