END OF ILLUSION

Swedish multi-instrumentalist from Lund,born in 1959.He studied both Classical and Jazz music at his early life stage and learned handling a variety of instruments.By early-70's he showed interest in Classic Progressive Rock and became a member of Kung Tung, playing both sax and piano.By late-70's Helmerson settled himself in Stockholm, focusing on writing material for a solo release.Financial problems led to a two-years time recordings between autumn 79' and summer 81'.Finally his personal effort ''End of illusion'' came out in 1981 with help from various Swedish musicians, among them Mats Glenngard from Kebnekaise on electric violin, Mersmak's drummer Per Berglund, Kornet's bassist Sten Forsman and Ulf Adaker from Egba on sequencers.

Despite the presence of no less than 10 musicians, it is much a Helmerson egocentric effort presented in ''End of illusion''.The album is much centered around his work on keys, mainly moog and ARP synthesizers, Hammond organ and electric piano with they style offered being much in a keyboard-driven Prog/Fusion realm with Symphonic touches, not unlike U.K. or Japanese bands like WAPPA GAPPA and MONGOL.All tracks are short with the exception of the 8-min. ''Electronical Story'', complicated prog delivery characterized by Helmerson's alternating work on keys with over-filled synth solos and electronic sequencers and loops, sometimes battling with the rest of the band.His playing is really virtuosic and technical, no doubt about it, there is also a fair amount of sudden breaks to be heard, but he focuses too much on keyboard fanfares and changing keyboard solos than composing.The album really lacks a simple melody, everything here is mainly about how to dominate your keyboards and create a bombastic sound with all these instruments.Yes, there are some decent moments throughout, the combination of fiery Fusion interrupted by some Classical-influenced grand piano parts is the best to be remembered, but the majority of this offering is really nervous keyboard delivery without a sense of melody.

This young Swedish guy was really skilled, but his ideas were leaning too much on the virtuosic side of music than on the composing one.Still the album deserves a bit of a recommendation to keyboard freaks, who cant get enough of the sound.The rest should try some samples first before moving on to buy the album, which has been re-issued by Musea Records...2.5 stars.