RIVENDEL

RIVENDEL are a Spanish band who released two studio albums in the 90's only to disappear for 19 years returning with "DHD" in 2015. They are back but different as they have become this all instrumental band focussed on soundscapes and less structured music. "Sisyfos" continues in the same vein as "DHD" but is darker and with a mythological concept to it. Cool that the artwork was done by Angel Ontalva guitarist for Spain's OCTOBER EQUUS. In fact the booklet is an eight panel poster style with the one side being the cover art. I have a strong feeling that Angel enjoyed this album.

They have added a drummer after going without one on "DHD". The keyboardist adds so much with the organ, synths and mellotron to these dark soundscapes and of course the guitarist brings some inventive and experimental expressions to table including a lot of Fripp-like angular moments but also some really tortured leads. This is spacey, mechanical and avant sounding soundscape music expressing a story from Greek mythology.

This is such a uniform recording that it's hard to pick favourites out as one song blends into the next in similar styled music. They seem to mesh that dark early PINK FLOYD period with the muscular and experimental side of KING CRIMSON. Again like "DHD" this is headphone music and I just have to say that I'm so glad I own the last three albums by this band, they are very creative if nothing else. And there is a love/ hate thing going on with these last two releases amongst music fans. Let your mind go as your hear the start of "Charon Crossing The Styx" with the water splashing with the spacey winds as floating organ joins in. Some deep pulses join in along with some sparse acoustic guitar and mellotron later at 2 minutes. The volume is going up then drums before 4 minutes and it's getting experimental. The guitar is angular and more upfront 7 minutes in and especially after 9 1/2 minutes. It turns spacey late to end it.

We get two short piece called "Sisyfus & Merope I and II" before and after "The Isthmian Games". Both short pieces are releaxed with keys that echo and some flute-like sounds and picked guitar. Trippy with mellotron. The song they surround is more upfront with scraping guitar, drums and pulsating organ as bass joins in too. Check out the guitar melody after 3 1/2 minutes. So much going on a minute later my head is spinning. Man "Greek Salad" is a little different as we get horn-like sounds, some piano and it's actually catchy after 4 1/2 minutes. The angular guitar cries out after 5 minutes then a barrage of avant sounds.

"Sisyfus In Styx" is such a cool sounding piece, so spacey throughout. "The Anger Of Zeus" opens with ear piercing guitar before a stampede of drums and sound kick in. This song delves into avant territory after a minute. Feels like getting swarmed by sound just before 3 minutes. The closer like the opener is over 12 minutes and the two longest songs on here. I like the way this slowly builds with Fripp-like guitar and cymbals for a couple of minutes then they amp it up. The guitar is growling here and mellotron floods the soundscape at 3 1/2 minutes as it settles back. The mellotron sounds great 5 minutes in then the guitar starts to impress getting inventive. The mellotron and guitar take turns showing off. An experimental ending to a dark but interesting trip. Easily 4 stars.

RIVENDEL are a Spanish band that have intrigued me a lot over this past year. The debut "Manifesto" from 1990 was in the Neo prog camp but "The Meaning" released in 1996 saw them making more complex music. Both 90's albums featured vocals while their comeback record "DHD" from 2015 and the followup "Sisyfos" from 2018 are both all instrumental records without a lot of structure. The latter being the darker of the two but there are a lot of similarities as I've done the rare thing and spun two albums by the same band all week. I just thought they were different enough from each other to make that work but again they had way more in common than I thought. So a four piece in the 90's with a drummer while here they are a three piece without a man behind the kit. They did bring in a drummer for "Sisyfos" though. The keyboardist and guitarist really create a variety of soundscapes and the guitarist adds quite a bit of distortion at times while at other times he's angular or bluesy.

