As the central metaphor on this present release, Jérôme Reuter uses `Civitas Solis`, the city of the sun as taken from the Dominican philosopher Tommaso Campanella’s utopian novel from 1602, which imagines the economic and political structure of an ideal state – one of the first social utopias.
The album itself opens with `La France Nouvelle` which translates to `New France` and refers to the French colonial territory in North America, primarily encompassing present-day eastern Canada and parts of the United States. A delightfully reflective offering shared with a strummed acoustic guitar and an occasional pulsing percussive beat. It`s a number that is almost left to your own interpretation with a kind of tangible almost fragile sadness in Jérôme Reuter`s vocal delivery. A phrase often used to refer to a time of deep darkness, despair, or adversity is the strapline for the next number `In Brightest Black`. It’s a metaphorical way of saying that even the darkest moments can hold a unique kind of intensity or brightness, not in the usual sense, but in the way they can highlight the potential for resilience, strength, and even beauty to emerge. The track is possibly a eulogy to those lost in war and that their lives weren`t sacrificed in vain. The pulsing beat at it`s heart for me added a further poignancy to the respectful reflective oration.
`Tomorrow We Live` is a further contemplation on the aftermath of conflict and what awaits us when we return home. An anticipation of the life ahead that we`ve fought so hard to win and the apprehension that brings. We have another respectful offering to combat with `Food for Powder` an idiom meaning cannon fodder or soldiers being treated as expendable in battle. It`s played out over an almost militaristic or martial field style tone which allows it a greater magnitude.
The title of `Ad Vindicta` which translates to `for revenge` or `to seek revenge` you imagine would convey a kind of call to arms but here it`s a nigh on heartbreaking melodic exaltation or keening to those who`ve gone before us. We have a track that questions the almost bloodlust for battle with `By Tradition` which again is percussively lead and has a brief German phrase that is repeated in the latter stages `Muss es sein?` or `Must it be?` which i`m sure leaves us with no ambiguity about this offering.
`Dannazione` is an Italian word that translates to “damn it,” “darn it,” or “damn” and here it`s a ghostly brief sixty seven second spoken word curse or oath. We enjoy a fairly sinister submission with `Bring Me the Head of Romanez` a metaphorical call for a symbolic revenge or retribution with the menace evident in the vocal delivery.
`The Western Wall` is a contemplation of the repercussion of war and using the Western Wall, the ancient retaining wall of the built-up hill known to Jews and Christians as the Temple Mount of Jerusalem may be a metaphor of current conflicts in that disputed area or a wider reflection, regardless it has a deep intensity despite it`s perceived simplicity. Surrender, truce, or ceasefire appears to be at the heart of the folk tinged acoustically driven `White Flags`, a number that brought to mind New Model Army and their ruminative anthems.
`Jupiter` symbolises good fortune, abundance, expansion, wisdom, and faith and this anthemic composition touches on all in its call to bear arms and the imagined rewards such as these, that will follow. The track itself has a delightful reflective melancholy about it. We have in `Mar’yana` a soldier’s echo for his Ukrainian sweetheart while he fights for his country’s existence, a deeply touching narrative shared through the modest life desires we all have.
`Men Against Time` is a phrase used to describe individuals who are perceived as being against their own time and the prevailing culture and once again this submission goes deeper than the lyrical content allows. The album closes with an instrumental `Herculaneum`. Herculaneum was buried under a massive pyroclastic flow in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD so maybe this track is a metaphor for the collapse of powerful empires that once seemed everlasting and immortal.
Once again in `Civitas Solis` we have another thought provoking submission from Jérôme Reuter which is shared over some enticing melodic and anthemic compositions. A lot of what this artist does is allow you to interpret and make sense of the wider political situation that we endure and almost take for granted as long as it doesn`t affect us adversely personally.
`Civitas Solis` is another enduring legacy from the cannon of Jérôme Reuter.
Rating 9/10
