Sometimes, gaining a little insight into an artist goes a long way to explaining and understanding their music; knowing a bit about who they are can speak volumes about what they are trying to say through it. So, once you are aware of Nino Sable’s childhood relocation from Portugal’s sunlit northern coast to Germany’s industrial heartland in the Ruhr, the music makes a lot more sense.
Although best known as the frontman of German goth stalwarts Aeon Sable, as Melanculia, he gives us post mortem, an album that sees the opposites of both formative experiences attract, coalescing into an album of nostalgia and nuance, a melancholic view of the warm glow of what was lost and the more chilled embrace of the gothic world.
“Dark Days,” which opens, echoes with a wistful, early-Bowie sonic aesthetic, yet is shot through with searing guitars and soaked in serene strings as Sable banishes the gloom, perhaps as much metaphorical as actual.
“Runaways” is what you might imagine The Church would have sounded like if they had pushed their pop-psychedelia into the darker corners of the musical map. Similarly, “We Are Only Human” feels like Sisters of Mercy rebranding for the dark folk market.
But I don’t want this to read as an exercise in past juxtaposition; it isn’t, although sometimes it’s easier to convey music descriptions in terms of what has gone before. But give current single, “Sunboat Ascention,” a spin, and you are reminded how original and adventurous this album is, here a tribute to a dear departed friend cloaked in the language of Ancient Egypt and driven by a unique blend of the emploring and a palpable sense of heartache and loss; a dark and delicious dirge to carry them home.
Post Mortem reminds us that just because an artist is known in one role, it doesn’t mean that is all they do. It proves that Nino Sable is more than just the focal point of Aeon Sable, and I’m sure that if his solo work is where you first encounter him, you might think of him just as easily as that fantastic solo musician who happened to form a band. And of course, both things can be true, as they are here.