Man "DHD' is a headphone album with the mellotron and experimental soundscapes, this isn't very structured and we get three long tracks opening with that almost 21 minute "Dicebamus Hesterna Die". Organ to start as the guitar joins in kind of bluesy. Mellotron before a minute. Keys, organ and mellotron take turns then we get what sound like sequencers surprisingly and they will come and go. Angular guitar before 5 1/2 minutes changing from that bluesy style then the mellotron is back with bass in tow. Themes are repeated and changed slightly. Bluesy guitar again before 7 minutes as the sequencers return. Another change with bass, guitar and keys. Distorted organ 8 1/2 minutes in. Lots going on here and it's mesmerizing. More angular guitar at 10 1/2 minutes, sequencers too and much more. Mellotron before 13 minutes and it's quite spacey here after listening to all these different sounds swarm my ears prior. Some deep bass lines 15 minutes in with experimental guitar expressions and an electronic beat. The guitar is growly almost. The organ is back around 17 1/2 minutes followed by mellotron again. Spacey sounds too to the end.

"Cows On A Prairie Whilst Dark Clouds Slowly Thicken" is 12 minutes long and yes we hear some mooing after a minute with those keys that echo continuing from the start. It begins to move and brighten before 3 minutes then spacey sounds start to dominate. Sounds are crying out before 6 minutes, crazy stuff here. The guitar starts to solo over the spacey soundscape. It's building 8 minutes in and the guitar is distorted changing to angular before 10 minutes. It's dark and mechanical sounding after 10 1/2 minutes. Oh my! Strings and piano and it over the final minute.

"(Die Maschinerie Von) Metropolis" opens sounding like early FLOYD with that dark sound with bass lines. Some nice aggressive guitar lines too then a MAGMA soundscape kicks in that will come and go contrasted with the flute-like sounds. The guitar becomes aggressive 4 minutes in and inventive too. That bass line continues then keyboards join the angular guitar outbursts. So cool. MAGMA is back after 5 minutes. Check it out at 7 1/2 minutes the depth and insane sounds. Man this is good. That bass line continues as the flute-like sounds return after 8 minutes. Spacey sounds late then what sounds like cello ends it.

A lot to take in to be honest and thankfully this clocks in at around 44 minutes. I'm very impressed and while a lot of this doesn't seem to want to stick I wouldn't say that's because it's not memorable music. "DHD" along with "The Meaning" and "Sisyfos" are all very good and highly recommended. albums and well worth your time. I really don't like the album cover.

On the strength of their latest instrumental album, 2018's `Sisyfos', and actually their fourth work since forming in the mid-Eighties, it might be a bit of a struggle to not instantly dismiss Spanish act Rivendel as being a mere King Crimson clone. Absolutely Robert Fripp's legendary eclectic prog group is a massive influence on this concept album about the Greek myth, with the album overloaded with endless scratchy Mellotron, tortured sustained guitar wailing and rattling percussion, but admittedly the band occasionally take things further by incorporating elements of spacerock, Seventies horror movie soundtracks and even little hints of the earlier `krautrock' period of Tangerine Dream before the programming took over.

Opener `Charon Crossing the Styx' gradually unfolds over twelve minutes, a dreamy and mysterious spacerocker that also holds a definite lurking sense of unease. Mellow guitar ruminations and placid icy synths slowly come to life with rambunctious drum thrashing, and the heavily improvised piece might not have sounded out of place on an Oresund Space Collective album. `Sisyphus & Merope I' is a sedate chiming guitar shimmer of delicate reflection that could almost have popped up on an Italian giallo soundtrack when its ghostly Mellotron choir starts to rise. The playful `The Istmian Games' could almost be retitled `The Indoor Games' in the way it captures the same loopy mindset of King Crimson's `Lizard' album from 1970 with its devilish keyboard mischievousness and Frippian guitar grinding, and `Sisyphus & Merope II' is a further reprise of the first shorter spectral interlude.

For `Greek Salad', think of the wild old Crimson improvisations - all slithering bass murmurs, clanging percussion crashes, heavy staccato piano stabs, lurching guitar grooves with occasional buzzsaw-like eruptions and monolithic horn-like Mellotron blasts. The lulling `Sisyphus in Styx' holds unhurried ambient synth/organ builds and clouds of serene Mellotron caresses ala early Tangerine Dream before serrated guitars and chilly 'Tron shards start to infiltrate, and the blistering `The Anger of Zeus' is feral and violent. Best of all is the closer `Sisyphus and the Rock', loaded with eerie percussion tinkering, psychedelic spacy electronics, a filthier stoner rock snarl to the guitars and a stalking imposing heaviness constantly stomping down as if wandering off from a Goblin soundtrack.

