Leila Abdul-Rauf - Cold and Cloud

Artist: Leila Abdul-Rauf

Album: Cold and Cloud

Label: Pesanta Urfolk

Genre: Ambient

Release Date: August 16^th 2013

Cold and Cloud is the debut album of Leila Abdul-Rauf, who we know as vocalist and guitarist (occasionally pianist and trumpetist, too) in a number of metal bands (Vastum, Hammers of Misfortune, Saros, Amber Asylum, and more recently Ionophore).

Unlike the heaviness of Leila Abdul-Rauf's other bands and projects, her first solo-album brings us dreamy and melancholic soundscapes. No riffs, drums and speed in this album – but a vast sea of emotion that engulfs the listener.

The label Pesanta-Urfolk describes Cold and Cloud as follows: “Abdul-Rauf enters a world all of her own, weaving brass and piano passages into filmic soundscapes inspired by the cold, dreary summers of San Francisco. Cold and Cloud tells an introspective story of loss.“

Cold and Cloud brings us into a universe filled with personal stories of solitude and loss, drenched in tons of saudade. The vocals seem as if to be sung by a ghost in the most – on this album, Leila Abdul-Rauf sounds like a stretched-out version of Enya or Eimar Quinn. The lyrics and vocals come in waves, as if we just stumble upon them while walking through a forest and discovering a bird here and a small stream there.

The tracks on Cold and Cloud invoke Iceland and outerworldly landscapes. As such, much of the strength of this album lies in the silence, the space between the words and chords, where our emotions surface and our interpretation of the music fills our minds. It is difficult to compare Leila Abdul-Rauf's style on this album to anything at all, but Dead Can Dance is probably the closes comparison.

If we want to describe Cold and Cloud in just a few words, these would be: vast, serene, heartbreaking, longing, fragile and subtle. The understated music has the excellent quality so that every spaced-out chord is enough to convey the deepest of emotions.

On “Tears in White Fluids”, we are enveloped by a beautiful, delicate, yet haunting soundscape, while “Questions” brings us the experience of arriving to the afterlife and being questioned about our life, or as if a voice from the distant is urging us to reconsider our choices in life.

The beautiful artwork by Tor Lundvall underlines the chilling atmosphere of Cold and Cloud. However, if you want to lay your hands on this album and its artwork, you might like to know that a limited edition of 100 features a sky-blue and silver vinyl, while the regular edition is pressed on black vinyl. By all means, Cold and Cloud is a gem. Explore it, enjoy it and use it as a means to study yourself.

You can listen to Cold and Cloud, and download the album for purchase via Bandcamp.