In the Rain
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In the Rain is an apocalyptic folk music album released by Tony Wakeford's English industrial and Pagan neoclassical group Sol Invictus, in 1995.
On this recording, Wakeford weds trumpet, violin and cello to folk arrangements. Lyrically, he focuses on the fragility of life and the certainty of death. The liner notes include drawings by Tor Lundvall of animated skeletons carrying about with the populace, peeking out of windows and from behind umbrellas.
The instrumentation and orchestration create an elegiac setting that compliment Wakeford's lyrical expressions of the tyranny of love, the snuffing out of youth, the beckoning hand of death.
[edit] Track listing
- 1. Europa in the Rain I
- --cello, violin mark this short introductory theme, that is repeated in a more elaborate version for the final track. Segues into "Stay."
- 2. Stay
- --Mournful violin, piano, acoustic,electric guitars; Lyrics of an erstwhile lover proclaiming the severity of his devotion to his once-beloved. Darkly comical, ultimately.
- 3. Believe Me
- --Symphonic orchestration with violins, piano; guitars; Lyrics: A young girl's death is employed to illustrate the ambivalence of the gods to human life. At first the gods are playing chess for her soul. Once it is theirs, they play catch with it. The chorus states that "without love, we are lost".
- 4. Down the Years
- --Similar orchestration, heavier drums; Lyrics relate the inevitable decay of every great and lowly thing.
- 5. In the Rain
- --Lyrics use the symbol of a rain-soaked English garden to illustrate the fragile dawning of a love the narrator knows ahead of time will fall into ruin.
- 6. Fall Like Rain
- --More ample use of electronic orchestration in middle section; Lyrics express familiar theme of all mankind being equal (if only) at the "kiss of the scythe."
- 7. Oh What Fun
- --Acoustic guitar, cello, violin; Lyrics are cryptic, again touching on the coarseness and natural brutality of the human animal.
- 8. An English Garden
- --Lyrics appear to allude to the collapse of the Empire through the simile of a garden that may be haunted. The song hints at a forthcoming collapse that is akin to that which befell Rome.
- 9. The World Shrugged
- --Lyrics that focus on the inevitable strife one finds with life. The World is indifferent to the perpetual state of foolishness that typifies the behaviour of her inhabitants.
- 10. In Days to Come
- -A bit of tribal drumming, otherwise similar to other instrumentation; Lyrics regarding Pagan birth/rebirth rituals; sun is referred to as "Sun wheel", or swastika. Still, the "days to come" reflect crass materialism, greed, and the disease that will afflict even "noble hearts". A woman from the forest and hills, whose womb puts forth ritualistically symbolic grain comes to save her children from the coming spiritual apocalypse brought forth by human sinfulness and weakness.
- 11. Europa in the Rain II
- --Reprise of opening track; lengthened with more pronounced drumming and use of keyboards.
[edit] Personnel
- Tony Wakeford — Guitars, vocals
- Sarah Bradshaw — Cello
- David Mellor — Piano, keyboards
- Karl Blake — Electric guitar & bass
- Nathalie Van Keymeulen — Violin
- Céline Marleix-Bardeau — Violin
- Eric Rodgers — Trumpet
- Nick Hall — Drums, percussion
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