FOOL'S JOURNEY

Magical album with some real personality and fantastic musicianship featuring guests, Jode Leigh (Ex-ENGLAND) on the drums, PAR LINDH on the keyboards (Mellotron, Hammond, church organ.) and Roine Stolt on the acoustic and electric guitars. Songs featured on this album date back to 1984 when both Ingemar Hjertqvist and Per Sundbom they originally crafted these tunes which have now been re-recorded with this new band. Lead vocals are handled by lead singer Ingemar Hjertqvist who sings effortlessly in English with great conviction and control. "Fool's Journey" is a wild contrast of styles and influences ranging from dark symphonic moments to lighter and almost animated melodies. Try to almost imagine a cross of the TALKING HEADS and The FLOWER KINGS and your starting to get the idea. Along the way we are treated to some great lead guitar solos and massive keyboard passages with great bass and drum interplay. This album was recorded in PAR LINDH's Crimsonic Studio and offers great sound reproduction with solid speaker distinction. Warning this is highly clever music and once you hear this record you likely will need to buy it! Now you have been warned!

Certainly on paper this looks like a can't miss album. Roine Stolt, Par Lindh and ENGLAND's drummer Jode Leigh are part of this band. Interesting that the songs here were recorded by vocalist Ingemar Hjertqvist and keyboardist Per Sundbom back in 1984. Some 300 copies were made and really this was all but forgotten about as they both got married and Ingemar moved to Switzerland. Fast forward to 1993 and Ingemar put a band together to perform these songs but after two years the band was dissolved.Then it all came together as Roine Stolt wanted in, and hearing this news Per wanted back in, then all these other guests wanted to be part of this project too. By the way i've never seen Roine with such long hair. This is a concept album.

"Prelude" opens with atmosphere before vocals and strummed guitar arrive. Not a fan of the vocals here. Piano and bass join in too. It kicks in with guitar at 2 minutes. It stays pretty mellow and the vocals return around 3 1/2 minutes. "My Uncle" is more uptempo and there's lots of mellotron from Par. Nice chunky bass here too. It does settle when the vocals arrive. Again they are weak. Contrasts between mellow and the more powerful sections continue. Great sound 4 1/2 minutes in but it's brief. "Where Am I Going From Here" has some nice bass early as the almost spoken vocals join in. Mellotron as it gets fuller. Man this really comes off as poor Neo- Prog sadly.

"Decision" is atmospheric and spacey for the first 1 1/2 minutes. Then a beat arrives with guitar and other sounds. Vocals after 2 minutes as it settles with organ. The tempo picks up some. An instrumental section late to end it isn't bad. "Fool's Journey" is an instrumental and a pretty good one. Laid back guitar and fat bass early on. It gets fuller 2 minutes in as the guitar makes some noise and the organ joins in. "Anguish" is darker with mellotron and organ to start. It picks up with guitar and drums fairly quickly though. Bass too. Vocals a minute in. I like the guitar and bass but again the vocals aren't the best. "The Ladder" opens with atmosphere as the spacey winds blow. It changes and the vocals arrive after 1 1/2 minutes. It stays at a mid-paced tempo the rest of the way. The focus is on the vocals.

For collectors only in my opinion.

The New Grove Project (English translation of Nya Lund) was the name used by the duo of Per Sundbom (keyboards) and Ingemar Hjertqvist (vocals), who recorded some demo tracks back in 1984.Ingemar got married and moved to Switzerland and eventually these recordings saw the light in 1994 as ''Demo's'', issued in the limited sum of 300 copies.Ingemar tried to gather a band to re-record these tracks, but he was never happy with the result.Finally in mid-90's he was helped by Roine Stolt on guitars, Par Lindh on keyboards, ex-England drummer Jode Leigh and bassist Andre Schornoz and 5 out of the 7 tracks made it to the album ''Fool's journey'' along with another two tracks, released on Hjertqvist's own label New Grove Music in 1996.

The sound of the past Swedish duo was quite daring for mid-80's, as the album has a typical Symphonic Rock flavor, deriving influences from the sound of KAIPA, GENESIS or AUTUMN BREEZE along with artists like PAR LINDH (not a surprise of course) or BO HANSSON.Grandiose at moments, softer and more melodic at the opening and closing parts of the arrangements, ''Fool's journey'' has this evident vintage sense to guarantee a nice old-school listening.The keyboard work of Lindh is excellent with plenty of Mellotron throughout along with strong organ parts and bombastic synths.The guitars of Stolt are lovely and easily recognizable with all these bluesy riffing and melodic hooks, not unlike what he was playing with THE FLOWER KINGS or recent KAIPA around the time.There is some fine balance between instrumental blow-outs and mellow vocal parts, with Hjertqvist having a sensitive yet far from outstanding voice, and even a greater one between delicate symphonic flourishes and more complicated passages.However the album is not that original, hence there is a bit of deja-vu feeling by the end of the listening, as if you have heard every track in a previous album before.

Some very decent Symphonic Rock moments can be heard in ''Fool's journey'', a nice work of retro-sounding Progressive Rock with a couple of great guest stars.Do not expect monumental arrangements, but everything in here is certainly well-played with a few instrumental highlights here and there.Overall recommended.