JORDSJO & BREIDABLIK: KONTRASTER

Ever since I discovered Jordsjø in 2017, there were two things I wished for and one was to record a side-length piece, another was to get Lars Fredrik Frøislie to make a guest appearance. Well, it looks like one of my wishes came true, and that's to record a side-length piece. As for Lars appearing, that hasn't happened. Probably because he wishes to record in his own home studio (the fact much of his gear is of authentic vintage, he probably doesn't want to move them around due to reliability issues, especially because much of it is at least 50 years old now). Kontraster is the second split release by Jordsjø with Breidablik, after Songs from the Northern Wasteland back in 2016. Kontraster is Norwegian for "Contrasts", which could have been easily guessed by me. And that aptly describes this. First side is Jorsdjø's piece. No surprise it's all Håkon Oftung on vocals, guitar, flute, and assorted keyboards, and Kristian Frøland on drums. It sounds like what you expect from these two guys, great retro-prog with lots of great vintage keys, vocals in Norwegian, and flute, and it's great to see them pull off an almost 20-minute piece. I knew they could pull that off, so I can't imagine that stopping them on a proper full-on Jordsjø release. I imagine Håkon wasn't confident he could pull off a 20-minute piece, as no Jordsjø piece ever went much beyond 10 minutes. Either that, or he was fearing a Tales from Topographic Oceans type of album from them (I couldn't imagine that. Jordsjø has always been too modest for that). Breidablik's contribution is, unsurprisingly much more electronic, with lots of eerie ambient passages and sequencer-dominated passages as well. He gets Håkon to play guitar and flute, as well as a real drummer, not Kristian Frøland, but Trond Gjellum, a drummer that's not familiar to me although he assisted on the previous Breidablik album Alduorka. Prior to that it was a drum machine (but only used occasionally), as most of the time, Breidablik recordings is entirely by Morten Birkeland Nielsen himself. This is incredible stuff, and it shows how Jordsjø is some of the greatest prog going these days as Breidablik is for electronic music.

A rather odd format for the release of new material, but here we have Hakon Oftung's two main projects, the Prog Folk-oriented Jordsj' and the Prog Electronic Breidablik, each presenting epic-length songs that would take up full sides of a vinyl album, curiously, both titled "Kontraster." Are they supposed to represent two separate "bands'" versions of the same song?

1. Jordsj' - "Kontraster" (19:51) acoustic guitars and tuned percussion instruments (including kalimba) lead the way in opening this song with a Prog Folk motif. Flutes and full band join in and Hakon makes a proggier song with gentle vocals sung in Norwegian. At the end of the third minute the instrumentation turns electric and the song's volume and density suddenly ramps up into full-on prog territory. The music is now definitely prog rock but there is little new or excessively complex until about the five minute mark (more like Norwegian prog by the numbers). Heavy full band chords sounding like a URIAH HEEP song set the stage for electric guitar, Hammond, flutes, and synth to take turns adding their accents and flourishes all in a very WOBBLER-Yes kind of fashion before thinning out around the six- minute mark for some flute, bass, and distorted electric guitar tip-toe three-way weaving. This little motif dominates for about 90 seconds before gently fading out. At 8:00 there is a return to the all-acoustic sound palette of the open with some slightly different presentations to make a new weave with Hakon again singing, quite delicately--like a conspiratorial whisper--for a few seconds while guitar, flute, bass and drums inject their inputs around the sonosphere rather playfully for a bit. At the ten minute mark the music switches back into Hammond-backed Prog Folk Rock so that flute, electric guitar, and organ can trade solos on a new melody line. At 11:30 comes another switch: back to vocals, this time with strumming guitars and a flute flying around rather obnoxiously. This only lasts for a little over a minute before the music switches back to the Hammond-and-bass bombast (which I associate with a lot of Jordsj''s music), this time setting up a 1960s jazz-surf-guitar for some simple solo time while organ, synth strings and 'Tron malevolently build behind. When the guitar solo starts to sound like an early Pink Floyd Space Oddity, the rest of the instruments slowly back off, leaving an acoustic guitar and some exotic percussion to play with each other for a while. By the 17-minute mark the percussion has been absorbed into a full rock pattern on the drum kit while Hakon performs a Starship Trooper chord progression on the acoustic and electric guitars, over and over, as if to set up some Steve Howe electric guitar soloing--which does occur in the 19th minute. It's so darn close to the Yes song that one cannot help but cringe a little--especially as this version is nowhere near as good as Yes' version. The song closes with some tuned percussion and rock chords before the drum kit shuts down with a band from the kick drum. Unfortunately, there is just not enough fresh or particularly remarkable material here to constitute high marks. Plus, the Yes-copy-gone-wrong finale definitely gives cause for demerits. I like the delicate, almost jazzy note play of all of the weaving instruments, I just don't find anything here that compels me to want to come back. (34.75/40)

2. Breidablik - "Kontraster" (20:14) spacey jets of synth sounds, spacey Mellotron voices, and synth strings weave within and without one another in the opening to this song before Morten Birkeland Nielsen's Berlin School electronic sequence enters and, gradually, becomes the foundation. In the fourth minute the last of the intro's celestial jet sounds seems to end while a more-consistent Edgar Froese-like electric guitar plays its spacey solo. By the sixth minute all of this has been faded out and we're left with a more New Age floating synth motif over which a flute flits and flutters, but then in the seventh minute a new electronic sequence starts up over which 'tron voices, synth wash chords, star-water-dripping sounds, and picked and plucked jazzy electric guitar notes are woven together in another familiar, more Jonn Serrie-like New Age motif. It's nice; it's pretty; but there is nothing new or innovative here. The next electronic sequence-based motif, established in the 13th minute, is great: with rock drum and bass foundation: it's kind of a combined Force Majeure-era Tangerine Dream combined with aspects more familiar to us from early Ozric Tentacles. At 15:25 this motif ends and we're suddenly brought face-to-face with a more malevolent theme that is obviously inspired by Vangelis' soundtrack music to the Sci-Fi film, Blade Runner. Flute joins in as this plays out-- church tower bells and jungle noises as well--giving this final motif a return to TD territory. Nice finish. A pretty decent and cohesive tribute to the Berlin School and other veins of Progressive Electronic music. (36/40)

Total Time 40:05

An odd album of contrasting styles for one song idea (or is it?) with the main protagonist being the common thread joining the two songs, bands, and sounds: multi-instrumentalist Hakon Oftung. Like Mike Oldfield, the man is quite gifted, I just wish he could/would get past the emulation, imitation, and replication of past masters and try to craft music that is more original--music that reveals more of his own unique soul.

B/four stars; an excellent if unexceptional and overly-derivative/imitative contribution to the lexicon of Retro and Tribute Prog.