Review: Nortfalke - Moonjeie

Artist: Nortfalke

Album: Moonjeie

Label: Heidens Hart

Release date: January 2025

Just over a year since his phenomenal previous release, Nortfalke is back with another full-length album, but with a twist. Just like De Widde Juvver was a significant departure from Atmosfeer in terms of sound, the project's latest album Moonjeie is another one, this time in the direction of synth ambient, with the PR material promising a combination of 1970s krautrock/Berlin school and 1990s synth ambient in the vein of Burzum, Wongraven and early Mortiis. That's a pretty tall order for a dungeon synth artist, so I was very curious to see how and whether Nortfalke has managed to weave all these influences into a coherent whole.

Let me start off by saying that Moonjeie is a massive shot of nostalgia above all else, particularly for anyone who grew up on the offshoots of 1990s black metal. While there are certain Berlin school influences detectable on the album, the atmosphere here is unmistakably that found on Burzum's ambient work, particularly tracks such as Rundtgåing av den transcendentale egenhetens støtte from the now-cult album Filosofem. Even the track lengths seem to indicate as much, including the massive second track that extends to over 17 minutes, and manages to be one of the album's best despite that. This whole release is an absolute love-letter to Burzum's ambient work, with just enough additional elements and influences (such as those cited in the introduction) thrown in to build upon the relatively simple base of the former. Massive drones, hypnotically repetitive synth passages, plucking string instruments, vaguely folky melodies - it's all thrown in for good measure. What truly sets this album apart, though, is how well Nortfalke nails the atmosphere he's trying to achieve; rather than producing a copycat work of more famous artists, Nortfalke decided to unite all of his influences to create a true successor album in spirit. I would almost call it a tribute album, except for the fact that this isn't a mere tribute - it reinforces, updates and pushes the sound so many of us love into the 21st century, while giving it the artist's unmistakable personal stamp (including the continued use of his local dialect for track titles, which I wholeheartedly support). The album closes with three bonus tracks called Sniejeie that could have been an EP in their own right, although I've personally found them somewhat less powerful than the rest of the album - perhaps due to pushing the length of the release past the one-hour mark - and therefore correctly categorized as a bonus.

All in all, it seems like Nortfalke has managed to reinvent his sound yet again, showing an impressive range for a self-declared old-school dungeon synth artist. Being what it is, I couldn't say that Moonjeie reaches quite the heights of Atmosfeer and De Widde Juvver, but it still stands head and shoulders above what most other dungeon synth artists are putting out these days. Sometimes you have to go back in order to be able to move forward.

Rating: 8/10