SOFT FFOG

SOFT FFOG are a four piece from Norway led by guitarist Tom Hasslan. He is the composer of all the music, and some may now him from his main band KROKOFANT. We have Trond Frones on bass from the band GRAND GENERAL. That album they released is a good reference to the music here, with the guitar led jazzy music on display there. We get keyboardist Vegard Lien Bjerkan who also plays with WIZRD. Same with drummer Axel Skalstad but not only with WIZRD he also drums with KROKOFANT.

And sadly I have to say the late Axel Skalstad as he passed away due to an accident a month shy of his 33rd birthday. This just happened on June 9th and the news has sent shock waves through the Norwegien Jazz community in particular, where Axel was a staple playing with pretty much everyone. I'm not sure if this album is the last he recorded but if it is I can't praise him enough for going out like this. I used to think of him as a John Marshall type who was powerful and more rock sounding than jazz.

But Axel's performance here is nothing short of astonishing. His jazz chops were alive and well my friends on this recording. He's very active but so much touch here. It was from the first listen what stood out to me. The album ends with "Oh Jimi" and after we hear the heaviest part of the album after 9 minutes, it settles to just drums only around 10 minutes in, then silence. You couldn't script that any better. Emotion for me, just hearing Axel, then it's over. It's really over.

I feel that this album is better than their debut. It's interesting the song titles like "Camel", "Pocus", "Focus" and "Oh Jimi", because they all relate to those three artists, with Pocus giving us no doubt to who Focus is. My least favourite track is "Focus" but the keyboard led final three minutes are great. The opener Camel contrasts two themes then the electric piano takes the lead after 5 1/2 minutes with some killer drum work. What a combination! And they run this to the end.

"Pocus" is interesting with those punchy and intricate sounds. I like that the bass has the spotlight for a change. The drumming and guitar are outstanding before 5 minutes to almost the end. Insane drum work to end this song. My favourite though is "Oh Jimi" and not just for the way it ends. I really like the keyboard led parts, and again the drumming is all over this. I like how it trips along before 6 minutes. Guitar leads after 8 minutes before it turns heavy and powerful ending with drums and nothing but.

Better than the debut in my opinion, but you have to wonder if this band will continue in light of Axel's passing.

The side project of four up-and-coming Norwegian musicians, this is their sophomore studio album release, their first since their self-titled 2022 debut.

1. "Camel" (9:11) yes there is some similarity in the guitar tones used by Tom Hasslan's two lead guitar tracks to those of Andy Latimer--and some similarity to the style and sounds on display to Camel, (as one would predict based on the title) but there are also some elements of FOCUS and even some of the other classic Canterbury bands to be heard. We are definitely on a guitar instrumental trajectory, sounding more and more like a tribute to Jan Akkerman the further into the song we go. Tom can really jam! And his band is right there with him (especially impressive is the drumming of Axel Skalstad). Vegard Lien Bjerkan gets a solo in the sixth, seventh, and eighth minutes on his electric piano. It's nice but it's almost drowned out by the rhythm section (with the delightful play of bassist Trond Frønes really standing out here), then it's back to Tom and his guitar to lead us out of the desert. Nice tune. (18/20)

2. "Pocus" (8:30) a nice four-chord semi-Reggae syncopated Jazz-Rock Fusion jam is established over the first 1:50 before a stop and keyboard chord progression washes out the previous motif making way for the some Camel-esque guitar and bass grooving over which Tom Hasslan solos using a double-sounding Smooth Jazz sound à la Larry Carlton, Lee Ritenour, John Abercrombie, or Eef Albers. Nice solo with some bluesy roots (which is augmented by Vegard's organ play beneath). There really is a lot of Jan Akkerman/Focus in this motif! At 5:10 a proggy bridge segues back to that four-chord semi-Reggae motif over which Vegard Lien Bjerkan solos on his clavinet quite beautifully while drummer Axel Skalstad really impresses in the rhythm section. Great passage! And then they close it out! Darn! (18.75/20)

3. "Focus" (8:40) a light, melodic Jazz-Rock Fusion touristic joy ride down some of the roads suburban and country roads of Scandanavia (or anywhere joy and Nature can be enjoyed with the wind whisking through your hair). Guitarist Tom Hasslan is in the driver's seat most of the time with this chorused and MIDIed double channeled Jeff "Skunk" Baxter-like lead guitar being duplicated and/or MIDI-ed with Vegard Lien Bjerkan's keyboard's right hand. (I think it more Tom's double tracks.) Very pleasant, enjoyable, entertaining, and interesting. When Vegard takes over the lead in the sixth minute it sounds as if we're now listening to an EARTH, WIND & FIRE song ("That's the Way of the World"), that's how melodic, laid back, and funky the base groove is. I love drummer Axel Skalstad's interplay just beneath Vegard's amazing synth solo in the eighth minute. Awesome song! It has some of the joyful energy of AIR's famous music from Moon Safari. (19/20)

