Astorg Shelter [Oversized Digifile CD]

From the stillness of the forest, in deep silence, the echo of what has been lost resonates through “Shelter”, the remarkable return of Spanish guitarist Víctor Navaz (one of the founding members of the cult black metal band Empty) with Astorg, his most personal project, a work that unfolds like a persistent whisper into an intimate and deeply human territory, where each note seems to emerge like a slow, restrained thought, carrying the immense weight of loss and the urge to disappear from the world.

Across the seven tracks that shape this second full-length album, Astorg paints, through acoustic guitars and subtle touches of progressive metal, a landscape of dense autumnal forests, streams flowing with hypnotic calm and paths that vanish into the undergrowth. The music moves forward with an almost ritual patience, allowing melancholy to breathe, deep and lingering, while tracing the slow transformation of a man who withdraws from everything, with the wound still open, venturing into the solitude of the forest until the sorrow within him begins to settle and the wild gradually becomes a place of refuge, something that no longer hurts, surrounding and protecting him. “Shelter” does not seek to impose itself, it drifts, it lingers, it embeds itself in your soul, like that fleeting moment when the wind moves through the branches and everything seems to pause, giving shape to a deeply emotional and immersive experience within the most atmospheric and contemplative instrumental dark folk, resonating with names such as Haavard, Empyrium, Tenhi, Ulvesang or the more introspective passages of Ulver.

“Shelter” is presented as a strictly limited CD edition of only 33 hand-numbered copies, housed in an oversized 4-panel digifile, carefully handcrafted using heavyweight cardboard with a soft-touch matte laminate finish, offering an elegant and natural feel that reflects the quiet melancholy held within. This edition also includes, exclusively, the complete short story upon which the album is based, alongside the conceptual liner notes written by Víctor Navaz himself, bringing together a piece that carries the spiritual experience of the album into a physical form with the same sense of depth, restraint and refinement, as if it remained alive, quietly latent. As always, all copies include a download card granting access to the digital version of the album.