ANEKDOTEN: Until All The Ghosts Are Gone (PROGRESSIVE ROCK): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

If Anekdoten is not the most prolific of the Swedish progressive rock bands, of the six albums written in twenty-two years this "Until All The Ghosts Are Gone" is the one that took the longest to appear. And it is not the compilation "Chapters" released in 2009 that satisfied the appetites. In response to Nicklas Barker's pure improvisation work over the past four years on his project 'My Brother The Wind', the composer took the time to mature Anekdoten's six new pieces as the recording sessions for "Until All The Ghosts Are Gone" began in May 2013. With the current trend towards the renewal of 70's sounds, we can say that this return is already a winner for this band which provides a progressive rock of another century, sometimes described as past.

If by its title and iconography "Until All The Ghosts Are Gone" does not shake up tradition and remains in the customary symbolism of Anekdoten, the musical content operates a relative fracture compared to the main orientations of the previous album. First of all, it is a beginning with the sublime inaugural piece "Shooting Star" which brings to the forefront a stretched creation, absent in the last two productions, carried by a vintage inspiration closer to the last 'Opeth' than 'King Crimson', and the presence on keyboards of Per Wiberg is not foreign to it. The process is perfectly driven by the technical performances of great accuracy and is characterized by a deep melodic search. Without being the height of exhilaration, "Shooting Star" sets the tone for an album that will touch with its melancholy without falling into darkness or sadness. The next seven minutes of 'Get Out Alive' are particularly generous in emotional expression, with its ethereal frippian guitar flights, superb vocal modulations and heart-rending choruses reminiscent of Radiohead.

"Until All The Ghosts Are Gone" plays mainly on the amplitude of the atmospheres, stripping away the complexity that could sometimes weigh on the effectiveness of the compositions, and abandons dissonance in favour of strict melodic logic. If "Gravity" and "A Time Of Day" were already carrying the pop temptation of the Swedes, "Until All The Ghosts Are Gone" largely invests this disposition in a progressive and pastoral variant close to Anglagard, Landberk and Steven Wilson's solo work. Orchestrated by a band that has found its highest degree of harmony and balance, the three forest walks "If I All Comes Down To You", "Writing On The Wall" and "Until All The Ghosts Are Gone" express this folk and romantic colour with great breadth. The primacy of keyboards, which have always stamped the sound of Scandinavian instruments (mellotron, Rhodes organs and pianos), is contested here by the diversity of instruments, more specifically the bass, guitars and flutes of Theo Travis. And when the instrumental finale sounds, "Our Days Are Numbered", which makes a return to a heavier modality, it is Gustav Nygren's Luciferic saxophone that sets the dramatic tension, interprets the pagan rite, and guides the ascent of the piece towards its cathartic emotional intensity.

"Until All The Ghosts Are Gone" is probably the most immediate and affordable album of the quartet and turns out to be, without totally embodying the musical spectrum of the band, an ideal entry point to enter the bewitching universe of Anekdoten. The impression of clarity has never been so evident in the construction of the titles, the emotional tone, and the clear production that offers a comfortable listening and a fluid immersion, up to the messages conveyed by Jan Erik Liljeström's texts, imbued with positivity and spirituality. With these six magnificent compositions in total coherence, Anekdoten has built a remarkable work that invites introspection and enchantment. - Official website

ANEKDOTEN

UNTIL ALL THE GHOSTS ARE GONE

AUTRE LABEL

PROGRESSIVE ROCK