ONE MAN TELL'S ANOTHER

A serious letdown compared to the previous one, but to the following one also. It sounds to me very uninspired and maybe the sophomore jinx has hit them. This seems very much without directions as if they had been surprised by their success and had not really time to ponder that success. Beautiful cover art work will never replace inspiration.

After the major disappointment of "Lonely Land", the only reason I bought this album was that it was cheap and 2nd hand. However, it is a much superior record with Landberk sounding like a prog oriented U2.

I personally liked this Landberk album very much, though I wasn't so pleased with their first album, released with both English and Swedish lyrics. The music pulses dynamically, and has very capturing depressed and anxious feeling in it. Some of their lyrics appear slightly naive, but possibly reflect the sincere thoughts of these musicians. From the songs I appreciated them all, except the track song "Tell", which seemed to fail the neurotic grip of the other compositions. Reine Fiske's guitar weeps with its recognizable personal minor tones, and studio working has been done with proper piety for detailed arrangements and subtle solutions, supporting the hazy overall end result. If you were introduced to this band from "Indian Summer" album, I recommend that you try listening this first before buying, as there are more radical arrangements done in this album, and its music has much sharper edges.

An Excellent Crimsonique album!

Another band in the vein of King Crimson. In fact, the music is very similar with Anekdoten who also took King Crimson as reference point. For those of you who are longing for the return of old style King Crimson, this album might cure. Why do I say it in the vein of King Crimson? For sure the rhythm section and beats combined with the dark nuance created from almost all songs here reflect the way Crimson defined their music before Discipline album.

The album kicks off wonderfully with "Time" which combines upbeat tempo and dark nuance. It flows smoothly to the next track "Kontiki" with its mellow style and tight basslines, eerie vocal line which suits the music really well. The only difference this track with typical King Crimson's early albums is the riffs at the opening. It's not as rough as "21st Century of Schizoid Man" (King Crimson's first album) but it indicates different approach. This song is so dark especially when mellotron work enters at the background followed with stunning acoustic guitar fills. It's very King Crimson! I remember "Starless and Bible Black".

"Mirror Man" is very dark and melancholic - it has touchy melody throughout the song. The opening part is an ambient guitar and keyboard work followed with soft entrance of vocal line, wonderfully. Right after the first lyrical verse, the guitar fills enter the music as a break before next verse. What happen is that the next after lyrical verse the guitar fills performance by Reine Fiske - oh .. it's really nice! The mellotron work gives darker nuance of the song. I love the interlude part which has weird sound effects followed with wonderful guitar fills. This track has become one of my favorites.

"You Are" is another excellent track with guitar fills reflecting dark nuance followed with vocal line. Again, bass guitar plays very important role during this part and it has relatively close to the music approach. "Rememberence" continues the same style as previous tracks. "Valentinsong" is an excellent composition with great vocal line. The album concludes with another good track "Tell".

Overall, this is an excellent album from Sweden's symphonic prog band heavily influenced by the music of King Crimson. If you like mellotron and early style of symphonic prog, you would enjoy this album. The similarities in style are the same with King Crimson and Anekdoten. If you love Van der Graaf Generator, you might have a chance liking this album. Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW

With this album Landberk is truly heading a heavier sound: it is noticeable in the opening and cold Time, but Kontiki holds all the aspects of the genre: drumming is pretty hard for most of the song, keyboards are hit quite frenetically and the overall mood of the first part of this song is on the heavy Crimson-esque way.

Still, the song turns into a pastoral yet intriguing mood after this. It doesn't sound very much structured (but the masters paved the way long before). Although Kontiki is not an easy listening number, it is one of the best on this Man's Tell's Another .

The first average song form this album is the jazzy Mirror Man: repetitive and little inspired; the vocals are on the dull side. This song doesn't pass the test of several spins: after a few of them, one is pressing the magic key (next, but perhaps you knew it).