4. "Oh Jimi" (10:19) definitely closer to the school of STEVIE RAY VAUGHN than that of JIMI HENDIRX--though the structure of the composition and sound palette choices do strongly evoke the music of Jimi. The second half of the song, with keyboard in the lead, sees the rhythm section take on a heavy ponderousness that feels and sounds a lot like SEVEN IMPALE. (17.875/20)

Total Time 36:40

I was right! This band--these musicians--could get better! And they did! Both in terms of skill diversity and compositional maturity, and--bonus!--sound engineering choices. The music is still very heavily-founded in blues-rock music but the musicianship is better, the cohesiveness better, the sound production (and choices) vastly improved. It seems to me that these guys--with this project--see it as their mission to revive the heavy blues-rock music traditions of Jimi, Cream, Rush, Stevie Ray, Here they give it a little of the massive gravity of fellow Norwegians, SEVEN IMPALE infused with a little of the serious happiness of more recent JAGA JAZZIST. However, where their debut album consisted of four loosely-organized jam songs, giving them a SAMSARA BLUES PROJECT kind of sound, this one shows more sophistication and complexity in both musicianship and composition.

A-/five stars; a wonderfully-refreshing upbeat minor masterpiece of modern Jazz-Rock Fusion. So glad to have targeted these guys for "future/follow" when they released their debut back in 2022.

Sophomore album from this talented Norwegian quartet, formed by two members of Krokofant, the recent 'enfant terrible' of the Norse scene, guitarist extraordinaire Tom Hasslan aka Zappa Finger and Axel Skalstad aka Pheel the Collins on the drum kit. They are complemented by Wizrd keyboardist Vegard Lien Bjerkan aka Wake(up the)man and finally from the band Red Kite, Trond Frones aka Geezer Jeezus playing the bass only on the sabbath. And who dares to say that Scandinavians have no sense of humour, have you not heard of the Finn funny man Ismo? Their eponymous 2022 debut caused a stir, but this latest release has a distinguishing inclination veering towards a Focus influence that shows up between all four players at times, as well as collectively. This band lets loose in intense jam mode, a yearning to have fun in the studio and let the chips fall where they may. The gorgeous cover art certainly satisfies the visual senses.

Hinting humbly at the legendary British band led by Andy Latimer "Camel" certainly underlines the melodic spirit behind that band, the pearly keys and bustling rhythm section settling into a robust groove, the idyllic platform for the electric guitar to begin soaring across the sonic dunes. Whereas the master was famous for long sustained emotional notes, here Hasslan lets it rip with a blistering array of rapid-fire salvos, leaning towards the more focused (sic) standard that will make up the album. The e-piano section is a glittering oasis of sun-drenched streaks, a mirror in the desert showing the way to liquid salvation.

Channeling his innermost Jan Akkerman fantasy on "Pocus", Hasslan goes properly berserk on his 6-string implement with a tour de force homage (two French words creeping into the verbiage-another Gallicism!), though Bjerkan chooses a decidedly jazzier piano and e-piano route on his ivories, while the rhythm section perfectly salutes the Ruiter-Van der Linden attack. Starting out in a breezy lilt with a clavinet introduction, the build-up gradually goes tornado (Happy Birthday Bill Bruford) with a blizzard of peaks and valleys, playfully gathering steam with some patented flurries that recall the finer moments of the Focus 3 album.

"Focus" keeps the foot on the cyclist pedal with a gentler foray into more bucolic workings, that swoon unashamedly into Metheny territory, the finger technique is bewilderingly accurate, mastering both leads, riffs, and flicks of the wrist, just like Jan did and still does today in his golden years. The comprehensive synth solo is quite the skidding workout, with enough shape and bend to thrill the most passive listener. It becomes apparent that the main underlying attribute of this quartet is plain old fun, jamming like there is no care in the world.

