6 ELEFANTSKOVCIKADEVISER (POVL DISSING & BURNIN RED IVANHOE)

The band recorded this LP in the same years as W.W.W. together with Danish folk singer Povl Dissing and therefore it has understandably a quite folkish nature. Most of the songs here resemble rather songwriter material though being played with a nice versatile instrumentation and presented with quite funny sounding vocals (probably mostly due to Danish language used). Nevertheless this album cannot stand comparisons with their previous three ones having only one track (Tingel-tangelmanden) that will appeal easily to fans of early 70's heavy prog with over 10 minutes and great guitar/flute play. Thus only interesting for collectors and fans of this excellent Danish band, but worth an extra half star for this track alone.

6 Elefantskovcikadeviser is the fourth studio album from Danish progressive jazz/ rock act Burnin´ Red Ivanhoe. Or rather it´s a collaboration between Burnin´ Red Ivanhoe and Danish folk singer Povl Dissing. Poul Dissing was and still is one of the most prolific musicians on the Danish music scene. Ask any Dane and they will know who Povl Dissing is. His most famous work is called Svantes Viser and it´s an album he did in collaboration with prolific Danish poet and author Benny Andersen.

Burnin´ Red Ivanhoe´s normal progressive jazz/ rock approach has been left in the background on 6 Elefantskovcikadeviser which is basically a folk rock album with Danish sung lyrics. Burnin´ Red Ivanhoe is known for their elaborate intrumental sections, but on this album the instrumentation is a bit more stripped down.

The album consists of nine tracks, but there are really only six real songs on the album as Introduction sigvaldi, Kometen v sigvaldi and Introduction til Medardus are basically only some live talking. Wallifanten is the first real song and it´s great. One of the best songs on the album. It´s also the first song where we´re introduced to Povl Dissing´s characteristic voice. Narrevise is the next song. Again it´s a great folky track but it´s the next song Snehvidekys ( Snowwhite Kiss) which takes the price as the best song on the album for me. It ´s an extremely beautiful and emotionally sung love song that really moves me. Ta fri ta fri us another great bluesy folk rock song and the same can be said about Et Samfund which is the only song on the album where Povl Dissing doesn´t sing. Ole Fick handles the vocals on this song as he usually does on Burnin´ Red Ivanhoe´s albums. Tingel-Tangelmanden is a reworking of the original track from the debut and it has extensive soloing during it´s 10:27 minutes and some great vocals from Povl Dissing. This is probably the song that will be most enjoyable for fans of the first three classic albums from the band ( M144, Burnin´ Red Ivanhoe and W.W.W.).

The musicianship is as always excellent even though this music is much more basic than the more challenging playing which takes place on the first three albums from the band. Povl Dissing will be an aquired taste, first of all because he sings in Danish but also because of his distinct vocal style which will probably scare some people away( he is very famous in Denmark because of his vocal style and his poetic lyrics). Despite of the lineup info here on PA, the sleeve notes on the original album says that it´s the same lineup who recorded W.W.W. who also recorded this album just with the addition of Povl Dissing on the latter.

The production is excellent. Nothing to complain about there.

6 Elefantskovcikadeviser is not an album that will satisfy many visitors here on PA and it has something to do with knowing the Danish language because half of the enjoyment here IMO is the way Povl Dissing sings the poetic lyrics and that part unfortunately gets lots in translation. But for people who like folk rock with a bluesy touch this might be an enjoyable album anyway. I like the album so I´ll rate it 3 stars.