Heidi Solberg Tveitan or Ihriel as she’s also known first came to my attention with Peccatum’s debut album Strangling from Within. That experimental black-folk project with her husband Ihsahn for company was a real chore to listen to and took years before I could appreciate it. After that though, she’s been involved in Hardingrock again with Ihsahn and also with her solo project Star of Ash. It was Star of Ash’s debut that really caught my interest and made me go back to Peccatum and give it another shot. So when I saw that Tveitan had a new album out under the Star of Ash banner I was immediately quite excited.

The Thread is not so much a solo project as Iter. Viator was but a collaboration between Tveitan, German composer Markus Reuter and Japanese writer Kenji Siratori who wrote all the lyrics. The album is a bit of a change from the debut in that the electronica and trip hop elements seem to have been almost completely replaced with a warm and organic sound. Opening song and instrumental Him and Her is held together by a driving bass line with keyboards and strings as accompaniment coming across almost like a film soundtrack. There’s a restrained melancholic feeling to this album as song after song comes in gently but with enough of a hook to always engage the listener. The music feels like a combination of soundtrack music with elements of Goth and folk melodies. This is one of those rare mostly instrumental albums that never becomes background music.

The big surprise on the album though is that Tveitan hardly sings. The songs like I mentioned earlier are mostly instrumental. The songs are all driven along by the keyboards and there’s some very cool bass playing happening right through the album. Ulver mainman Kristoffer Rygg steps in to contribute vocals on Blood Bones and a Skull and I suppose Ulver is really the closest reference point I can come up with to this album. In fact The Thread at times reminds me of Ulver’s Blood Inside without the darkness inherent in that bands music and with a warmer more organic feel to the songs.

The Thread is an album that should to heard as a whole in one sitting and much like Ihsahn, Heidi Solberg Tveitan is an artist who is growing in leaps and bounds. Check this out if your listening isn’t limited to only metal and chances are you’ll be pleasantly surprised.



Label - Candlelight
Year of Release - 2008