A song as You Are will probably suits a lot of people, but this is really too much of an Anekdotenial affair; and it is probably what affects the most here: lack of innovation, of personality, of self input. Creativity is just missing: period.

Even if fine mellotron parts are splendid of course, they are not sufficient to re-create the great feeling of their debut. The experimental Valentinsong is also difficult to grasp to be honest. An enhanced version of Moonchild somehow.The last four minutes finally features some fine and dark symphonic music, but it was difficult to get there (you know, the press next syndrome).

Even if the closing track is my fave one and holds all the features of a great Landberk song, I can't rate this work above three stars. It is a bit of a deception for me.

4.5 stars. LANDBERK are one of my favourite Swedish bands along with ANEKDOTEN, ANGLAGARD and SINKADUS. I would say LANDBERK are the less dynamic of the four yet like the others they have that melancholic mood and lots of mellotron. All I know is that I love their sound and that this band is incredibly talented.This is their second studio album and I owe a huge debt to tszirmay who sent me both this album and their final one "Indian Summer" both of which have been out of print for years. I was familiar with a couple of tracks on here which I have on the EP they released the same year, although the EP was sung in Swedish while this is in English. In comparing this album to the previous one "Lonely Land" i'd say the first one was more progressive with the attention more on the vintage keyboards, while this one puts the focus more on Fiske's guitar and the vocals. Still like the debut there is mellotron on every track.

"Time" is a top three and a song I have from their EP. The guitar leads sound bright and unique. It settles to that Swedish melancholia as vocals come in. No words can express how moving this track is for me. Themes are repeated. Nice organ before 2 1/2 minutes floating in the background. "Kontiki" is another song I had heard, this one from the Progfest 95 live album I own. A slow and heavy beat as guitar comes in then vocals. This is all so melancholic. A calm after 2 1/2 minutes. Guitar and mellotron after 4 1/2 minutes as it builds. It kicks back in around 6 minutes. "Mirror Man" is mellow with piano as reserved vocals come in. It's brighter after 2 minutes. I like it ! Mellotron 3 minutes in when the vocals return. Back to that brighter sound with guitar.

"You Are" is the other track from that EP and a top three for me. Intricate and melancholic guitar to open as vocals join in. It picks up 1 1/2 minutes in with bass and drums leading. Love this song. So emotional after 5 minutes as they let loose somewhat. The guitar and mellotron are great. "Remembrance" sounds so good to start. Vocal melodies and mellotron follow then vocals and that opening sound returns. Check out the passionate vocals and mellotron after 4 1/2 minutes. Then it settles back. "Valentinsong" features sparse piano and barely audible vocals. It stays very pastoral. Mellotron before 6 minutes. It kicks in louder 8 1/2 minutes in with the drums, guitar and mellotron standing out. Nice. "Tell" is my other top three. Guitar builds then drums and these fat bass lines from Dimle follow. Incredible sound ! Check out the guitar 3 1/2 minutes in. Vocals follow. The bass is killer 6 minutes in. Amazing sounding mellotron late.

An incredible album that rivals their Swedish sung debut.

Landberk's second album is entirely different from the debut. Gone are the in-your-face King Crimson, VDGG and Genesis influences. Some of these influences are still present below the surface, but they are wrought into something that is entirely Landberk's own style. An immense growth, in just two years this band has become as original as their cover art.

Time incorporates flavors of melancholic indie rock, sounding like Radiohead before Radiohead sounded like this themselves. The vocals have a very distinct timbre that comes close to U2's Bono, but it is more subtle and sensitive. There's a slightly funky vibe to the main guitar theme, it's delicate, simple but most effective and adds a slightly uplifting quality to the beautiful melancholy of this song. It's 3.40 minutes and simply stunning.

Also Kontiki goes beyond the tried and true prog paths of the debut. New music is created here, featuring a slowly grinding organ and bittersweet emotive vocals. After 2 minutes, the track changes into the smoky atmospheres of a jazz bar at 5 o'clock in the morning. It's very soft and gloomy and demands patient listening. When Landberk collapsed after the next album, the bass and guitar player formed Paatos. The dreamy ambience of the best Paatos songs is not far away here.

