The tales of a dark forest. Tem Grinhill.


It is always intresting how people, situated in a same time and places, manage to live in a completely different worlds. For example, every normal man or woman had a happy childhood, no matter what happens in their countries at the same time, except for extreme calamities, but it is a very rare cases. Opposite it is hard to find a fully content adult, they are dogged by depressions, anxieties, and unstable situations on the markets. Not only childrens and adults live in a different worlds, it may be seen with a best clarity among adolescent human beings. How many niche cultures came into existence through the imagination of fast grown kids.

They go to the forest, they consider themselves as elfs and dwarfs, orcs and heroes, wizards, merchants, mercenary swords, and losted souls. From a side it is viewed as ragtag hodgepodge of handmade armory, outlandish costumes, and strange people. But it is superstitions, stereotypes, and prejudice of a normal, in his own eyes, sideviewer. They`ve got true friendship, they discern good and evil, they fall in love and carousing, they just play more intresting games than football, or to say more watching a football. You can find out this yourself, there is an excellent memoir of russian reenactor Djonny – Skazki Temnogo Lesa.

But we are intresting here what they had brought to a musical table. And it seems their contributions were enormously huge. The leading branch or reenactors at those times was tolkienists, who rearrange the world of middle earth at their gatherings, and minds. The big part of it was a creation of a corpus of musical compositions – ballads, dances, etc. that may was played in this world. The theme occured to be profoundly fecund.

As a result the big chunk of a singer-songwriter genre was represented by artist whose inspiration laid in a fantasy world. It was not only a biggest part of a genre, it was the best one. So if you`d like to hear a tender female vocal with a company of murmuring guitar or fiddle, good chance you will hear about Luthien, Gondolin, star-crossed love, high-born heroes, malevolent wizards, and of cause about the sylvan king Thranduil.

To dive into this world listen following tracks, Nespetaya Ballada Lyutika, Zaschcitnikam Shaervedda, Oruzhenosec, Otpustite menya v moi son, Davai uidem na zare, Ne ischchi moih sledov by Tem Grinhill, or Gondolin, Korol lesov Thranduil by Illet.

The live music is going from this world. I don`t care about concertish events, when the sound system`s giving out thousands watts it really doesn`t matter that artist`s singing and playing him or herself, it is good though, but it not the kind of a live music I`m talking about. The music is coming to life when it plays face to face. Before now every company had a guy or girl who can play guitar, and it was a special treat to hear them singing at the occasional gatherings, celebrations, or just parties. Now even if you`re sitting around fire in the woods there may be nobody, who brought guitar. Before now lad might score an additional points approaching his lass with guitar, now what he can do, only share earbuds of smartphone, it`s lame, it`s so lame.

During the previous big wave, guitar players were widely spread among youth, and their repertoir consisted mostly of the russian rock. At the next big wave, the one we have under consideration here, the amount of guitar owners droped significantly. Their repertoir changed as well.

As familiar it was to see a singing outl loud company before, as bizzare it is now. Reenactors` camp is the last sanctuary for the live singing to your own peers, although they`d prefer to call it the last fortress. Magic`s leaving this world.