SONGS FOR BEATING HEARTS

The latest release by Beardfish entitled "Songs For Beating Hearts" is definitely worth paying attention to for at least three reasons presented below - two historical and personal and one musical: 1. It was rather unthinkable that the band would release a new album since its leader, Rikard Sjöblom, had just returned from a tour with Big Big Train and the band's double-disc live album "A Flare On The Lens (Live In London)" had almost just been released. 2. In fact, since 2015, when Beardfish's last work ("+4626 ? Comfortzone") was released, the band has not been active at all. A nine-year break. 3. This album is an even stronger "rooting" in the music of the seventies, with more slightly hard rock colors and psychedelic-hippie colors mixed with the rock music of those years.

But before we talk about the new album, first a personal thread. Ever since the album "Sleeping In Traffic - Part Two" released in 2008 featured a thirty-five-minute-long song called "Sleeping In Traffic" (sic!) in my private calendar-notebook, I've had a note: "put it on the shelf with records to play often and observe...". And there was something to observe, because on each of the next albums Beardfish placed at least one song lasting over fifteen minutes. Please check it out. The latest release also meets this "norm", if you can say so. In one of the interviews Sjöblom said: "(...) I think the idea of resuming the band's activity appeared in 2021... We started talking about doing something. People made up and I think everyone started to miss being together in the band...".

In 2024, Beardfish got together to play at Gefle Skivmässain in their hometown of Gävle in May. At the same time, the musicians began composing, playing and recording, which resulted in the creation of the album "Songs For Beating Hearts", which was officially released on November 1. It begins with a delicate, guitar ballad about drifting on a river and, although the words "(...) I can hear songs for beating hearts ..." appear here, sounding like the title of the whole thing, an attentive listener will certainly notice the overture role of this song. Interestingly, this song appears on the album three times and in different time sizes - the first track "Ecotone" (4 minutes), the ninth track "Ecotone (Reprise)" (only forty seconds) and as a bonus - "Ecotone - Norrsken 1982 (six minutes). With its structure, "Ecotone" immediately shows what will happen next in the music, because it is, after all, a proverbial 'appetizer' before the main course, the five-part piece "Out In The Open".

"(...) "I'm glad we managed to record a 20-minute song. It was one of the first songs we started composing and practicing when we started over. We had to keep that reunion alive! The song is divided into parts. When I started writing it, it was basically about missing the other guys. It's almost an ode to Magnus, David and Robert, although it's not directly expressed in the lyrics, but it's a really special composition. (...) We grew up together all these years and a part of you disappears when the band ends," Sjöblom said.

Indeed, divided into five separate parts, Out In The Open is really one long piece. The overture ("Out In The Open, Pt. 1 ? Overture") begins with a fast, agile and sonically building motif played in unison by keyboard (Sjöblom), guitar (David Zackrisson) and bass (Robert Hansen) with drummer Magnus Östgren skillfully keeping the rhythm steady. "Who knows where the river of time wants to take us on our journeys through life?" sings Sjöblom. Although perhaps the word 'sings' doesn't quite fit the chanted lyrics that also set the stage for the main body of the 20-minute piece.

"Out In The Open, Pt. 2 ? Oblivion" ? the main theme of the second part of the suite are the words already quoted above: "(?) "Who knows where the river of time wants to take us on our journeys through life". It is a lyrical story about transience, weaving into the sung content the motif of past mistakes and the repetitive nature of these mistakes ? "(?) I will be there once we come around / Out of orbit, touching ground / There's nothing left to be said / That we don't already know / Come now, let us leave this place / Oblivion". Please listen to the end of the overture and the beginning of the "Oblivion" part ? both parts mesh with each other, smoothly flowing into each other, which unites them even more strongly into a single, coherent piece, although the musical rhythm of this part is determined by the striding bass and guitar. It might seem that this is a modest arrangement, even poor, and? it is true until the organ comes to the fore. First throwing in single chords, and then taking over the entire melodic line. And from the second minute, this part of the suite reaches its musical peak, which, like a magic carpet, transports us to the seventies. And the vocals? Well, please listen more carefully to the last two minutes. Don't they remind you of the musical "Hair" or "Jesus Christ Superstar"...?

Please do not expect the third part of the suite ("Out In The Open, Pt. 3 - Hopes and Dreams") to bring about any drastic changes. Only the liveliness of the arrangement changes. After the musical ending, we hear the sounds of an acoustic guitar set against the background of the keyboard again. This is a very long, almost one and a half minute long, calming down musically referring to the climate of the first part. Even vocally, this part is similar to the first one. At the same time, this part sort of prepares the listener for the next, fourth part of the composition.

And the fourth part ? "Out In The Open, Pt. 4 - Oblivion (Reprise)" refers to the second part with its very title. "(?) So now we have travelled once more around the bend and I think that our journey has no beginning, it has no end" ? we lyrically return to the motif of old mistakes and the passing of time. But the tone of this part is a bit more optimistic ? after all, it is a "reprise" part ("cutting off" from what was; "separating" what is past from what is now). If in the previous part the bass and guitar played the dominant role, here the organs show their, one might say, almost complete immersion in the music of the seventies. The second minute of this part is a real, very lively organ improvisation, which is "calmed down" by the vocals so typical of the same period, extending this subdued musical cooperation to the very end.

