OPUS

Well, not really a prog rock masterpiece, but a masterpiece, nonetheless! This wonderful Danish band started out with quite another kind of music, but mind you, that wasn't prog rock, neither ;-) On their first (3 or 4) records, they offered a wild mix of klezmer, Balkan and/or gypsy music, polka (humppa anyone) and what not. On Lux and on this, indeed, Opus the mix might still be wild, but the music really isn't. There are still many folk traces left, but the classical or neo-classical influences are much more dominant.

The opus is divided into 4 parts (or two CDs or four LP halves), which are nominally split into smaller pieces, but these tend to flow seamlessly into each other. Thus, it takes quite some listening sessions to really get into the music, but that's well worth the effort. Melodies and rhythmical finesse abound, and Afenginn main man Kim Rafael Nyberg is a master of arrangements. Very colorful, very idiosyncratic, very, very good!