MYTHOPOETRY

"Mythopoeic Mind" is a project by Steiner Borve from Norway. The style is Symphonic Prog. The project started in 2016 and Borve immediately started working on the album "Mythopoetry", which was finally released early in 2019. Borve is a saxophonist and plays both alto and soprano sax on this album along with keyboards and vocals. Other instruments are played by additional musicians that were brought together to perform on his album. The other instruments involved here are mostly standard including guitars, other keyboards, trumpet, bass, drums and other percussion. Bookended by relatively short tracks, just over 2 minutes, this album has 6 tracks total, the other 4 ranging from over 6 minutes to over 13 minutes.

"Prologue Song" is an introductory song featuring vocal effects and a trumpet and sax playing a simple melody surrounded by synths. "Prey" is where the progressiveness begins with an upbeat and complex rhythm and instrumental patterns. When the vocals start, they also reflect a complexity to the melody with interesting interval jumps. Instruments are led by keyboards and guitars backed by bass and drums. There is some nice guitar improvisation, but the overall track seems a bit sterile, especially the vocals that lack emotion.

"Mount Doom" starts out with less instruments, mostly just keys and a guitar playing in a robotic manner. The band kicks in later with some interesting sounds, almost sounding like everything is based in a strange mode, but it comes across as being forced, even though things are improvised around a theme. About 6 minutes in, things change up a bit, but the sound still seems forced and maybe a bit patchy. I can't help but have the feeling that someone in the mixing booth is saying, "Let's put a bit of this here and a bit of that over there". The track is all instrumental.

"Train of Mind" begins with an electric piano establishing thematic elements. When the band starts up, the vocals start. Again, the melody is made up of unique intervals, but you still get a robotic delivery, no emotion. There are some nice instrumentals, but again it seems forced, trying to sound improvised, but not coming across that way. There is a decent sax solo there, but it seems like it was cut short and the background is allowed to continue playing with nothing going on. Back to the robotic vocals.

"Sailor's Disgrace" is the longest track at 13 + minutes. A nice pastoral sound is established with a 6 / 8 meter. This track features another lead singer, who's voice is a bit weak at first, but at least his vocals are more emotional. Even when the other singer harmonizes with the lead, it is still better. A higher pitched vocal joins in and things actually get much more interesting. A sax solo begins and even that seems less forced than in the other tracks. After 4 minutes, things liven up quite a bit and things get better. The vocal is still a bit questionable as it seems to return to the lead singer from the weaker tracks, and continues to sing in those strange interval jumps, but the sound of this track is much better and relaxed, even in the upbeat sections. Even though I am still not a big fan of the vocals, but it is less of a problem here with the instrumental sections seeming less forced. This is a much better track, but it comes along too late.

"Epilogue Song" is the other short track that bookends the album. All that it does is try to tie everything together, but there really isn't anything to tie here.

As mentioned earlier, this album sounds a bit sterile, forced and lacking any soul or emotion. The right ideas are here, but they are just not presented very well. The music needs to loosen up a bit and a better vocalist would have made another positive difference. Dynamics are always helpful and the improvised sections need more freedom. The only saving grace here is "Sailor's Disgrace" but it is a good song surrounded by other not-so-great tracks.