Amber & The Moon - Things We’Ve Got In Common

photocredit: Heiko Ritt

Welcome to the world of mysticism and melancholy. In an alternating bath of heaviness and lightness, the band around Ronja Pöhlmann seeks its way into folk heaven. The span ranges from feather-light sound pearls to November-grey desolation.

The adventure started as a solo project of songwriter Ronja Pöhlmann. Guitarist and singer Jonathan Riedel and drummer Torben Sdunek joined her to create the band's new sound. And although the vocal range and timbre have unmistakably remained the same, the gentlemen have brought a breath of fresh air to the music. The scales tip from melancholy to hope and dreamily the three balance on it. The sound pearl El Dorado is a good example of this. If in their debut single still the darkest melancholy tone is leading, in the new edition a country worthy guitar solo surprises the ear. Also a nice result is the combination of Riedel and Pöhlmann's vocals. Both have this sober seriousness in their voices, both let their emotions shine out only very delicately. It never gets really loud on the album, instead all nuances of gentle are represented.

There is a place I go when it’s quiet

‘Things We've Got In Common' tells in nine songs about secret places, dreams and fate. Everything seems to be a little bit far away, as if fallen out of time, but timeless. The haunting atmosphere that the three create is very impressive.

The genesis of the album is just as exciting as the result. Together with their producer Ben Schadow, Amber & the Moon locked themselves up in an old cabin on the stormy North Sea last winter. For two weeks it became their mobile studio. In the spring, they went to the Faro coast in Portugal to warm up and record some more. Ambient recording par excellence, completed in analog at Studio Nord in Germany.

While Everything Else Was Quiet - one of my favorite gems - perfectly reflects this exciting soundscape of rough north and gentle south. It's a musical outro that comes across like a manifesto. The entire kaleidoscope of their possibilities can be found here. Speaking of the kaleidoscope:

"Although each song on this album tells its own story, they all hang together. It's like looking through a kaleidoscope: my lyrics are very personal, but depending on how the light falls, everyone is able to recognize themselves in them," says Ronja.

And they can tell stories. At some points the album seems very intimate and fragile, only to dive again into the depth and complexity of the cinematic soundscape. A warm light characterizes the entire album - as a color it would be amber-pink. The predicate valuable still belongs to the two singles Morpheus and Her Ghost. While Her Ghost begins with a wonderful bright guitar playing, which reminds of dances of fireflies, Morpheus evokes a wanderlust in me, which speaks of journeys in other worlds. From the half of this sound pearl, the guitar playing delights us like the call back to a distant world. It was created in one of those sleepless nights when the moon and thoughts keep us awake.

Put me back to sleep, Morhpeus, Ronja sings to the god of dreams and I can only agree with her. Who wants to wake up to such dreamlike sound pearls?

Listen and Dream