NIGHT

Hailing from Norway. Their first three albums Bravo, When Earth Lets Go, and Firebird all share a similar sound, heavily influenced by the slightly progressive alternative music of Marillion and Radiohead. Night, however, is a concept album that shows the band making huge sonic strides.

The album deals with illusion vs. reality, specifically while dreaming, and the music they have made is appropriate for the subject matter. The album contains five sprawling epic tracks ranging from six and a half to seventeen minutes in length. The music is atmospheric and dark, with violin and pianos abound, sharing similarities with Pink Floyd, Radiohead and Marillion.

These similarities are no more apparent than on the opener, "Dream of Stone." It is soft and slow, building at a snail's pace, possibly capable of inducing sleep if the listener wasn't paying attention to its haunting beauty. "Chequered Light Buildings" calls to mind Radiohead, mostly because singer Jan Henrik Ohme sometimes sounds uncannily like Thom Yorke. This song is like a condensed version of "Dream of Stone," as the guitar and violin slowly become more and more prominent, but unlike the opener, it doesn't go through several movements. Its structure, which is much more "normal," also adds credence to the Radiohead comparison. This song flows seamlessly into "Upside Down," which is arguably the best song on the album. Some of the catchiest and most beautiful moments of the entire record, are on this song. While some prominent keyboard work from Thomas Andersen combined withj Ohme's own hypnotizing vocals drive the song forward until violinist Mikael Kromer gently closes everything out. "Valerie's Friend" is the most accessible song on the record. The song goes back and forth for five minutes between calmer, acoustic sections and heavy, electric sections, before another orchestral-sounding outro. The outro connects it to the album's closer, "Massive Illusion," thirteen minutes of brilliance. Things border on typical for the first two minutes and forty seconds, before the song turns folkie, with acoustic guitars, vocal harmonies, and hand-claps overpowering the ambiance. Things straighten out eventually, almost sounding like a grander version of their earlier work, until the nine-minute mark, where everything drops out except for the violin and piano. This duo provides a wonderful conclusion to a wonderful album, until even they exeunt, leaving us with a minute of peaceful street traffic; the night is over.

If you like subtle music with a thousand little nuances filling the many layers, then Night is highly recommended.