Mirror Man is basically a lullaby, brought with that fragile melancholy again. No wonder Sweden produces so much gloomy music if babies are brought up on this. The focus on this album is on the vocals and Reine Fiske's unique guitars. There's so much feel and yearning in his playing, You Are is a fine example. He is so far ahead of his contemporaries, probably being one of the first to incorporate the post-rock experimentation of Talk Talk into progressive rock music. Remembrance continues the excellence and has all the potential to appeal to legions of music lovers.

Landberk's music is catchy but not always easy. Especially the softer songs like Mirror Man and Valentinsong need time to get under your skin. The sparse melancholic vocals and guitar playing is almost suggestive, Fiske never resorts to easy melodious solutions but builds up an abstract soundscape similar to electronic and kraut artists from the early 70's. At the end, the patient listener is rewarded with a minute of pure splendid beauty. Tell ends the album with a more accessible rock song, though the guitars stay willful and rebellious.

With this excellent album, the band was years ahead of its time. It is unique, creative, touching and has some of the best songwriting of that decade. Too bad the audiences were not ready for it yet. Radiohead would be more successful 3 years later. Generally, I try to stay clear of words like under-rated and over-rated, but I think the merit of this album has not been recognized. 4.5 stars, upped for the unique artwork.

Melancholic beauty

Given how big of a phenomenon Porcupine Tree have become around here during the last couple of years, I find it baffling and quite unfair that an album like this remains hidden away in obscurity. From reading the preceding reviews of One Man Tells Another you're most likely going to think that it's a King Crimson affair much like Anekdoten or Anglagaard, and while that maybe true on a few occasions - what first and foremost jumps out of the music is Porcupine Tree's middle period. As a matter of fact, if you are even remotely interested in albums such as Lightbulb Sun and Stupid Dream - then you should be placing your order for this magnificent album right about now. Funny thing is, that Landberk recorded this one back in 1994, when Porcupine Tree still was in its pyjamas tripping on LSD and psychedelic mushrooms...

One Man Tells Another is in my humble opinion Landberk's strongest effort, and it puzzled me reading former reviewers equating this as U2 sounding prog rock. This album is about song writing, atmospheres, intriguing segments of understated suppressed beauty - sounding like flapping butterflies with wings of lead. What I mean by this is that the music here is soaked through in melancholy and sadness, and just like Steven Wilson's penchant for these tear jerking themes, often what you're left with here is an overpowering sense of beauty, that outside of music and perhaps paintings just doesn't reveal itself without a fight. Melting icecaps slowly emanating from your stereo - all hooked up to these bitter-sweet flavoured Swedes, who play their instruments with the feel of white burning embers and forest smoke.

So what makes me so convinced that this record is their best one? Firstly front singer Patric Helje never sounded this good. During the preceding albums, whereof the debut was sung in Swedish, Helje just didn't have this kind of power in his voice. Here he seems to have lived off elk smoothies, black ox blood and serrated nightmares, because the dark, masculine and yearning force he delivers the words with is a totally new and mesmerizing aspect to his vocal talents. The studio work is also far more inspiring on this one, and luckily so, because especially Helje's newly found fiery vocal talents deserve to be audible in the mix - a thing that in the past was neglected in favour of raw brute energy and rocking guitars. Normally I find myself attracted to the simplest of things. Music doesn't need to be overproduced or knitted into 25 different knots, recorded separately and attuned with gentle care into the mix. Somehow this is all just superfluous junk, if the stories aren't there - if there's a lack of real passion and the fire is gone. Landberk proved me wrong with this album though, and I'm kind of glad they did, because back when I got this, I was around 14 and I was all too caught up in the early punk greats, black metal and the Danish hardcore scene. Suddenly this album dropped into my lap, and I was forced to re-evaluate what I thought constituted proper music. Today that sounds pretty ridiculous, because even before my fling with all these maniacal, brutal and iron fisted musics - I always had a deep and powerful love of The Floyd, but somehow I forgot that. Landberk made me rediscover the gentleness in music. The beauty of soft melancholy and sadness.

