A Review of WAZZARA’s 4th Release ‘ARBOR’
Photo by Manuel Vargas Lépiz, Martin Baumann
Hypnotic, untamed, forged where darkness and beauty meet without compromise.
Ten years of existence. Four releases. And now Arbor, the first full-length album in five years from Swiss atmospheric black metal, doom and blackgaze project Wazzara: seven songs dedicated to those who do not fear tasting the untamed fruit, whispering of an ancient force buried but unbroken, voices once quieted that now rise again.
Swiss singer and composer Barbara Brawand built Wazzara as a solo project in 2015. The 2019 EP zessaestablished the foundational sonic identity. Co-composer George Necola joined in 2020, bringing his own musical perspective to an evolving collective sound. A live lineup formed around them. Through years of performance, the music developed dimensions that studio recordings had not yet fully captured, and Arborrepresents the integration of everything that process has produced.
Romanian producer and musician Andrei Jumuga, known for his work with Dordeduh and Ordinul Negru, returned as session drummer having previously appeared on 2021's CYCLES, while also taking production duties that wove his distinctive touch into the songs' textures. Andy Roscyk handled the mixes with his characteristic expansive approach. Martin Korth, whose mastering credits include Björk, Vashti Bunyan and UNKLE, gave the album its final sonic definition. The instrumentation was tracked at Wazzara's home studios in Switzerland during summer 2025, drums captured at Consonance Studio in Timișoara.
Eight tracks open with '9 Confines' and move through 'Hollow', 'Her Ashes Down The River', 'Indigo Sleep', 'Dandelion', 'Nova' and 'Oceans' before the album closes with 'Zessa (Reborn)', a re-interpretation of the 2019 debut EP's title track. That closing choice is significant: not a studio reconstruction but a document of the version that emerged through years of live performance, the song's additional persona captured at the moment it had fully become what it was always turning into.
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