1. Tölva, the counting witch. As the Icelandic land from which the group takes its name, the band mixes the ghostly atmosphere of frozen deserts to furious explosions fiery volcanoes. No technical demonstration, the quartet delivers an impulsive music of nuances, as unstable as climatic vagaries of the ice country.
   —From Tölva’s bandcamp site, translated from French

This post-rock band from Dijon, France recently caught the attention of the Music Enthusiast. Those of you who follow this blog know that post-rock is a recently discovered genre for me. I was able to chat with one of the band members by email and of the group, he said this:

“Our music is exclusively instrumental (post rock but more rock than post), a duet of guitars leaning on a bass-drums section with some keyboards appearances. Our influences go from Mogwai to Russian circles including Explosion in the sky, Godspeed you! Black Emperor or Mono and This will destroy you.”

I listened to their EP, Wide Shot, and enjoyed it. As I’ve mentioned previously, while I would not have a steady diet of post-rock, I find it hypnotic and often surprising, with interesting use of dynamics. Here’s a song, “Renton,” I like from the EP. I like it because it’s got a fairly heavy, ballsy feel to it:

I initially became familiar with post-rock from my son’s band, Pray for Sound. And since, of the two of us, he’s the expert in that particular genre, I asked him to listen to Tölva’s EP and review a song. Here’s what he had to say about the track “Puzzle.”

“Puzzle was my favorite song of the four. It feels like the calm,  exploratory cornerstone of the EP. Tolva does a great job showcasing their ability to dive into a dreamier,  more atmospheric side of the band.”

If you dig what you heard, here’s their bandcamp site.

And YouTube

More rock than post, their 1st EP Wide Shot was released on September 21st, 2016.