Though gentle in nature, you'll probably also pick up on those few Crimsonian wind strokes ornamenting this album. Like the odd metered Kontiki song about Thor Heyerdal's mad expedition, that takes the listener through the terrifying waters of the Pacific Ocean - all of it conveyed through hovering eerie soundscapes and the rhythmic slashing lightnings of metallic guitar riffing.

My own personal faves from this outing are Time and Rememberence - both of them utilizing the fantastic guitar playing of Reine Fiske. Now while Fiske quite often sounds like a bat out of hell with fire and brimstone coming out his ass - here he approaches his instrument in a mellow and gentle way - making it sing and orgasm only through gentle touches, riffing and slowly alternating chords. He is truly a modern day guitar prodigy, and his fingerprints are all over this record. Furthermore these two outstanding tracks both ooze melody and clever song writing. They feel like notes from a journal or songs you'd sing to a loved one.

Whilst there are definite high points to this record, like the aforementioned tracks, there's never really any dives. It streams on by you all too quickly, and all of a sudden its finished. I've often heard this album several times in a row, because 1) I never tire of it and it brings me back to my youth and 2) It feels like the very essence of that particular place in time: There was a certain coldness and lonesomeness in the air. We, the young people were labelled as generation x - or generation [%*!#] - meaning that we were thought of having absolutely no goals or direction in our lives. This was backed up by the whole grunge thing, and what most of us were left with was an overwhelming feel of numbness. No sense of being - just empty shells lying on some beach getting beaten around by the waves. -And this is why an album like Landberk's One Man Tells Another suddenly became so important, because it injected itself into me like a violent heroin dosage - ripping me out of a state of insignificance and nihilism. It did it with simple means, melodies and loads of melancholy and I'm still very thankful for that. 4.5 stars.

After a confident emergence onto the scene with the lovely Riktigt Äkta/Lonely Land, Landberk seemed to hit a bit of a sophomore slump with this one. Indeed, part of me wonders whether this is to blame for them being rather overlooked these days as far as Swedish prog groups originating in the early 1990s go - whilst Anglagard, Anekdoten and The Flower Kings both did a good job of building on the sound of their debuts, Landberk chase down blind alleys here.

I think the most exasperating thing about the album is the way Landberk seem determined to repeat mistakes which their influences already made. Take, for instance, Valentinsong, which contains a long minimalistic section which absolutely robs the composition - and the album as a whole - of any and all momentum it has previously established, and isn't even especially good as far as minimalistic avant-garde pieces go.

It's been compared to Moonchild by King Crimson, often cited as the only real flaw with their debut album (an assessment which Robert Fripp himself seems to agree with, if the trimming down of the section in question on recent remasters is anything to go by), and that's no accident, because it's tremendously similar in approach to that piece. In fact, for much of the album King Crimson worship is in full effect, but when that worship extends to repeating experiments which didn't work and in retrospect were clearly mistakes when the Crims tried them, that's a mimicry too far in my book.

Despite not quite sounding like Crimson clones, it's clear that Landberk here do several goofy things not because they necessarily sound good, but because King Crimson did them previously. When their debut album was so wonderfully original, I've got to view that as a serious step down.

A much-overlooked gem from the 90s--predating, as has been pointed out, the sounds and stylings that were soon to make Radiohead, The Gathering and Porcupine Tree popular favorites. Though I agree that this album shows a marked evolution in the band's development--less overt are the influences of KING CRIMSON (except maybe "Kontiki"), VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR ("Valentinsong") and GENESIS--I do still feel some newer influences from different groups. On this album I am flooded with reminders of TALK TALK, THE CHURCH, and even U2.

