Psamathes – Unjer eg Adrum Review

What does Psamathes sound like?

A vocalist for many game soundtracks who liked to explore her ritualistic or Nordic folk side.

The review of ‘Unjer eg Adrum’ by Psamathes

If you play lots of artistic and stylised indie or AA games, you may have come across the vocals of Psamathes. She has lent her vocals to The Pathless, Keylocker, and Strayed Lights, and her voice is also sampled for various vocal libraries for artists to use in their own music too. This means if you’ve heard sampled Nordic folk music – Psamathes may have been part of the sonic soundscape.

‘Unjer eg Adrum’ is a collection of live Nordic folk rituals. They are one-take live improvisations in a made-up language so the listener can interpret the passion in Psamthes’ voice into their own symbology. The seven tracks use a mixture of ancient instrumentation from Scandinavian and Italian regions such as the tagelharpa, jew’s harp, whistles, shaman drums and ethereal drones. The drones often form a vocal hum that reminds me of Inuit throat singing but in humming form. Tracks like ‘Ystor’ thrive in the shamanic pulse and nasal drones, whereas others like ‘Eir du Beiddu’ are more war-like with rallying cries ushering in a more guttural purging.

After the opening tracks of ‘Eliant’ and ‘Vertalis’ veer more towards the mystical ambient side of things, the rest of the album feels more primitive. I can hear tracks like ‘Iru Vimmu’ taking place in caves at night by fire. The sawing tagelharpa is both a constant hum and an unnerving tension that bubbles up throughout the collection. Closing track ‘Med Laere’ showcases the bowed instrument in a detuned, primordial swirl of sound. It is an intense and foreboding end to what is an eclectic mix of styles.

What shines through this collection of live ritual performances is the atmosphere and tone of the songs. Whilst there are melodic touches and musical motifs, Psamathes puts the mood front and centre before everything else. That allows the vocal gymnastics of high-octave shrieks to lower anguish-filled moans to cut through the music like a spear in the dark. It is Psamathes’ voice that is the star and the atmospheric music is designed to set that up. My only mild complaint is that many of the tracks are quite short at around two minutes each. Some of them could have easily drenched you in their mood for a while longer. Perhaps that’s because they don’t follow a traditional song structure and many songs just fade to an end chord without a satisfying end. As long as you don’t mind that, these are some fun tracks to crank your bass speakers up for and feel the resonance in your bones.

Recommended track: Iru Vimmu

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