EIK

The album starts with a clean cut disco tune. It reminds me a lot about the likes of DAN HARTMAN and CHIC. Not to mention JOHN TRAVOLTA....... Funky stuff. The next song Memories is down the JOE COCKER street. Slow blues in other words with some Canterbury Scene influences (the use of flute). The third song Funky Beat is best described in the title. Funky beat in other words. The fourth song is almost like a FAIRPORT CONVENTION outtake with some Irish jig included. The remaining three songs are jazz meets the Canterbury Scene, Krautrock and the Fusion scene. Symphonic prog ? Not an ounce and not a second. This album feels more like a compilation album than an album by one band or one artist.

The quality is OK. I am not won over by any of the stuff. Both Stormy Monday and Funky Beat is cringe-worthy listening. The last three tracks are good though. Nice, warm jazz/fusion with guitars and organs. But too little, too late.

It is almost impossible to describe this album others than it reflects the 1970s with all it's good and bad things. Collectors only, I am afraid.

2 stars

The second track (excuse me if I don't paste the track titles, as they are icelandic), has a funky start with slapped bass, then goes into orchestral, with a leading flute. That's Canterbury.

Still funky on the 3rd track, but with a bit of Zappa in the vocals. Very nice.

Classic guitar drives the beginning of the 4th track., but also when it turns into electric, the sound is very clear, without any distorsion. I'm unable to say what the tempo is. This is my favourite track of the album.

Track #5 starts slowly with acoustic guitar and voice then into funk again. An electric guitar riff is the coda. A short piece.

A track whose title is "funk" should be self-explaining, but effectively it reminds me to Soft Machine's Land of Cockayne. The sounds of the guitar are more or less the same.It's more jazzy than funk, anyway, specially in the section driven by flute and Niacin style keyboard.

7th track. Hard to describe. Flamenco guitar in the beginning, easy melody but with variations in the tempo. I've heard something similar only with After Crying. Really remarkable.

The last (short) track is a melodic piece of fretless bass, acoustic guitar and percussions. It's a pity that it's only 1 minute long.

I recommend this album to Canterbury fans, but it's good for everybody.

The title track starts dauntingly, comparable in peculiarity to King Crimson's "Larks Tongues' in Aspic, part I" if not in ferocity, stirring together some lucid and capricious musical ingredients that are hard to grasp, even when they are repeated. This isn't a section of the record that you'll be able to commit to memory too suddenly! Developing from this point into a lush, lazy progressive ballad, "Hrislan og Straumurinn" suddenly slots in next to names like Premiata Forneria Marconi and Focus in the world of gentle, lovely symphony. Side A is closed by "Eitthvað Almennilegt" which comes across like a Gentle Giant number circa "Free Hand", with bouncier guitars and a rhythm section that seems to be having even more fun. So far so good.

Side B is different, consisting of shorter, more immediate songs and opening with one based in jazz funk, featuring strange contorted vocals. The Icelandic "Maggot Brain"? Perhaps not, as what follows harks back to the title track in composition, in this case making me think of Crucis (although since I've reviewed their work recently, that was bound to happen) thanks to the unusualness of the song structure. The singing approaches you from all directions, but the star of "Í Dvala" is the guitar player, soloing on electric and acoustic models with equal ease. Over too fast! "Átthagar" reintroduces almost disco-like funk, although here it shares "space" with tenser-than-Pink Floyd heroic guitar moments. The mood of the track "Fúnk" can be deduced from its title, hopping between carefree, popping basslines and more fusion-styled bridge sections - a lot like a short Herbie Hancock's Headhunter's track with a guest guitarist, with more of a sixties feel. "Fjöll" plays out like a quick ital-pop song, with beautiful acoustic guitar playing reflecting in the constant shine of warm electric piano - an instrumental approach that continues to the album's delicate coda, which is a suitable cherry atop the album.

The only problem is that, at 35 minutes of length, the cake is too small; another four minutes' work on each side of the album would allow for some of the small vignettes to grow into songs in their own right, or else allow for the further progression of some of the themes trapped on the album. That's a shame because Eik had the potential to write a masterpiece here. Listen to this album, you'll see what I mean!