RONDO

The swedish keyboard wizard Par Lindha offers a record that has 4 songs. The first song begins with boring drums, but it has a very good synthezier line that offers some symphonic melodies! The second song is useless, it's some meaningless short sounds, nothing to be talked about. The thirt song is a good symphonic jazz song which I actually really like. The last song , Solaris , is some sort of an ambient/folk song with female's vocals which has a dark ending. In a nutshell, this is a good record, but I wouldn't say it's essential.

Not really interesting record, mainly a collection of rarities very difficult to add to his albums." Rondo" is just a cover of the typical Keith Emerson arrangement, undoubtedly a tribute to him. "Jazz Eruption" is a brief example of LINDH´s ability in jazz and, although it is not a superb example, it could have been interesting to see how PAR LINDH would have fit into jazz music if he has developed his music that way. The main point of interest in this record is "Solaris", a magnificient demonstration of the ability of LINDh in atmospheric and soundscaping keyboards, not really developed in his records but we can chack here that he has a lot to offer in this field.

Only reccommended for those interested in PÄR LINDH music apart from PLP. 3 stars.

Par Lindh or ELP?

This is by far the most similar to ELP PLP gets, at least tracks 1 and 3.

Track 1, Rondo, is not a surprise since it was that song that Emerson brought to the rock world via both The Nice and ELP versions. This one is not quite as good as either, but does feature a guitar solo which is a nice change. Otherwise, pretty much a lesser interpretation of early ELP. The percussion solo really is only interesting for the fact that it is played by Lindh himself. At least it's less than a minute long. Jazz Eruption sounds pretty much like ELP's various jazzy instrumental bits, especially some of the improvs on the Welcome Back live album.

It's really only the final track that makes this EP interesting, as it is something of an ambient type of piece, with an interpretation of a traditional Swedish folk melody in the middle which features Magdalena Hagberg's lovely wordless singing. As an ambient piece it's not all that successful, sounding a bit too experimental and disjointed. But the middle section is nice and the piece as a whole is something very different from the usual Par Lindh fair.

This really only deserves 2 stars, not because it's bad, but because it really is a fans and collectors only type of release. I have no idea if it's even available anymore, but if it is, I'd only suggested it to people who absolutely love PLP and can't get enough. For myself, I bought this along with all the studio albums all at once on a hunch that I would like PLP's type of music. Mostly, I was right. But while fairly good, this is far from essential.