Hasse Fröberg & Musical Companion «Parallel Life» (2019)
The fourth album of Hasse Fröberg & Musical Companion – the Swedish band led by vocalist and guitarist Hasse Fröberg (The Flower Kings, Spellbound) – is no doubt a new peak in their creative life. Moving away from the hard’and’art of the first two albums (FuturePast, 2010 and Powerplay, 2012) and developing the best “progressive” sides of the third, simply entitled “HFMC” (2015), the group came to “progressiveness” in the widest sense of the word. “Parallel Life” is a mature, deep, elaborate piece of work with serious subjects of songs, inspired melodies, excellent guitar and keyboard solos, a built-up development of all compositions (even at first glance simple in form). And at the same time – there is no complexity for the sake of complexity, no the notorious “mathematical calculation” and prog cliché. If the song requires it, HFMC can go to neighboring territories – prog metal, even soul and blues. It always turns out to be appropriate and fresh, although sometimes unexpectedly. But it’s wonderful when music can surprise us, isn’t it?
The album «Parallel Life» as a «creative product» is actually brought to the ideal. Moving away from his principle of recreation of live sound in studio, Hasse Fröberg this time did exactly the opposite and embodied all his ideas in the studio, regardless of the number of overlays, additional parts and instruments. This time he worked in the new Soundfront Productions studio with sound engineer Kjell Sandberg; together they also produced the album. The work took quite a long time, but it was worth it. The general sound score attracts with its scope and variety of timbres, well-thought and multi-layered arrangements. The main vocals sound clean, clear and rich (more in prog but not hard rock key). It’s worth to note the contribution of other musicians, their own performing style. This time, guitarist Anton Lindsjö performed an incredible amount of talented solos, as well as keyboardist Kjell Haraldson; bassist Thomas Thomsson and drummer Ola Strandberg, as before, play diverse and precise. Kjell and Ola also acted as authors: both, together with Hasse, took part in the composing of the song “Parallel Life”, and “Time Waits” in general (music and words) was wrote by Strandberg.
If we are talking about specific compositions, then the prog rock can not acting without long and complex «epics». The album opens with a 22-minute (did you want progressive?) composition “Parallel Life”, the main subject of which is the impact of social media on our lives. These networks, as you know, draw in, leading us far from reality into an illusory world where everyone can put on a mask and play a role. The wonderful Ed Unitsky’s drawing on the cover is associated with this track. Someone forecasts the “truth”, like a prophet, someone makes fun of everything, someone pretends to be successful… (just want to add: someone complains about life and someone just pointlessly spends his time, but such characters are no on the picture). A whole page could be devoted to the analysis of this six-part composition, in which contrasting music themes are opposed and “struggling” to each other. But we’ll only say – in the struggle of the “prophets” (which are characterized by a tough chromatic riff by the organ, an unusual triton theme by the voice and almost thrash metal tremolo guitars) and those who do not obey the laws of a parallel world (beautiful lyrical melodies, sometimes with a beatlesque hue) the author himself, no doubt, is on the side of the latter. The positive forces seems to be winning, and the “theme of life” is affirmed in a solemn chord progression, reminiscent of the most sublime and magnificent moments of Yes’s work.
Further, the story goes into the realm of personal. You can “run away” not only to the social network, but to the memories of the past – when the grass was greener and the trees were higher… The joyless and carefree “Sleeping with the Ghost” charges us with energy of rhythm’and’blues and with some “summer” mood. “Time Waits” is a more retro-prog composition (you can also hear something from The Flower Kings in it), with complex vocal melodies, old fashion organ and quite pompous sound. However, it gives way to warmth and sincerity, when the song’s author – Ola Strandberg – sings in the middle semi-acoustic section. “All Those Faces” is a memory of different people and places seen on tour (again greetings from the life of a rocker), a musically quite unexpected number with a straightforward beat and dreamy and nostalgic soul notes in vocals (and the piano part has a slight latino flavor!). You know, writing a “catchy” song that you even want to dance to is a great art. “Rain” is the most amazing song on the album. Starting as a quiet ballad, through a plain song chorus, it unfolds into an ecstatic anthem: the voice as if proclaims eternal truth under the overthrowing chords of the “church” organ. And then, from the silence, as from the air, the sounds of a guitar arise – gradually its touching blues intonations fill an ever larger volume, soar to the sky, to the heart, causing a painful and at the same time bright feeling. What is it, tears?.. Like night rain, pouring in silence, purifies the soul, this composition is almost a catharsis. Its subtext becomes clear when you read Hasse’s comment that “Rain” was written under the impression of his father’s death… So this is a goodbye song, but the goodbye is full of light.
Life overcomes death, and the next «Friday» is a drastic hard rock song, although it, in fact, is not just a story about merry parties, if you listen to sharp organ and vocal themes, somewhat reminiscent of the «prophet» from «Parallel Life». And the album closes with another epic “Never Alone”, in which the “Christmas” organ theme is the leitmotif: it helps to conquer the sadness of loneliness that arises in vocal lines, the severity of the path, goes through all tempo and mood shifts in guitar and keyboard solos in order to sound at the end as a major apotheosis.
So, “Parallel Life” is obviously one of the HFMC’s highlights, and songs like “Rain” are genuine masterpieces (“All Those Faces” and “Time Waits” are quite close to that). But telling so, we do not neglect the merits of previous albums, especially “HFMC” (2015). It is difficult to say which of these two works is better or «more progressive» (the author of these lines maybe stuck even more to the previous album). Therefore, both records earned the highest score. Yes, and the early works also full of beautiful songs. The Flower Kings is also activated; their new album “Waiting for Miracle” will be released in November this year.
Elena Savitslaya
progressive rock 10/10
GlassVille Records
10
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