Album by Daemonia Nymphe meaning Great Lightning, ironically whilst reviving antiquity, transcends time. Its lyrical texture is opaque yet lucid. Its tone shifts from subterranean, anagogic chanting to arcane joy. Content combines academic depth with imaginative flair. Instrumentally, Daemonia Nymphe recreates Greek Antiquity using lyra, varvitos, krotala, pandoura, double flute and other arcane instruments made by Nicholas Brass. #1 Esodos highlights the contradiction of Prikosnovenie’s stylistic references, Enya and Dead Can Dance; unlikely bedfellows. Consider Watermarkish layered choirs of resonant, urgent echoes, staccato softened by reverb and mixing. These are coupled with distant processional brass announcing ancient deities, characteristic of early DCD albums such as In the Realm of the Dying Sun, candle of grandeur carried into a new millennium by other legendary bands like Arcana from Sweden. As Perry wrote a tribute to Ulysses, so has Dae Nym. My favourite is #5 Mouson: beautiful melodies, superb arrangements. Another memorable piece is #6 Dios Astrapaiou, notable for grainy, gruff vocals of Cretan singer Psarantonis (Antonis Xylouris). Enigmatic, recondite male vocals (spoken and sung) are balanced by wild Balkan female singing, representing two faces of anthropocentric religion. A well researched esoteric offering, this music rings of a oracular summoning. Whilst introductory notes cite Homeric hymns and Sappho’s poems for Zeus and Hekate, in a space inhabited by Mnemosyne and Daemon (Deus), it’s possible also to feel something akin to cabalistic, sagacious, Delphic, Orphic and Hermetic aspects of ritual.