Swedish musician Manne Skafvenstedt has already been featured in our reviews (please refer to the review of his debut album unknown, untold). This time around, the artist released a work under the title of Archway. An album devoted to change. And indeed, already since the very first track one can feel changes in the sound, Manne shows off his piano skills, adding elements of the modern classic music into his sound. The composition Overcast. It’s Not The End is as if fresh air in a room was carefully enveloping you.
A Lone Conifer. A Barren Cliff is the second composition of the album and it transitions into the genre of light ambient, finding harmony with sounds of water. This almost 5 minute-long piece could certainly and without exaggerations be called a symphony, devoted to the rich Scandinavian nature, whose vastness gets deployed in the mind of the listener.
End of Trail. Go Back is a track that features a heavier, more tense kind of sound thanks to the piano parts that reach out to the strings of one’s soul.
After two years, the process of Manne Skafvenstedt’s music transformation is quite evident: his sound became more saturated while keeping the quality balance between warm and tender ambient and the aforementioned elements of neo-classic.
If you are under the impression that you haven’t yet felt the full spectrum of emotion from listening to the album, the composition Flickering Flights. The Shadow Play will certainly help fix that. It can melt even the toughest of hearts, since this piece is a heart itself, a carefully beating heart of the album Archway.
Not all kinds of change are inherently good, but the change that Manne Skafvenstedt’s art went through is definitely worth your while. After getting acquainted with the music of this talented musician, you will never want to miss a release of his ever again.
