SVARTISEN

Norwegian trio Kornmo arose early 2015 from the ashes of the band Morild which disbanded around 2014. Chief composer and bass player Nils Larsen wished to continue making music, but sought a slightly different challenge this time, namely focussing entirely on instrumental music. Along with his friend of 50 years and previous band mate from Morild, Odd-Roar Bakken, he started a new musical project to fulfil this wish. To complete the band, Nils asked his son Anton Larsen to join on drums, now Kornmo was formed. Kornmo is a project that solely records original progressive instrumental music, and the band does not perform any live gigs.

After my review about the second album entitled Vandring (2019) here are my words about Kornmo its debut album (2017, re-released in 2019). The title is inspired by the glacier found in Glomfjorden in the north of Norway by the same name, which loosely means 'the black ice'. The 11 instrumental tracks sound firmly in the symphonic rock tradition, the structure is very simple, with the focus is on embellishing the melodic and harmonic music with an intense guitar sound and wonderful vintage keyboards.

The one moment the climate is dreamy with acoustic guitar and soaring Mellotron violins, or tender piano and fragile electric guitar. The next moment you can enjoy slow and compelling atmospheres with moving guitar and lush Hammond, or sumptuous outbursts with flashy Minimoog flights (like in Fallvind) and fiery guitar runs. To me Camel sounds as a main source of inspiration, especially in the tracks Sn', Nordlys, Smeltevann (swirling Hammond and flashy pitchbend driven Minimoog), Uv'r (dynamic and bombastic with fiery guitar), Sn'tind (great work on the Hammond) and the beautiful closer F'n, a Symphonic Rock Heaven, the wonderful violin sound comes from the Nord Stage as a MIDI-keyboard.

Alongside Camel I also trace obvious elements from other Seventies symphonic rock bands and artists. But Kornmo certainly doesn't sound derivative, lots of own musical ideas, highly recommended to the symphomaniacs who are into simply structured but very tastefully arranged melodic and harmonic instrumental 24-carat symphonic rock.

My rating: 3,5 star.

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