FIRE FORTELLINGER

What is presented to us in this album is the idea to revive the glories of a certain way of making progressive rock, based on extensive technical approach, complex but never without melody. This is the result of some seventies ideas reworked with taste by the Norwegian keyboardist. An intense and interesting journey through music long played and reworked over the last 50 years but which, incredibly, in the hands of this man is still fresh and exciting.

With his debut, this keyboard wizard brings us four compositions and four stories. The concept extends from Ragnarok, the Renaissance garden near Florence or Arcadia, the eternal search for one's way home after being lost in dark forests, where the only beacon of hope is the Northern light, and the incredible description of the Norwegian mountains in winter, where storms, blizzards and avalanches reign. A concept where you enter into a life of madness, illusion, beauty and confusion, a concept where dreams turn into nightmares, nightmares into reality, but also a concept about the power and majesty of nature. An album that gives you a mind- expanding story and in which, on a journey through music, you will experience oddities implemented in stunning pieces of music that will ignite you. The four tracks oscillate between calm and drama, between mystery and knowledge and combine progressive elements with sometimes strong folky notes.

From the musical point of view we can hear here the quintessence of what can be considered the best European-style symphonic prog, with some references to the great classics of the past, more or less explicit, more or less evident quotations and a pinch of Nordic aura. For this album, in addition to Lars Fredrik Frøislie, who uses an arsenal of vintage keyboards, plays drums and sings, there is Nikolai Hængsle on the bass guitar, a brilliant musician who creates great moments with his Rickenbacker, Fender Precision and Jazz bass and brilliantly foreshadows and implements this instrument in conceptual ideas composed by Lars. His hands on the black and white keys, whether synthesizers, organs or pianos, are of proverbial agility and sensitivity. Lars demonstrates the absolute greatness of this multiform, chameleon-like, but always immediately recognizable creature. Compact and varied, brilliant and intricate, first convulsive then ethereal and finally glorious, it is a progressive classic of intense musicality, the scores of the musician often have asynchronous paths and then magically merge into breaks and changes of atmosphere. The rhythmic scansion and the melody sometimes willingly diverge, requiring consummate skill.

The virtuoso of the keyboards lays out a carpet of musical ideas. These alternate with long passages of frenzied improvisation between classical and jazzy, with dialogues between themes, supported by an effective and by no means trivial rhythm. The tones are solemn, almost epic when the instruments enter the scene, they advance with great strides and dissolve to give space to the vocals, which emerges from the distance aided by the carpet of Mellotron and more energetic approach presented by other keyboards. The tension grows and becomes an elegant explosion of sounds, where the sweetness of Nikolai Hængsle bass, with its solemnity recalls the wide atmospheres of the best eclectic style and enhances ingenious compositions, where between tempo changes, exhilarating counterpoints and majestic sounds, Lars as drummer , shows off all his talent in giving further strength to an already grandiose pieces. Various instrumental passages now powerful, now rarefied, together with the rhythm section which is truly superb in this record, shows that levels of pure mastery are reached. The music also allows itself to launch into dissonant and strident solos giving life to a complex and compact wall of sound that is sometimes not very easy to listen, but which eventually collapses, resolving itself in calm atmospheres presented in the most inspired light. There is no shortage of important "solos", but the main quality is given by the alchemy between a symphonic flash, a folk "allure" and moments of "organized chaos", all this leaves us amazed by the multiplicity of the proposed solutions. A sound that is dark and mysterious, autumnal and introspective, but with gaudy "spring" explosions that, from time to time, brightly color the songs. In their softer moments, the songs are like an atmospheric walk through the forest, in the busier moments they seem like the undisturbed, nocturnal bustle of nature. Here we have four absolutely amazing pieces, the result of a great compositional work, arranged in an intriguing way, finished in a meticulous and skilful way and played with great technique. A fantastically made album, brilliantly composed music, a masterpiece.