Perhaps there's not a lot of depth to `Sisyfos', and some stretches prove to be a little unengaging, but its gloriously dirty surface noise and heavy atmosphere is still very addictive, and the sparse production gives the album a satisfying grit. There might not be much in the way of originality, but if you're happy to hear an album that picks up where King Crimson leaves off and you simply don't mind a disc that's often a case of just `more of the same', `Sisyfos' has plenty going for it.

Three stars.

This Spanish band published two strong albums some twenty years ago. It seems that they reformed a few years ago. It's the same people on board but now their music has become bold and matured a lot. "Sisyfos" is a conceptual album based on the Sisyphus greek myth, the man who thought that he was smarter than the gods. He was finally punished to carry a rock up a mountain for the whole eternity. The beautiful artwork shows Sisyfos carrying his rock up the mountain. The first track "Charon crossing the Styx" last more than 12 minutes and it's like an overture to the story. It places the listener together to Charon paddling his boat through the greek underworld. Is very atmospheric in the early Pink Floyd way but it's also full of great melodies and dramatic mood changes. A fantastic entry to the album. "Sisyphus and Merope I" is a very short track. Charming guitar with mellotron arrangements. Clean and superb! "The Istmian Games" is a very different approach. Complex organ progressions, wild guitar, crimsoniam bass... Sisyphus started defying the gods! The short "Sisyphus and Merope II" is the same music as part I but subtle details have changed. There is some disturbance threatening instead of the peaceful part I. "Greek Salad" is very difficult to describe. It's a rythmic, pulsating music. Very avantgardish, every change is unexpected. Can't think who could write music like this! Next song, "Sisyphus in Styx", is a return to the stygian atmosphere of track 1 but this time Sisyphus is there, so the threat is always present! What a great piece of music, distraughted sounds from hell in a weird landscape. "The Anger of Zeus" is another unexpected twist. Rivendel plays three minutes of ashtounding hard rock / avantgarde craziness. This drummer can play! The last track "Sisyphus and the Rock" is the other long track of the album. The hopelessness of Sisyphus carrying the rock up the mountain is perfectly described. The song has multiple parts but they fit together smoothly. At the very end the music dilutes into frightening noises and I can truly feel Sisyphus despair and madness. A great story. Very varied songs. Skillfully crafted. Rivendel at their top! 5 points.

WOW. What an album this last output from the Spanish band Rivendel. When I wrote a comment on the previous album, DHD, I said that It was their best effort until then, but I have to confess that this one is even better and, more than this, much more personal and interesting. For the first time in its carreer they include a conventional drummer and this is a really good thing. As the previous album, this one is completely instrumental. Whit the leivmotiv of Sisyfos, the Greek character damned to roll up the hill eternaly a enormeus stone, the album develop several ambients and moods, mixing long tracks with others more concises acting like interludes. From the pinkfloyesche "Charon crossing teh Styx" until the last "Sysyphus and the Rock" (both them more than 12 minutes long), Sysyfos is mainly an amazing trip through dark landscapes . Some of these premises were already in DHD but here are much more developed. The seed in DHD is here a big tree with multiple branches, sinking its roots in the whole progressive rock history, with special affinity for its darkest manifestations (Univers Zero, Present, King Crimson, even some zeuhl traces). Sisyfos is a fantastic album but, as I said concerning the previous one, this is not a neoprog album, this is more a RIO-avant one, even when you can find too echoes from more conventional sounds For me, this album had to have the subtite of "Sounds of mystery and imagination". Not in vain, when I listen to some tracks, I feel an immediate association with the fall of the Usher's house. Maybe cause by the impact of the Sisyfos' stone rolling down the hill.