Written like this "Oh Jimi", it can only refer to Hendrix , as the spelling 'Jimi' has been permanently retired to the rafters, after he died on September 18, 1970. Kicking into a medieval tinged Jon Lord sounding organ surely ruffles the feathers, injecting the electric guitar with bluesy dexterity, as the pace slows to a grind, and the steady groove is set as the ideal gliding platform on which Hasslan can stretch, steal and borrow those characteristic moaning lines that made Jimi such a legend. A ten-minute rocking roller coaster ride is set in motion with just enough personality to dismiss any overt copycat urges, the keyboard spotlight doing wonders for the atmosphere as well as transitioning into varied mood swings that augur well for the explosive finale, where a Mahavishnu Orchestra - like feel shatters all the illusions.

I enjoyed the debut, but this is a much higher raised bar, easily reached without steroid enhancers or blood packing, just a more focused (oops!) approach that had the courage to add another iconic figure as a final coup de grace. Well played and totally unpretentious.

4.5 concentrations

I had to put something in print before I review the band's new 2025 release, Focus, as I've known of this album since it was recommended to me back in 2022. Right off the bat I have to take issue with Scott Shreky' suggestion that this band sounds like a cross between the Mahavishnu Orchestra and The Mars Volta. I'm not even sure I would consider this Jazz-Rock Fusion (the category PA has assigned them) were it not for the instrumental jam structures to their music. To me this has more in common with straight rock and blues rock of the late 1960s, early 1970s, and the blues rock revival of the 1980s: Rush, Mahogany Rush, Stevie Ray Vaughn, The sound and technique of the band's dominant instrumentalist, the heavily-distorted electric guitar shredder, sounds to me more like Alex Lifeson, Stevie Ray Vaughn, and Jimi Hendrix than Mahavishnu John McLaughlin. None of these musicians sound particularly virtuosic: they have some skill and speed but very little diversity and variability. Both the drummer and the guitarist, in particular, seem to be locked into one style only--and they do not "mesh" or entrain very well together. The keyboardist has talent but the exposition of his skills and diversity is diminished by the fairly simplistic compositions that he is playing over. I mean: anybody can jam! And I definitely get the feeling that the many instances in which the musicians "spill over" into errant notes has nothing to do with intention or Coltrane- and Monk-like adventures into Debussy scales making; they are simply mistakes. And bass player is there but rarely makes himself distinctive--which can be a good thing--but in the context of these jam-oriented songs methinks his role has been assigned as metronomic companion to the militaristic drummer. As for the music, I don't dislike it but I feel no lasting urge to return to it. My hope is that in the three years the quartet have had to work on their skills and compositional vision the next album (the afore-mentioned Focus) will yield considerable improvements and advancements.

SOFT FFOG are a four piece band out of Norway who first got together back in 2016 being commissioned to play at one of the festivals over there. They have played live sporadically since then but with all of these guys being in other bands and being part of other projects it's been hard to find the time to record an album. The leader here is guitarist Tom Hasslan composing all of this instrumental music and most known for leading KROKOFANT.

He's got KROKOFANT's drummer Axel Skalstad here along with WIZRD's keyboardist Vegard Lien Bjerkan and finally bass player Trond Frones from GRAND GENERAL. It's been pointed out that all of these guys have played with just about every Jazz musician in Norway. So Jazz based music here but like GRAND GENERAL's album this features a lot of guitar. And I'd mention KROKOFANT too minus the sax as a reference. A nice contrast of powerful music and catchy melodic sections. It's those latter passages that I don't love but still enjoy that is keeping me from going higher in my rating. I really like this record.

Should they not have called themselves HEAVY FOG? Are they trying to trick us with that band name and the album cover that would be more suitable for symphonic or pastoral music? The art work is beautiful to say the least in fact I visited Tor Einar Evju's site to check out more of his incredible art. There are pages inside of the same art that is on the cover of this strange world built a mile up it seems which freaks me out being afraid of heights. Different views as it were and sections of this amazing place. Honestly I've looked at these pictures a lot. Bravo Tor!

Four longish tracks ranging from over 7 1/2 minutes to just under 10 minutes. I'd love to hear more of the keyboardist on the next one if there is one. More balance would be appreciated as I feel like I'm being teased by them on that final track "Dhalism" which is my favourite. Just some nasty sounding keyboards on this one. The keyboardist adds some melancholic synths that I'm a huge fan of on both "Zangief" and "Ken" my second favourite track. Electric piano and organ I heard on here but they are rare. The guitar stands out and I would describe it as more of a rock style. Some good contrasts and they repeat themes on these tracks making them all well worth listening to.

Okay back to that world on the heights while I listen to this one more time. A solid 4 stars.