DORENA—Kvar

DORENA is a post-rock band from Sweden, and this is an album I've been sitting on for a few weeks now, waiting for its release. It's another example of one of those albums where I was sold within a few seconds of hearing the opening track. This is a mostly instrumental album, with a very prog-rock / ambient feel. There may only be eight tracks, but it still runs for 47 minutes, giving the album plenty of room to explore its different sounds. The opening track is "Kastanj", beginning with a hint of ethereal magic before the drums and keyboards come in to give the track some direction and a heartbeat. But I think the final ingredient that swung it for me was the cello, surely one of the most expressive of instruments. This is one of those tracks I could seriously listen to on loop, as by nature it lends itself very well to a cyclic quality. If I'm honest, I think I ended up judging all the other tracks against this first one, which is perhaps a little unfair. That might have been negated by placing it at the end of the album, but I think that's more my issue and the emotional connection I made with it. Another great highlight for me was "Heart Murmurs", which again has that repetitive makeup that gets me hopelessly lost in a track. It's slow and, unsurprisingly, rhythmic, but there's something about it that makes it impossible not to get drawn into. There were a couple of curious songs in the mix. "Mykorrhiza" has an intro that is very repetitive in nature, which, while something I usually relish, it falls a little flat here. It almost feels like a record stuck in its groove. Once past that point, however, the track really starts to open out into a wondrous soundscape. "Flykting" also struck me as having more of a traditional feel, almost as though it were drawing from some kind of native heritage. It could just be the violin, which can lend itself to that interpretation, but it always feels like there's a hint of something more going on. The remaining four tracks have a more traditional rock feel to them. "Tree Climber" in particular had me thinking of lyrics that could be used to pad out the track. Again, this isn't in any way a detriment to the track, it's just how it made me feel while listening. "Intravenös", "Vittring" and "LUCA" have a similar rock feel, with each having its own charm. This is very much a curious mix of tracks. Each of them has its own merits, but together they can feel a little like a disparate collection. I was sold on the opening track, and I think I spent the rest of the album searching for that same emotion. That's probably not entirely fair to the album, as there are some very different ideas at work here. Overall, though, this is a strong album and certainly one I'll come back to. Sometimes an album doesn't need to be completely cohesive to be interesting, and DORENA have created something here that is certainly worth spending some time getting lost in.