Review: Wolfredt / VHK String Orchestra ‘Live At The Estonian Public Broadcast Radio Studio 1’
I’ve long been a fan of bands trying something different and innovative with their own work, and I’ve always admired classics like Beethoven’s 5th Symphony, so I was intrigued and very keen to review this latest offering from Estonian post-rock band Wolfredt. Having visited the wonderfully enchanting city of Tallinn in the summer of 2022, I wanted to see if the arrangement of three songs from their last album captured the essence of what the city and country have to offer.
The band itself are a four-piece, led by songwriter Margus Voolpriit, who released the first two albums as a one-man project and added new band members to bring more melodies, dynamics and ideas into the mix. With their latest offering, simply entitled IIII, they’ve used heavily distorted guitar lines, overlayered with multiple effects, accompanied by synth, bass and drums to push their post-rock sound.
The idea of working with an orchestra came from a friend, and eventually, the band contacted Rasmus Puur, the conductor of the VHK String Orchestra, a famous youth orchestra who like doing crazy projects, and he immediately said yes!! None of the band had experience in writing string arrangements, so they drafted in Markus Robem, a young composer, who helped with the quite stunning arrangements.
What has been created is something quite awesome, emotive and powerful…
The music drifts effortlessly, flowing beautifully with deep sounds that will fill any music person with joy from the beginning to the end. They choose three songs to reimagine, Terra Nullius, Skeleton Key and The Original Android and it just goes to show what can be done with a little bit of imagination and creative input from others outside of your immediate circle, though it does come across that the post-rock sound seems to lend itself to this type of project as it appears so fluid.
What has been created is something quite awesome, emotive and powerful, just listen to the softer, gentler parts of the final track The Original Android, it feels like a journey that we, the listener, are being pulled onto because of the hard work from all involved. More than a year after they started the project, they were playing in a gorgeously lit studio with cameras all around them capturing this moment forever. This genuinely deserves to be listened to by the masses as it is a work of art and should be appreciated by lots more people.
Label: Moment Of Collapse Records
Band Links: Facebook | Bandcamp | Spotify | Instagram
Scribed by: Matthew Williams