Rivendel from Spain took their sweet time in proposing their next opus, a labor of love that took pretty much 19 years to germinate and produce. Their previous neo-prog recording was in 1996 entitled "the Meaning', which met with milquetoast response and then, they rested for a spell. The long gestating "DHD" offers a completely different slant, perhaps not even neo-prog anymore but a rather original and complex form of crossover/symphonic work that is rich, diverse and challenging, as it incorporates a vast panorama of styles that will also immerse in electronics, folk, blues, zeuhl and RIO. There are a whole series of interesting details that make this such a strange animal, such as the lack of any drummer, using only three musicians on three epic tracks, all instrumentals. DHD stands for the latinized version of the Spanish expression decíamos ayer (dicebamus hesterna die) or "we were saying yesterday" is used in Spain when one wishes to make passing acknowledgement of a long silence or absence without actually discussing or even mentioning the interruption. As if those 19 years just went by in a flash!

On the expansive 20 minute + title track, time has melted away with minimal effort and maximum efficiency. Crafty guitarist Tonio Cruz, keyboardist Oscar Bielo and bassman Jose Mari Aguirrezabala provide all the sonic exploration, with perfectly blended instrumental diversity, wah-wah pedalled guitar phrasings, festooned with rolling fuzz organ and burping bass guitar incursions. There are definite Canterbury influences, obviously without the quirky British humor in the lyrics, as Bielo does a fine salute to Ratledge, Stewart and company...As the path develops further, the mood becomes challenging as the dissonance, the quirkiness and the seemingly free jazz elements kick in with resolute fury. Poignant, disturbing as if in some somber sci-fi horror movie soundtrack, the emphasis on disturbance is overt and creative. This will find approval from the real far-out prog fans out there. At the 15 minute mark, there is a definite zeuhl sensation, with a strong expression of glancing unease and even infernal hallucination. It slowly gentles itself out, becoming more fluid and pastoral, as if bridging the chasm of time successfully. Definitely NOT neo-prog!

"Cows on Prairie", is perhaps a song dedicated to the few prog fans like me who inhabit Calgary, Canada, the home of the Stampede and where there are a lot of cows and a lot of prairie! The cowbells effect is awesome, the mooing sounds are very similar to my neighbors' endless moaning (LOL) and the sprinkling of acoustic guitar phrasings adding to the bucolic feel. A dozen minutes of contemplative surrealism, as if Dali was painting some fireball grange in the foreground, keeping his tight Vaselined pencil mustache in full erect regalia. Eerily weird, squalls of mellotron and seagull screams combine to clutter the horizons, meditative and reflective, ghostly romantic and melancholic. Cruz shows off his skills with unabashed zeal, with great picking as well as deft tonal work that borders psychedelia. Pools of e-piano from Bielo add mystery and imagination. Ardent Country music fans must stay away from this psychotic brew or risk being lassoed to the whipping post.

As mentioned by other reviewers, there is a definite Kafka?esque quality here, a sense of foreboding that inspired other writers such as Poe, De Maupassant, my fave Theophile Gauthier and many others who did seek out deeper realms of the mind and body, where reality and fantasy often copulated unashamedly. This sentiment is perfectly evoked on the final track, the "Metropolis" of Fritz Lang fame, a Utopian world of benign dictatorship with idealistic zeal and yet total subservience among the mistreated workers underground. The clash of the privileged elite above and the starving masses below. The music serves as an apocalyptic soundtrack that would do the classic movie justice. The mood is almost Magma ?like (without Vander's tectonic drumming), where derelict synthesizers duel with distraught flute, choppy guitars that echo incessantly, rasping bass and despairing dissonance.

This is not AOR, easy listening morning drive radio or a series of ballads. Its NOT neo-prog . The music on DHD is demanding, bitchy, nervous and relentless, requiring patience, observation, open-mindedness and a certain appreciation of the 'beyond'. Big surprise, this!

