HRISLAN OG STRAUMURINN

Some bells put you into a deep and frozen athmosphere where piano and electronic sounds make the tension increase. Then it becomes a little jazzy. Pekka Pohjola would have appreciated this start. When the intro ends and the first track really starts, it reminds to Gong and Gentle Giant, and it's pure progressive. The flute adds a bit of Canterbury. Suddenly the electric guitar start to alternate with the other instruments, and this is only the first track. After about 6 minutes, they start to sing. They have good voices, too (Yes). A 15 minutes piece full of things of that era. There are a lot of influences, Gentle Giant over all, but they are not clones.

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.