Cygnus Rock Band - Tears of Gold/Gulli Tár (Ancient Visions)
Another underrated/misunderstood song by Cygnus.
The fact it's underrated doesn't even surprise me anymore, yet it does leave me disappointed. The fact it's misunderstood is that as much as I can see, it's often taken as a "romantic ballad"-alike thing, but it's far from that, to say the least.
This song is probably the most beautifully arranged one on the album. It starts with the mellow sound of a harp, soon joined by the two humane voices, both singing softly and gently.
The first chorus is sung by Deneb, his emotional, expressive vocals are accompanied here by the orchestration. Afterwards percussions and wind instruments appear, while....
...while, if you keep your ears and your heart open, you will hear probably the most precious gem of the album.
The tremolo of the string instruments.
It brings tears to my eyes. The delicate beauty, the depth, the soft still divine beseeching they express, and the gentle playfulness as they hide behind the percussions and the wind instrument just to peek out in the next moment, then rushing back behind the drums right after showing themselves.
It's beyond my words. It's something so beautiful, refined and elegant I find no expressions for. My words fail, and to be honest, I don't mind. It's like that, there are no phrase eligible to express its magic.
Listen to it, again, again, once again, the more you listen to it, the more you will get addicted to it.
This short video was uploaded to the band's Instagram profile as an illustration for this song with Gustav Klimt's world famous painting "The Golden Tears"
Here I admit, this little video seriously hit me back then, when they shared it. It was something I didn't expect at all, not just to make a video like this for this song, but using a famous painting of a world-renowned painter instead of some random googled image. For me this is a pure and perfect act of dignity, culture and sophistication. These all are among the things I admire the most in people.
The second stanza is again sung by both Deneb and Ruxx.
I love how their voices grow more and more powerful from the initial gentle whispering to passionate singing.
Here I need to say a few thoughts about the lyrics. As I mentioned above, this song is far from the "romantic" kind of ballad the song title might suggest for some. This, dear everyone is a glorifying prayer to goddess Freyja, who - as the legends tell - cried golden tears when her husband Odr went missing.
The text of the song is indeed devoted and admiring, but the goddess of war and fertility deserves the most dedicated and affectionate words.
The second chorus is performed by both singers and here - as I mentioned in my summary - "both Ruxx and Deneb show the top of their singing qualities". They do, without a doubt. It happens rarely that Deneb sings with such fiery passion he does in this chorus; indeed he very often shows how much intensity and emotion he has in his voice, but most of the time he does it with gentleness and caring. This time he puts away all the calm quietness and evokes such a strong, bright light from himself that makes his vocals another hidden gem of this song. Ruxx doesn't keep himself back, he lets his smoky/rock-ish voice flow, his sharp tenor wonderfully completes Deneb's passionate singing.
In the second choir all the "metal" instruments are joined, even those that were quietly swirling around the humane voices in the second stanza as well as those that kept silent so far. The orchestration is constantly present, softening the rock sound,
that sweetly gruntling bass!
emphasizing the vocals.
The solo is very special, because the symphonic orchestra is playing it, the guitars, the bass and the drums are only accompanying/escorting them humbly in the background. I personally find it wonderfully harmonious.
Yes... you can be sure after this that the catharsis of the song is coming soon.
And it does.
The chorus returns with the two singers in duet and this time the guitars, the rhythm section and the strings got a new company: the brasses.
Beautiful. Goosebumps, shivers, tears. The listener realizes that they slowly get soaked by the music, the humane voices and the magic. Not the listener soaks up the music; on the contrary.
It rarely happens, but with Cygnus it does.
Allow it to happen to you.
Gulli Tár is the same song, the difference is that the lyrics are in old Norse language.
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