MUNDUS INCOMPERTUS

This was Par Lindh's follow-up to his masterpiece "Gothic Impressions". The former was a work that germinated in the seventies and bloomed in the nineties (a labour of love) with the help of many esteemed guests. On this album Par has a band (one that he toured with) and some guests to fill out the sound.This is not nearly as epic or extravagant as "Gothic Impressions" and it's quite different sounding as well. It's like he has this Rock band helping him with this Symphonic, seventies flavoured Prog. In fact there's a picture of the band in the liner notes, and they look like a Heavy Metal band. Make no mistake though this is organ dominated Progressive music done seventies style with a female vocalist.

"Baroque Impression No. 1" opens with female vocal melodies but church organ takes over quickly. It kicks in then settles back as this continues for a while. Aboe and harpichord lead when it calms back down. It kicks back in after 3 minutes. "The Crimson Shield" features clavinet and vocals with some mellotron. Not a fan of this one at all. Some recorder and percussion later.

"Mundus Incompertus" is by far the highlight of this album. Some really aggressive organ and drum work here as the song changes and evolves over it's almost 27 minutes. Vocals and drums to start . It picks up 2 minutes in with organ. Great sound a minute later.This continues until it settles after 9 1/2 minutes. It kicks back in at 11 minutes then another calm 2 minutes later with vocals. Violin before 14 1/2 minutes while organ and mellotron follow.The tempo picks up and it gets fuller before 17 minutes. Violin 18 1/2 minutes then the vocals return 2 minutes later. Guitar follows then organ and violin. It kicks back in after 23 minutes. Nice.

Interesting that Par bought ANEKDOTEN's old twin-keyboard Mark V mellotron and he puts it to good use here. A good album but for me it pales when compared to "Gothic Impressions". 3.5 stars.