THE MOLOTOV RIBBENTROP PACT

Prog is the one musical genre that reaches out to history and literature in order to create a soundtrack for a good story and further the depth of adventure and art. I always found it rather surprising that one of the most ground shaking events in history has had such a light influence on prog, as there are few references to WW2 around. I can think of Coda's understated "Symphony", Big Big Train's "Gathering Speed" and a few great tracks (Renaissance, Al Stewart, The Flower Kings) but there is quite a scarcity of material that focuses of the calamity of WW2. I have been studying and writing about this catastrophe since I was a young lad, fascinated by the extraordinary righteousness of that war, a rather rare event I can assure you, as no other war was as justified and ultimately heroic than the last big one. I shudder to think what life would have been like as an 'untermensch' under such a devilish authority. The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact refers to that extremely treacherous and thus brief alliance between the 2 bitter idealistic rivals of WW2, Nazi Germany (represented by foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop) and the Soviet Union (foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov), the two opportunistically ganging up on their neighbour poor little Poland and attacking it from both sides. No time in history had ever witnessed two more brutal and sinister dictatorial governments, repressing their own populations with dreaded secret police (OGPU/NKVD on one side and the Gestapo/SS on the other), Stalin and Hitler are easily among the top three mass murderers in history. Swedish progressive artist Autumn Breeze took up the challenge and created a rather disturbing symphonic opus based on this clear example of political backstabbing and moral cowardice. Composer, lyricist and vocalist Gert Magnusson has researched this tragic event with a great amount of curiosity and interest, having read thoroughly amid various available archives and has come to the same conclusion that so many have come to: madmen can take over any society by promising illusion ("Nobody has to make war") and providing destruction. The various themes are all encompassing events that offer a window into a space and a time that still resonates today with potentially lethal consequences. There are tons of samples, hysterical speeches by Adolf Hitler, air raid sirens, detonations and pompous military bravado. The whole is deliberately chaotic, startling, at times monstrous and certainly never peaceful. Gert's hushed voice is brilliantly unique and original, sprinkling the tracks with quirk, strangeness and charm (Hey, Hawkwind). The backing crew is a full prog compliment of guitars, keys, bass and drums.

The opening song "Watchguard in Auswitch" (misspelled) is infectious, I was caught singing it the other day, a totally mesmerising intro into this quite eclectic recording. There are some extreme juxtapositions, a modern 'danse macabre' of colliding emotions, with contrasting manic guitar phrasings ("Vodka in the Moscow Night"), insane drum fills throughout and bizarre contradictions such as on "Katyn" the infamous massacre of the Polish elite in a forest that was blamed on the SS but in fact perpetrated by the NKVD, the Soviet secret police. 22,000 of Poland's finest minds, including military officers, diplomats, landowners, priests, jurists and politicians who were shot and reduced to disappear into mass graves. The chorus sounds almost like a love song until one realizes the context! There are Zappa-esque moments, such as the rumbling bass and oddball weirdness on "Helsinki fires in the Night" referring to the pre-WW2 Soviet invasion of Finland and the subsequent valiant defence put up by the taciturn Finns who beat the living daylight of the Red Army, a 10/1 kill ratio that is still taught today at military academies such as West Point, Sandhurst and St-Cyr. There are also moments that are straight out oblique rock music twists that wink at RIO and Avant, throwing in some cabaret stylings as well, raunchy guitar not withstanding (Party Girls). Carnival piano and merry-go-round 'Achtung' nods at Falco (the 80s Austrian rock singer who died in his prime). The miss- spelled "Bliezkrieg" is reminiscent of electronic duo Yello in its insistence and almost danceable mania. There is also a ton of sarcasm as the USA literally became an overnight super-power when attacked at Pearl Harbor, something many people seem to forget. And on it goes until Hitler's death.

This is a disturbing, choppy, frenzied, insidious musical symphony of immense originality and a rarity in the prog world, a subject matter still relatively untouched for reasons that I cannot understand.

5 fall winds