AKASHA

Talk about a totally obscure, underground gem of prog rock, this Norwegian band released this one and only album, then disappeared. They resided in a town called Finnsnes, which is way up north of the Arctic Circle, on the coast. And despite what has to be a very remote and desolate area of the country, it's a miracle a prog rock band existed there, and there was even a local label called BAT Records, willing to release this album.

As you might guess, the original LP received only local distribution, and commands three digit prices in the collector's market. Anyway, the production isn't that great, it has that homemade feel, and was recorded in bomb cellar at hotel in the band's home town. Despite that, it's an excellent example of spacy prog, loaded with tons of spacy electronic effects off synthesizers, and tons of Mellotron that's ever present! You can't go wrong with that if you're a Mellotron fan! The singing is in English, with a strong sci-fi bent to them.

The band consisted of vocalist Sverre Svendsen (who also handles Mellotron), Kjeil Evensen on drums, Arild Andreassen on bass, Jens Ivar Andreassen on guitar, Mellotron, and synthesizers, and Tor-Jonny Hansen supplying the words (as well as hymn on "Death Hymn"). They even credit Bjørn Hugo Gjøen for the psychedelic light show. The album consists of eight cuts, such as "The Isle of Kawai", "Bondage", the emotionless "Death Hymn", the electronic "Electronic Nightmare", and "The Trip". These are all excellent songs, despite the sloppy production.

And while the LP is difficult to find, it was made available on CD on the sadly now-defunct Ad Perpetuam Memoriam (APM) label out of Sweden, giving this album the attention in the prog community it never received before. Anyway, this is an excellent album to have in your collection.