Grey Fields Releases Splendid, Ethereal ‘Vesna’

Chicago-based art-rock/prog-rock outfit Grey Fields recently released their album, Vesna.

Talking about Vesna, Grey Fields shares, the album “revolves around the concept of cycles. It’s moody and filled with existential questions, sort of similar to a band like Radiohead.”

Formed in 2016, Grey Fields comprises Alex Dzamtovski (vocals, guitar, keys), Adam Repp (bass, vocals), and John Polischuk (drums). One year later, Grey Fields dropped their self-titled debut album. And in 2019, they released their EP, Sometimes the Dark Outweighs the Wonder.

The band’s sound amalgamates aspects of rock and folk music fused with classical arrangements of instruments and orchestral elements.

Explaining the album’s inspiration, frontman Alex Dzamtovski told XS Noize, “I’ve always wanted to combine my love for classical with rock and this album is our attempt to combine the two into hopefully something that people will appreciate. John came up with the title Vesna. Vesna was a mythological female character associated with youth and springtime in early Slavic mythology, particularly within Croatia, Serbia, North Macedonia, and Slovenia. I was born in Macedonia and the album revolves around broad themes of cycles, so it felt like a perfect fit.”

With 10-tracks “The Luck” opens Vesna, serving as a brooding intro balanced on drifting melancholic filaments. Entry points include “Weather the Storm,” which glides forth on dreamy textures imbued with drifting symphonic wisps. Haunting and poignant, Alex’s voice gives the lyrics plaintive timbres. A dazzling cello suffuses the tune with brilliant gliding, delicate tendrils.

Flavored with gentle, folk coloration, “Mines and Tunnels” rolls out on an acoustic guitar, undulating on soft hues. Trembling and redolent, Alex infuses the lyrics with fragile, nostalgic timbres. Whereas “Whistle While You Work” delivers an eerie, shivering whistle, ghosted by phantom tones as if emanating from the pursed lips of a spirit wandering through a mist-shrouded cemetery.

“Halfway Home” travels on rippling industrial-laced, almost Celtic, psychedelic textures, followed by segueing into a lusciously streaming prog-rock melody reminiscent of Queensryche merged with Led Zeppelin, translucent and graceful.

Intimate and diaphanous washes give “Ineffable” wafting leitmotifs, quivering with mysterious aromas of dark lamentation. A personal favorite, “Zero Sum Game” features a captivating teeter-tottering bassline and light, crunching drums, bathing the rhythm in sloping motion as Alex’s woe-filled tones saturate the lyrics in shadowy remorse.

At once sumptuous and mesmerizing Vesna offers listeners exquisitely wrought sonic configurations of resplendent prog-rock.

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