CEINWEN

I was a little surprised to learn this is a rather hard-to-find album, and even more so when I read recently the band was still (or once again) together and may release another album. They have also popped up occasionally on compilation recordings, most recently on a couple of Musea projects.

The first time I heard this album I was immediately taken by the Genesis lyrical and Yes arrangement influences, but even more so by the almost obsessively heavy use of various analog keyboards (including mellotron), and by the intense bass. The vocals are closer to bands like the Flower Kings and the Tangent, giving the album both a nostalgic symphonic feel and a modern bent at the same time. I don’t know much about these guys, but what I’ve heard from their two albums tells me that they are vastly underappreciated. This is an excellent album that’s worth picking up if you can find it, and it wouldn’t surprise me at all to see one of the retro prog labels reissue it someday soon.

The opening track is a bit misleading, as it tends a bit more toward King Crimson with its slightly jazzy and discordant tones, but “Under the Seal” is pure symphonic with a wash of intricate keyboards and percussion. The lengthy “A Bedtime Story” reminds me very much of the Tangent’s “A Place in the Queue” with its wandering story-telling vocals, rolling drums, and playful keyboards. The lyrics are a bit depressing and morbid, but that of course is not unusual for those Nordic types who don’t get enough sunlight during their long dark winters, and the presentation is peppy enough that I don’t really feel like slashing my wrists or anything, so no harm done.

“Devonian Forest” is a symphonic-meets-electronica instrumental with some spacey keyboards and electric piano setting up the listener for the folksy “Pilgrim’s Progress”, which is easily the most interesting and memorable track on the album. Again the message is a bit gloomy, but the acoustic guitar and relaxed keyboard (plus some flute) make for a pleasant backdrop to the mystic tale of a searching journey – “Grains of sand in the wind, we gave of our time as years went by - with no one telling us why”.

“B.A.J.S. Radio” has an eighties feel to it with more contemporary percussion and vocals that are closer to Men at Work than to traditional symphonic rock. This is an odd inclusion that doesn’t quite fit the rest of the album, but again the bass and keyboards make it a pleasant listen.

The finale is “Kadazan”, an epic length blend of percussion, improvisation, copious keyboards, and some superb drum work. The lyrics again tell of some sort of mystical experience, but the long instrumental passages are the real treat here. I have this one on a travel compilation CD, and it’s really great to listen to while traveling over a long stretch of open highway across the sparsely populated Midwestern United States. I can imagine it would be even more intense driving across a winding Swedish countryside.

This is a rather obscure record from a little-known band, but they shouldn’t be. Their two albums are both outstanding blends of traditional symphonic rock and more contemporary neo sounds, and this one in particular is highly recommended to collectors of unusual progressive music. Four stars.

peace