Post Mortem is the first new album by Melanculia in 8 years, this is a solo project from Nino Sable who is a Portuguese emigre to Germany, where he is part of Aeon Sable. This album was recorded in Essen and everything is played, produced and mixed by Nino apart from the Clarinet played by Benno Schlicht on We Are Only Human.
The album opens slowly and deliberately with Dark Days for someone who needs to run away from everything that has been going down, jangly guitars can't wash that rain away, your tears will keep falling and the sadness will remain, no matter how much the fuzzy guitar solo tries to clear his mind of all the pain.
The Tower mixes strings and an insistent acoustic guitar, in praise of a lost friend, who can never return, while Nino defines his own divinity and prays to his own personal god who seems to be a cross between Ville Valo and Scott Walker.
Runaways may steal a Green On Red tune, but the vocals and arrangement take this in a vastly different direction, this is dark endings for the runaways who can never find real peace, being his Runaway girl may not be the idyllic outcome suggested.
The Healer sounds like Mark Almond on his Picadilly Bongo's album, only with lyrics about the need to heal and recover from all the pains and distress you've been through, I had to join him in a glass of Unicum as mentioned in the lyrics.
Emptiness is all you feel now the love has gone, misery has arrived to help you seek solace, slowly strumming away all the pain and distress you feel. We Are Only Human isn't a comforting thought these days, or an easy excuse for the multiple human errors, this feels entwined with sister death and the shimmering strings, the clarinet solo stretches things out, adding Ayleresque twists for the sorrow of humanity's current plight.
Confessions he knows he wants to be Chris Issak, but his vocals are too deep for that, this has a sparse almost demo feel, to the way he's feeling his way through this tune, trying to play less wicked games than before.
I Just Wanna Be A Good Guy but of course can't stop himself doing bad things, he searches for a better way forward, synths swirling around his head, slowly building drums and whispered chorus emphasise his need for positive change.
Sunboat Ascension (LS 25) is an elegy to Nino's close friend Lex Spielman who died while Nino was recording the album, angelic strings and thoughts and memories of a life cut cruelly short, has the ferryboat man been paid, to which bank will he be taken, allowing the forgiveness you deserve.
In A Forest Of Stars is elegiac and almost sounds like you've found a final resting place that is both peaceful and beautiful. Falling Into The Sun is a plea for love, to save him from becoming a Pheonix, he is scared he is Falling Into The Sun due to lack of love and affection.
For A Better Future one less filled with grief and dismay and slow thoughtful guitars and synths. Saboia is full of memories of the old country and growing up hearing Fado guitars being strummed. The album closes with the thoughtful Imago that has some deep percussive parts to accentuate the feelings being expressed.
Find out more at https://melanculia.de/ https://melanculia.bandcamp.com/album/post-mortem-2 https://www.facebook.com/melanculia
