THE NORWEGIAN NATIONAL OPERA

Wow! What a show! What a concert! The band (with the help of some stellar all-stars like Christian Fennesz and Thomas Pettersen) brings out the best in each song from the span of a long career of diverse musical sounds and styles and fuses it all into one seemless show. The visuals on display on the above-stage film screen couples well with the extraordinary lighting. I love the editing throughout though perhaps more time could have been spent on Garm while he's singing his powerful and heart-felt vocals and less on rather routine and unsurprising keyboard manipulations.

Each time I play this disc I end up watching the whole thing because I get sucked into feeling as if I'm right there in the audience. Favorites include virtually everything though this version of one of the greatest songs ever written, "EOS" from "Shadows of the Sun," tops even the wonderful original. "Little Bird," "A Memorable Fancy," and "Not Saved" are striking, memorable, and sublime.

This is a concert that I would have loved to have been present for but am so glad the DVD exists. Highly recommended.