The last three minutes of the suite are its fifth part, "Out in the Open, Pt. 5 - Around The Bend", which intertwines the playing of all the musicians into one instrumental piece shimmering with different musical styles and colors. In its musical expression, it is an atmospheric, full of gentle organ passages 'a piece for going out'. There are no words, but the calm music speaks for itself - it is a fragment talking about reconciliation, about a new beginning of cooperation. In fact, one could be tempted to say that this piece could be treated in two ways: as a completely separate composition, one that is finished, played to the end, or as the central part of the album (the proverbial 'axis'), which is complemented and developed by the remaining songs.

I recommend to your attention an eleven-minute composition entitled "Beating Hearts". Why? If only because it begins with a thirty-second 'etude' of intertwining strings, which suddenly explodes with a dissonant guitar and keyboard instruments reminiscent of King Crimson. This musical explosion passes after another minute, giving room for the fast playing of the acoustic guitar, to finally somehow stabilize the rhythmically appearing sounds. Against the background of the guitar, the vocalist's voice appears - "(...) In memories passing like and old and flickering lights / I have no fear this time / Don't let them know I cried". The string section gives the whole thing a slightly lofty, classicizing glow, but at the same time makes it seem to have a lot in common with a simple folk ballad telling (similarly to previous compositions) about not so good things from the past. This sense of ballad calmness transforms about halfway into a reprise of? Led Zeppelin with a characteristic guitar and a voice taking on the 'manner' of Robert Plant. Can such a 'mix' of King Crimson and Led Zeppelin be appealing? And if we add to this that the piece ends similarly to how it begins ? with the string section once again performing an almost classical- sounding 'étude'??

The song "In The Autumn" also shows a Zeppelin inclination. The sound of the instruments, the timbre of the vocalist's voice... - you name it Led Zeppelin with one, albeit important, addition that slightly breaks this Zeppelin flavor: this song is a duet. Sjöblom is joined in the song by Amanda Örtenhag, and her tonally lower voice gives the whole thing a specific color. Another acceptable interpretation is to treat it (especially the second half of the song) as a song reminiscent of American AOR from the 70s.

"Ecotone (Reprise)" which comes right after "In the Autumn" is a forty-second instrumental interlude played on a discordant piano. The motif from the first composition of the same title appears here in an almost unrecognizable arrangement. Perhaps its purpose is to distance itself from the pieces already presented, because the next composition, "Torrential Downpour," no longer concerns the matters of past mistakes in the narrative layer.

"Torrential Downpour" is a story about the situation related to the death of Sjöblom's father: "(...) In 2022 I lost my dad, who was suffering from cancer, and when this song was written, there was something that I couldn't quite define, but it seemed to me that it was some form of lament. When I later read the lyrics, I realized that it was about him, but also about family and our human heritage in general. It turned out that it is not only mourning a deceased person, but also a celebration of life." The whole song is a bit reminiscent, although it may sound strange, of Mark Knopfler's last solo albums - guitar, slightly blues-ballad playing with the addition (especially in the middle and final parts) of a slightly hard rock feistiness and guitar grind. And it is this hard rockness that characterizes this composition the most and allows it to avoid the 'tearfulness' that often accompanies ballad songs.

How does the last element of the "Ecotone" 'cycle' differ from the previous ones? Certainly in its duration. It is over six minutes of synthesizer-organ one-on-one with a motif known from previous versions. "Ecotone - Norrsken 1982", because that is the full title of this version, suggests that it was created in 1982. Hence, the presence of synthesizers and? automatic drums is probably not surprising. After all, the eighties were such neo- romantic times. However, the most intriguing and comforting thing is that this piece defends itself perfectly in its poor (despite everything) arrangement. After a long journey among the sounds of the seventies that the album offers, this synthpop insert is most acceptable. Maybe it is some remnant from the teenage years, maybe some pre- first composition, or maybe an announcement that the next album by Beardfish will be musically anchored in the eighties? Who knows?...

Maybe instead of a summary, I should write a warning? Maybe instead of an encouragement to listen to this musical proposal, I should write something discouraging? Why? On the one hand, to warn potential listeners that an essential aid in understanding this album is some form of musical love for the sounds of the seventies, for its hippie-psychedelic background. A positive attitude towards the work of hard rock bands of that time, with Led Zeppelin at the forefront, may also be helpful. On the other hand, it is not a progressive album in the modern sense of the word, nor is it a concept album, although the suite "Out In The Open" may well bring to mind such a term. This album is contemporary music played, which is the ancestor of progressive rock, a mixture of broadly understood psychedelia and hard rock, which mixture, in my opinion, led to the hatching of something we call prog rock today. And on the third hand..., it is an album that presents this mixture in an accessible way, which guarantees many wonderful musical experiences. Which I wish everyone while listening to this album.

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