Soothsayer Orchestra – Soothsayer Orchestra

 

 

Soothsayer Orchestra – Soothsayer Orchestra
Lay Bare Recordings – 2021
Rock, Noir, Americana, Blues, Gothic
Rated: ****

Bandleader, augur, director, diviner, conductor, prophet, ringmaster and the man behind everything surrounding Soothsayer Orchestra is Pieter Hendriks. The name might ring a bell and you might know him from bands like Reaching Forward, Close Second, Born From Pain, The Orange Blossom Special and Black Bottle Riot. He left the comforts of hometown Eindhoven, his home and his musical buddies behind and travelled to a little caravan in the dark forests of the Eiffel, Germany to write this magnus opus. The dark, the loneliness and the ominous atmosphere is easily found on the nine tracks that make up this recordings. Dark stuff indeed. Rock noir, southern gothic and Americana filled with echoes of Nick Cave, David Eugene Edwards and Mark Lanegan. Clammy and oppressive atmospherics compliment the highly cinematic composition, making you envisions all sorts of dark movies and twisted scenes without ever knowing what film it might turn out to be. The songs would do just as well performed with a full orchestra in a worn down theatre, a dubious burlesque venue, a ruined colosseum or by the man himself in a ramshackle and smokey watering hole. Cause it sounds paradoxically enough complete, full, detailed and yet very barren and intimate. Hats off to maestro Pieter and his Soothsayer Orchestra…

(Written by JK)

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