4.5 Moments in Time

After listening three times this album I'm still very surprised. First track (+ than 20 min) begins like warm, organic symphonic prog. But very different elements slowly make presence. From blues to electronics, from RIO to chamber, even Zeulh. The music becomes a labyrinth where the listener visits different corridors and chambers. Still everything is related somehow, a part of the whole thing. But you can't find the keys to put things together until the closing parts of the song. Ashtounding! Second track (12 minutes) seems much more calmed, even ambient music. But there's a feeling of inconvenience, a dissonance here and there. A feeling of no escape, like if you are on a Kafka or a Lovecraft story. That's the general feeling of this album. Third track (+10 minutes) is once again a very different proposal. It seems like a sound motion of the fight between industrial machinery and oppresed workers Or this is what the tittle, Metropolis, suggests. In the middle part of the song there's a terrible fight where once again Rivendel become deliciously chaotic. But in the end it looks that there's not a real winner for this battle. A very interesting album that is far from the prog mainstream. Like another reviewer says, this has absolutely no relation with neo-prog (as the band is tagged). Very recommended but be aware that this is not an easy listen.

The first thing I must say is that this album must be taken off from the classification of neo-prog. This is not. Maybe "ecleptic rock" or "avant rock" is a better identification. After nearly 20 years comes this third album from the Donosti (Spain) band, Rivendel. If you have already listened to some of their two previous albums.. forget them. This follows a completely different path. Only three tracks. All instrumentals. One of them last more than 20 minutes and two over 10, involving a whole kaleidoscope of sounds where multiple references appear in a more conceptual than literal way. In my opinion, nowadays, it is virtually impossible that a group practising fully instrumental music posseses a "completely original sound". Perhaps this is neither the case, but, even when you can find references, I think that Rivendel, with this album, have got an universe which is more particular than the one they offered in the previous discs. I said "references", and, it's true, here you can find echoes from David Gilmour (more than Pink Floyd) at the beginning of the first track or, even,Tangerine Dream further in the same track. In the second one you can find sounds from the most atmospheric side of Pink Floyd. But they are only sound flashes integrated on a completely differente unit. Anyway, my favorite track is the last one, "(die von maschinerive) Metropolis". A track where they play a strange game with the tension between impressionists and expressionists sounds. References that probably are more explicits if you take a look to the cover, where Jose Mari Aguirrezabala has used images from the Wiene's film: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari . An special reference to the instrumental palette. Bass, keyboards and guitar. No drums anyway. This is important because the sound in this album is very particular. An instrumental album like this, rather than show its content in the first listen, trends to "suggest" moods and, in this regard, it's easy to imagine it as a struggle between darkness and light. If there is a moment that exemplifies the album for me it is the end of that first track. You can imagine that moment as a canvas where Monet and Kirchner were painting together. Congratulations, Rivendel. This is by far its better album. An album you must listen to.

This album is really good, a better effort that their first one "Manifesto". The three long songs are divided into many different parts. The three suits are quite different, even each one of them are sung in a different language. First one, "La Telarana" is sung in spanish and it's a very lyrical song, with a lot of 12-string, flutes and oboes (or something alike). It remains classic RPI (italian progressive), because of some mediterranian feel. There is also a soprano-like guest voice. It sound beautiful and original. Vey symphonic. The second suite "The Meaning" that gaves tittle to the álbum seems the centerpiece of the álbum. It's the longest one. Every part is different. Guitar based parts follow keyboard based ones and sometimes in between there's is some nice vocal parts. A great opus. The final piece "L'Art Brut" is te shortest one. It's sung in french (?!) and it's the most bizarre song in this album. It seems it's about crazy artista and it's sounds like is! Also a very interesting piece of music. By far, the best Rivendel album in the 90's. I wonder why did they stopped because there is a feeling like if a third effort could have been even better.

This album has good melodies and structures. Many good ideas but also some problems. Electronic drums are too loud and mechanical on some pieces. Vocals are also a bit forced at some points. Even those youth faults, some parts are very outstanding and emotional. For example the closing part of "The Stairs" and "Joker". Also the intensity of "Fools' Talk". "Jardin Secreto" is a bonus track. This one, sang in spanish I think, sound quite different, more radio friendly tan the others but it's also a nice effort. The second effort from this band "The Meaning" would solve the youth problems of this one.