Celebrating their 10th anniversary with The New Light ARCANA mastermind Peter Pettersson has released a very special compilation. It is not one of the usual best of collections, but in fact one with many unreleased tracks or at least alternative versions of them, that span from the very first days of the group, never before released first attempts to completely new songs which might be a first outlook (?) for the up-coming album Le Serpent Rouge.
The first edition of this compilation features a quite unusual format and a wonderfully designed booklet, where the composer has enclosed short descriptions to each song. There are to find many musical highlights: for example the unreleased Wound from the first demo in 1994 (in a typical Dark Age Of Reason style) and the as well unknown Lament, which is very quiet and chilling. With Of The Soul, Source Of Light and Like Statues In The Garden Of Dreaming one will get known fare but in new versions that partly have even more charm than the originals.
Exceedingly interesting are of course the last both tracks that are relatively new (2003) and might be the already mentioned outlook to the next album. Through The Grey Horizon does not reveal many surprises, just the fact that the more cumbersome and crushing compositions of the last years seem to be a thing of the past again. The master seems to re-focus more on a deep and emotional work. A wonderful song its similarity to a few Brendan Perry compositions is surely not unintentional. But really surprising is the other song Wings Of Gabriel, that coquettes with Arabian influences and has an unbelievable atmosphere. The listener gets downright moved in the middle of the desert, getting the beauty of nature revealed. According to the description in the booklet, this song is just a first try. ARCANA aims to use even more of these sounds, a purpose I’m eagerly awaiting…
Since the sound on New Light Era is all the time well balanced (despite of many demo versions) and the songs offer a journey through the entire band history I can warmly recommend this compilation to both: newbees and interested parties respectively and old fans. 9 points!