SHAMBLEMATHS 2

I didn't know this band. Just stumbled across it out of the blue here in PA, and seeing this album with such a high rating, I was compelled to listen to it immediately. Of course, now I understand the rating! Norway is becoming one of my favourite musical countries. It is very probably in the top 10 if we talk about symphonic music.

This album has such a clean, natural, great sound and is so well produced that it's really a serious contender for album of the year. I, as far as my humble knowledge goes, put it in my contenders for album of the century so far.

These musicians have done a perfect and memorable job, and I'm pretty sure many of them are fans of Anglagard and early King Crimson (especially the Islands-Larks' Tongues In Aspic stage)!

In all seriousness, this is a work that definitely needs to be talked about. If you're reading this, you're already obliged to listen to it. Well, it's a joke, but you'd really be doing yourself a favour.

The first bite of the album "Maneskygge" provides a simple but forceful flute that maintains its impact on two or three specific tones. Thus it functions as a subtle and quiet entrance. Well, this quietness stops right at the beginning of the second song. Due to the ambience of the first song, which seems to be the noise of a van engine, one could imagine that the peace would crumble in a matter of seconds. But all for the best!

"Knucklecog" is the first masterpiece of the album. It reminds me so much of "Larks' Tongues In Aspic (Part I)" that it makes my skin crawl. I've always thought that metal-style electric guitar plucks combined with wind instruments like saxophone or bassoon engender too much prog sound! The lyrics are too subjective and at the same time interesting. It could be a sort of "Welcome To The Machine" but with more focus on the human body and its myriad of details and characteristics. The instrumentation is absolutely brilliant and neat. Here they have already entered an intellectual and complicated terrain, but what awaits us next is even more complex.

Just when it seems that the album will not go up a level and all the music will be as spectacular as the second song, "D.S.C.H. (Op. 110 String Quartet No. 8 in C Minor, Movements 1-2)" comes along and elevates everything even more! It just all happens here. One of my principles as a human being is "If you can't describe something in words, you don't know it yet". Well, some segments of this song have left me speechless and happy because while I was listening to this song I was thinking that I'm only on my first listen, and I can still enjoy and squeeze this album a lot more. The vocal work is chilling and magnificent. For fans of 50% prog/50% classical music, this song will be a colossal pleasure.

"Lat Kvar Jordisk Skapning Teia" is the longest song on the album at 18 minutes. It consists of 9 parts and treads in all the spaces you can imagine, from risky instrumental chaos to a piano that peacefully accompanies a 6 year old singing. I would go so far as to say that this song cannot be pigeonholed into a genre. Another one would have to be invented! Everything is still fantastic here, the album doesn't let up at any point. The passages and small transitions are very neat and careful, so that one is not bored but in constant amazement. If I had to choose the best song on the album, it would be a very difficult decision but I think I would go with this delicate and superlative suite, and I would argue that it is the most dangerous and experimental song on the album, and the transitions from one sub-genre to another are so neat and methodical that they become imperceptible. The adjective "pragmatic" defines the procedure of this song better than any other word.

"Been And Gone" begins to close the album. Its brevity makes it work as an interlude of drama and fear, with a double bass that seems to be pacing and raw horn arrangements.

At the end of it all is "This River", or rather, the perfect closer. It's probably one of the best album closers I've ever heard. And by this, I mean that, within the hundreds of albums I've listened to, I'd place it roughly in a top 7. Let me be complimentary: Here everything is planned flawlessly, with the saxophone as pure as ever and percussion that provides just the right amount of tension (it could very well be the song that represents Gustavo Fring!). The sounds of water have never been so well implemented in a full-length song. Marianne Lonstad's voice is worthy of being an emblematic progressive rock voice. Her work on this album is totally flawless. To be clear, I would compare her voice to divinity itself. The song (and the album) closes with only the sound of a river.

I feel that the meaning of the album is very deep and it's going to take me a while longer to understand it in its entirety (or almost), and that motivates me to listen to it several more times. I hope it will become one of my favourite albums. It's one of the most intelligent and best planned albums I've ever listened to, and from now on it's on my list of essential recommendations.

Long live this album!

Fun fact: was released on the same day as Dream Theater's "A View From The Top Of The World" and Premiata Forneria Marconi's "I Dreamed Of Electric Sheep".

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