Trøbbel Bjørn Torske

Ambitions is Prins Thomas’ 6th album and his second solo album for Smalltown Supersound (plus two duo albums with Bjørn Torske and Bugge Wesseltoft). Ambitions (out April 5th) picks up from were he left off with Principe Del Norte. Still ambitious, but the tracks are shorter, more melodic and more concise. Prins Thomas also offers up his first vocal track, lead single "Feel A Love." Or to be precise, it's based around a sample of the track "Feel A Love" by one of the biggest pop-stars in Norway in the 70s and 80s, the late Alex (Naumik).

Icelandic bass-baritone Andri Björn Róbertsson, and pianist Ástríður Alda Sigurðardóttir, perform Robert Schumann’s Liederkreis op. 24 and Liederkreis op. 39, along with seven songs by the Icelandic composer Árni Thorsteinson. The two Liederkreise were composed during Schumann´s Year of Song in 1840. More than sixty years later Thorsteinson began publishing his songs, and they were instantly regarded as national treasures by the Icelandic nation. The programme invites the listener on a mysterious journey through nature, love, death and the unknown.

This is an album of calm, serene, and playful music inspired by the nordic/scandinavian forests and mountains. Appearing on guitar is Ken Senior, who has often been complimented on his warm, melodic guitar style, and he fits perfectly into the melodic music on this album. Also some medieval inspired passages - pastoral, mystic and, well, just different. What really makes this album a joy to listen to, is the number of small "bridges", connecting the various songs. The music seamlessly flows into and out of the different parts, while it all appears to hang together. One theme is played in variuos incarnations, giving you the feeling that that it's all building up to a rousing finale.

'Revive' sees Bjorn move away from his recent epic albums to an album that appears much more influenced by bands such as Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream. It quite a shift away from his more recent albums, and one that may well ostracise some of his fans as he has moved away from the progressive feel into an area that is much more in the vein of Krautrock. There are places, such as in "Moongazer", when the guitar makes an appearance but for the most part this is very highly keyboard dominated.

Bjorn Lynne has gained much admiration among both the EM & symphonic/progrock crowds for the way he has mastered the unifying of these differing musical styles. While the music on this album seems to have been influenced by his work in these areas, it reveals a new variation on Bjorn's hybrid of styles by introducing some exciting funk, jazz & even soul stylings. This is immediately obvious once the opening tracks "Turbo Grid" & "Play Dirty" get into their stride. The scorching rhythms are full of good old-fashioned funk while the guitars of Bjorn & guest axe man Marc Pattison lay down some red hot licks & grinding rhythm patterns that should keep the rockers amongst you happy, there's even the unmistakeable sound of the Minimoog in there, too, what more could you possibly ask for?

Klaus Gesing, Bjorn Meyer, Samuel Rohrer: Amiira The trio of Swiss drummer & percussionist Samuel Rohrer, Swedish bass guitarist Björn Meyer and German reedsman Klaus Gesing first came together in 2013 when they released their only previous recording, open_source_music. Before they joined forces, each of the three had had years of experience on the road playing various styles of music. On coming together, their stated intention was to dissolve the borders between improvisation and composition, with the music on that debut recording demonstrating that they lived up to that intention.

Hard to describe what’s going on in Triangulus and Björn J:son Lindh. The closest analog - would be what would happen if the Alan Parson’s Project relocated to the island of Majorca and replaced their members with Swedish electro-acoustic minimalists. Imagine a very math-y (complex, musical time signatures galore) version of Balearic music that’s as interested in taking you on a tropical journey as it is into not completely shaking off its progressive Scandinavian experimental heritage. Because that’s basically what it is. A mix of Triangulus’ minimal prog style with the late Björn J:son Lindh’s ambient flute-driven jazz-fusion creating a not so distant kin of Coste Apetrea‘s similar, ruminative ideas…