ODYSSEY

Forget about the 'jazz rock' label. For my money, this is one of the proggiest, trippiest and most ecstatic guitar prog CDs ever recorded. As long as you're willing to accept Rypdal's now-rather-outdated string synthesizer (which only provides occasional backing anyway) you're in for a real treat!

Rypdal and his band generally lay down slow, melancholic grooves, on top of which the organist and the trombone player (as well as the band leader on occasional soprano sax) perform slow, dreamy solos - but the highlights of this album are Terje's highly poignant solos on lead guitar. Whenever you think Rypdal couldn't possibly move you more, his guitar sings out even stronger than before. He truly conquers heights other guitarists cannot reach, and part of the beauty lies in his plangent use of vibrato. In the mid-seventies Rypdal was young, and the ECM label gave him all the freedom he needed to record the sort of music he wanted to play. You can tell he's out there to put his name on the map. Every single note comes from the core of his soul.

Most of ODYSSEY's music is nocturnal and melancholic in style (while those soaring guitar solos take everything to a different level); but "Over Birkerot" is dark, grim, instrumental rock (not unrelated to Larks Tongues-era King Crimson), and the final track (on this particular CD release at least) is a superb, sonata-like romance.

ODYSSEY was originally released as a double LP. Unfortunately, the 'final album side' (which contained just one long track, "Rolling Stone") has never been available on CD.

Did you think the Norwegian fjords couldn't sing? Think again! This album is a triumph.

P.S. I add this note in 2024, to point out that, just over a decade ago, ECM finally released ODYSSEY: IN STUDIO & IN CONCERT featuring all of the original double album, PLUS a superb, nearly 68-minute piece called 'Unfinished Highballs'. For anyone seriously interested in ODYSSEY, that's the place to go.