After five years in hiding, the mysterious and enigmatic Nordic Giants have awoken from their deep slumber. The instrumental post-rock duo are one of the most mysterious acts in the UK, with their anonymity adding extra intrigue to their cinematic music. Following on from the success of their debut album A Sèance of Dark Delusions and their documentary soundtrack project Amplify Human Vibration, Symbiosis lays out a new chapter for the band. The album explores the independent relationship of all life, looking at the union and blending of polar opposites and the harmony that is created when two elements combine. Through moments of beautiful ambience and raw power, Nordic Giants blend light and dark together with subtly and mystery. Whilst the themes of the album are what Nordic Giants have been continually experimenting with for some time, Symbiosis brings a new and fresh perspective and discovers parts of these concepts that were previously unknown.
The beginning of the album is hypnotic, inviting you in without hesitation, to deeply reflect and ponder through meditative means. Nordic Giants have always been a profoundly conceptual band, with messages about the environment and pollution amongst other things. Whilst many of these subjects carry heavy emotions of sadness and despair, Nordic Giants counter in with a feeling of intense hope and with a collaborative ethos we still have time to change our future for the better. As a result of this supreme focus on the relationship between human and earth, the band have an innate ability to get to the very core of human emotions. Not just surface emotions but the ones buried deep in your subconscious. This is something that the band established on 2013s Build Seas and Dismantle Suns EPs by planting these emotive seeds, and now on Symbiosis we see this flower starting to grow and bloom as the band continue to create art that will soften even the hardest of hearts.
Opening up with ‘Philosophy Of Mind’, Symbiosis altogether feels more hopeful than A Sèance of Dark Delusions. Almost like the band is using what was learnt during the Amplify Human Vibration project and channelling the hope and positivity we all have in our hearts for a brighter future. Guiding us all through this turbulent time whilst asking us to put our egos aside and open our minds to a whole world of possibility. In this regard the majority of the album is stripped back and less frantic yet no less complex and intricate. ‘Faceless’, featuring a regular collaborator Alex Hedley, is the most dramatic song of the album with lyrics that ask deep and meaningful questions that resonate within your soul. This is achieved through slowly building music, gracefully moving through gentle passages to let the vocals shine before a harrowing climax towards the end of the song. ‘Spheres’ is the most gentle song on Symbiosis, again featuring a regular collaborator in the form of Freyja. The song’s ethereal nature conjures up images of our beautiful planet, our home, whilst giving you the intense desire to stand up and help our planet.
Nordic Giants have returned with a beautifully though provoking and emotional album, demonstrating the continual evolution of one of post-rocks most enigmatic bands. Symbiosis has collectively expanded the band’s atmospheric and ethereal capacity whilst simultaneously amplifying their emotional and musical power. The duo are masters of the deeply rooted emotions of our subconscious and have an adept knowledge of how to bring out every single one of them to make you feel things you never have before. Symbiosis is sonic food for your mind, body and soul.