We’re late on this one but its epic-ness has New Year, new challenges written all over it and so is perfectly appropriate right now to the changing year and those challenges that we all know are coming with it and which will directly impact on the Nordic countries.
Even the title is portentous if you were to read ‘the forest’ as a metaphor for international politics, and we all know where the most noise is coming from.
Robec is Bergen-based synth virtuoso Marius T. Røbech, a former member of Ocean of Lotion that has graduated from guitars to a soundscape of pulsating synthesisers combined with repetitive grooves and twangy guitars as he progressed into the prog rock world.
As an aficionado of 1960s-80s prog I often felt that this is one of the directions it would go off in as its earliest advocates departed the scene (the other was a more metal-based one as symphonic metal continues to morph into).
One of five tracks on the ‘The forest is too loud’ EP and the ultimate one, this title bearer ranges instrumentally during in excess of 15 minutes over soft and simple piano melodies backed by synthesised oriental bells that might have been plucked out of the cosmos; a section that might have backed any Michael Mann film (including the Miami Vice series); a brief instrumental traffic jam; a ‘Middle Eastern’ passage; an overwhelming full-on cinematic prog part followed by an EDM feature that could have been penned by Paul Oakenfold and played in a sleazy Koreatown nightclub in Los Angeles (you know the film…).
And that’s all in the first 10 minutes.
Then it is bridged by a return visit to the twinkling firmament as all telescopes are turned towards the next interstellar interloper prior to an immense and heavily percussioned outro that announces that something very significant has happened.
That percussion incidentally comes courtesy of Sondre Veland, drummer with Major Parkinson and Wardruna, both of which are known for monumental instrumental pieces like this.
But this is on another level.
It’s a shoo-in for when Trump collects his Nobel Prize in Oslo next year (he hopes).
(Continues after the Spotify link)
https://open.spotify.com/track/7rRti1LKg7WjBlIuPZvVw9?si=b05856fa7a834b30
Find him/them on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dasmaffa
Bandcamp (link to album): https://robec.bandcamp.com/album/the-forest-is-too-loud
Photo by Jarle H. Moe