1. "Time" (3:41) begins with a kind of U2/SIMPLE MINDS intro before settling into a POLICE- like vocal section. Singer Patric Helje's amazing chameleon-like voice hits some high notes in the chorus reminding me of some of DAVID BOWIE's greatest moments. Great drumming from Jonas LIdholm on this one (as throughout). (8/10)

2. "Kontiki" (7:18) starts out with a repetitive pulsating organ chord and a vocal that sounds a bit like Adrian Belew. It then evolves into a very soft, slow moving song with lots of sensitive subtleties of guitar, keyboards and cymbols which eventually build for the climactic final two minutes of "heaviness." Definitely some KING CRIMSON shining through with this one. (8/10)

3. "Mirror Man" (5:57) is the first of this album's great songs--and the first to display a sound rather unique to Landberk. I love the jazzy SWING OUT SISTER strut from 2:13 to 2:59. The highlight for me, aside from the delicate guitar throughout, is the jazzy last 1:30--especially when Reine's guitar goes into scratchy feedback. Plus Helje's final phrase and note. (9/10)

4. "You Are" (6:03) is the first song I've heard from Patric Helje in which I hear quite distinctly the voice of ICEHOUSE's lead singer, IVA DAVIES. Great atmosphere--not unlike that of ICEHOUSE--beginning at 1:30. I love Reine Fiske's traveling guitar feedback: cycling back and forth from channel to channel during the third minute. Then it comes front and center (with some harmonics floating around behind) for a very cool yet delicate solo. Startlingly sudden ending! (9/10) 5. "Rememberance" (6:35) sounds like a walk through the realm of Steven Kilbey's THE CHURCH with the syncopated drumming style of STEVE JANSEN. The bass is so mesmerizing on this one--and Patric Helje's vocal is so smooth and powerful! I love the additional percussion in the second B section. Quite reminiscent of PETER MURPHY's song "Roll Call." (9/10)

6. "Valentinsong" (9:38) is so delicately nuanced (it predicts much of Reine Fiske's influence and contributions to PAATOS's first album, Timeloss) that I could listen to it over and over. Space and harmonic sustain and decay are the champions of this song. (10/10)

7. The album's real jewel, however, is the finale: "Tell" (8:36) Beginning with such raw, exposed guitar conveys such tremendous emotion. When Stefan Dimle's bass enters toward the end of the second minute, and then Fiske turns to those slow, distorted chords! And then the entrance of the 'tron! Then guitar feedback like only Hendrix ever mastered! I tell you people, Reine Fiske is an absolute genius! Then the amazingly catchy BONO/KILBEY-like vocal sucks you in even deeper (as if that was even possible!). At 5:27 we are treated to a section of raw emotion that has even more impact! I mean: How much adrenaline can a body produce in the space of six minutes?!! But wait! The final minute gut-punches you again with a pause (Is it over?) and then play out with keyboard wildly perambulating around the sonic horizon. (11/10. Best song of 1994, IMHO!).

I've grown accustomed to favoring the band's final album together as their masterpiece, but this one is, to my mind and ears, also worthy of that designation. I get so enmeshed in the work of astounding genius Reine Fiske that I might find it difficult to be more objective about the value of Landberk's contributions to the world of (progressive) music. But, again, this album is so engaging, so emotional, so inimitable, and such a glowing example of the fact that there is/was a Prog Renaissance going on in the 1990s that I can only bump this 4.5 star album up to masterpiece level.

Review Nº 552

Landberk was a progressive rock band from Sweden that was established in 1992. Landberk alluded to the so- called classic prog period of King Crimson's activity, willingly using the Mellottron, as well as softly harmonizing guitars. In the atmospheric layer, you can hear the so typical characteristic for the Scandinavians, the darkness and the sadness. Among their musical fascinations, apart from the already mentioned about King Crimson, they mentioned also, among others, their countrymen Anekdoten, Joy Division and Talk Talk. The band successfully drew on the richness of the prog genre of the 70's, although they never became their duplicates. With their musical preparation and approach they proved to have an original view of the prog rock music with roots firmly in the 70's but with a much modern approach.

