RAGNARÖK

The album starts of with the acoustic "Farväl Köpenhamn", a pleasant and easy-listened opener, that sets the standard for the rest of the record. Next out is "Promenader", a mellow tune that reminds us about the, in reviews of other Scandinavian prog, so often mentioned "Scandinavian melancholy". The song leaves you waiting for it to really take off, either in a positive or a dark, aggressive way. But it doesn't, and in the end I'm glad it didn't. After this comes the acoustic "Nybakat bröd", that introduces a nicely played flute and some vocal madness in the end. After this warmup of sorts, it is time for the album highlight, "Dagarnas skum". The song progresses slowly over a repetitive, yet enjoyable background pattern, always maintaining a nice dreaminess that lasts . A couple of minutes into the song, it enters a groovy jamlike state. Segments of guitar and flute alternate and provide to the song's beauty, while never getting over-ambitious or pretentious and always keeping the mellow feeling. The first side of the vinyl ends with a short flute-piece called "Polska från Kalmar". "Polska" is an old folk dance, often performed in complex time signature. On the second side, we're offered a little (tiny, really) bit happier chords in the funk-jazzy "Fabriksfunky". In "Tatanga Mani", we're yet again approached by a calm acoustic guitar solo, before the song gains just a little bit of momentum with some groovy basslines and pleasurable flute playing. An uplifting interlude comes next. "Fiottot" reminds me about circus music which, for some reason, often seems to be used by Swedish proggers (think Samla Mammas Manna and Änglagård). Maybe I'm taking the whole melancholy thing too far and making the record sound depressive, still I can't but think that this short interlude is some kind of self-knowledgable joke on theirselves, as the interlude seems to be overly optimistic. "Stiltje-Uppbrott" is beautiful and perfectly in vein with the rest of the album. Once more, this song is dominated by acoustic guitar and flute, though a nice piano intro can be heard. The album is rounded off by yet another beautiful and calm (who's surprised?) song. Dreamy and with a smooth jazzy feeling, it segues from a piano intro into a midsection jam, only to introduce some wonderfully dissonant tones of saxophone before slowly coming to an end.

All in all, the album is easy-listenable, yet both sad and beautiful. Looking (hearing?) back, I realise that only "Dagarnas skum" made me really thrilled. But then again, every single note on the album just seemed to be just where it was meant to. I'm thinking that this is what it would sound like if one were to musically describe a world in which there is always autumn. The album takes you away on a dreamy journey from the first second and doesn't release you until the last tone is played.

This is one highly recommended portion of Scandinavian melancholy. 4.5 stars really...