They released their debut album 'Riktig Akta' in 1992, soon after they have formed, which literally brought to their knees and not only the Scandinavian audiences, with its simple melody and an interesting mixture of melancholic Mellotron, flute and guitars. Everything brought to mind the right associations with King Crimson and Anekdoten. Once the commercial success they achieved was huge, it was decided to make an English version of the album. It was released in the same year with the title 'Lonely Land'. It includes a successful cover of the track 'No More White Horses', of the album 'It'll All Work Out In Boomland' released in 1970 by the British prog rock band T2. Once again it confirmed their fascination with the King Crimson's sound. Two years later, their album 'One Man Tell's Another' expanding the band's current sound with elements of jazz fusion. It was called by some the magnum opus of Landberk.

'One Man Tell's Another' is an album with a solid musicianship, a diversified writing, a strong production and a different approach of the usual progressive influences. There's no properly an outstanding musical virtuosity or complexity on the music on the album, but with some novel sounds and fresh chord progressions, the album moves beyond the more typical symphonic prog of their first album into some different musical areas. Some of the most tasteful use of the Mellotron in the most recent years can be found on this album, as happened with the albums of their countrymen Anekdoten. The lyrics, written in English, of personal melancholy and angst, are rather thematically similar throughout. So, this is another album with the so typical Scandinavian melancholy. The music benefits greatly, covering a variety of styles on the seven songs. The five band's members of the band spread the writing duties around. All these elements that are brought together making of this album a strong and cohesive whole that is very engaging.

'One Man Tell's Another' has six tracks. 'Time' is a kind of introduction that kicks the album with the most rhythmic track on the album, a track with a captivating and typical rock melody. This is an energetic and solid track that combines an upbeat tempo with a dark nuance. 'Kontiki' with its mellow style, tight bass lines and eerie vocal line is closer to King Crimson's music. The main difference with the typical King Crimson's early albums is the riffs at the opening. It comes to my mind King Crimson's album 'Starless And Bible Black' but in a melancholic way. 'Mirror Man' is a very dark and melancholic track with a touch melody throughout the track. It's a slow and nostalgic song with some accentuated jazz nuances and with all that fragile melancholy again, so common all over the album. 'You Are' is another excellent track with some guitar fills reflecting a dark nuance followed by a vocal line. This is a very emotional track where the guitar and Mellotron are great, as is usual all over the album. 'Rememberence' continues the same style as previous tracks, a dreamy song with crepuscular and hypnotic rhythms and cadences. Here, the vocal melodies and Mellotron follow the vocals. This is another great track on the album. 'Valentinsong' is another excellent track with a great vocal line. It stays very pastoral featuring sparse piano and barely audible vocals. It's one of the most relaxing tracks giving to it an almost new age atmosphere. 'Tell' ends the album with another great track. This is an aggressive song with a more typically rock rhythm. This is a more accessible track where the guitars stay stubborn and rebellious.

Conclusion: 'One Man Tell's Another' confirms what I thought. It's an amazing album in the same vein of the Nordic albums of the 90's. It has some of the best things I love most in the modern prog, a perfect marriage between the old and new with the dark melancholia so typical of the Nordic prog bands. This is an album about dark atmospheres. The music is soaked through in melancholy and sadness with an overpowering sense of beauty. Besides the clear influences of King Crimson and the similarities with the music of their countrymen Anekdoten, it can also reminds me a bit of Opeth and Porcupine Tree, at times. The overall sound of the band is dense and self- contained. The keyboards, especially Mellotron, are mainly used to provide background music for the moods, while the bass and drums form a solid framework that also drives the music forward. All in all, it's an album with the perfect music for the autumn days.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)