The Flower Kings «Islands» (2020) (English)
progressive rock 9/10
InsideOut Music / Sony Music
The new album of progressive masters The Flower Kings came out much earlier than expected –
not even a year has passed since the previous one, «Waiting for Miracles» (2019). “To blame” for that is the pandemic – it wasn’t possible to tour, the scheduled performances at major festivals were canceled… But even in the most difficult circumstances the musicians were able to turn it for their own good: using the omnipresent Internet, they recorded a new album named «Islands». According to the group’s mastermind Roine Stolt, the islands are a symbol of isolation, loss and fear of disconnection. TFK members themselves are now scattered in different countries: guitarist / vocalist Roine Stolt and vocalist / guitarist Hasse Fröberg are in Sweden, bassist Jonas Reingold lives in Austria, keyboardist Zach Kamins – in the USA, drummer Mirkko DeMaio – in Italy. And even though progressive gods King Crimson already had the album «Islands» in 1971, a lot of water has flown under the bridge since then, and the islands from a metaphor of a psychedelic journey have turned into a symbol of loneliness. The great Roger Dean presented a suitable picture for a cover. And here we have a little miracle – the new double album of The Flower Kings.
On «Islands», like on «Waiting for Miracles», there are no 20-minute epics, conceptual complications and «divine lengths». The album is a cycle of twenty-one compositions, united by common themes and transitions into a large colorful canvas. The tracks go without pauses, with some kinds of harmonic bridges, and the division into two discs is made very precisely. In this album The Flower Kings are trying not to burden the listener with long reasoning. From the one hand, the musicians are moving to a distinctive song style, often with references to the rock classics – The Beatles, Queen, Simon & Garfunkel, early Yes. But from the other hand, there is everything what a sophisticated music lover needs: the aforementioned linkages and leitmotifs, “symphonic” arrangements, actual classical influences, virtuoso fragments, rich and meaningful multi-layered structures. Each composition is based on deep feelings, daring questions and sometimes even sorrowful emotions (the album is dedicated to the memory of Roine Stolt’s mother, who has gone in pandemic). But in general the music produces rather an enlightening, inspiring and therapeutic-calming effect.
Of course, I would like to write a few words about almost every composition, so why not do it? The opening «Racing with Blinders On», with its Moog twists and rhythmical breaks, sets in an alarming mood. In contrast, «From the Ground» is a warm and old-fashioned song performed by Stolt, telling about how everything living and real grows from the soil. Its nostalgic refrain appears later in “Solaris” – as a memory about the past. In «Black Swan» you can feel a certain Queen influence, as evidenced by the characteristic guitar stroke a la Brian May, and Fröberg’s theatrical and upbeat vocals. As Roine mentioned in one of his interviews, the song was written under the impression of the eponymous film by Darren Aronofsky, dedicated to the production of Swan Lake in New York. «Morning News» is another calm beatlesque song with light drum rolls by DeMayo and steady beat of Reingold’s «rubber bass» (as stated in the booklet). But this song also has a “double bottom”: about how “death is opening like a rose”, and which sad things you can hear in the morning news…
«Broken» – joyfully light, with the melody ringing on one note in the beginning, with the glimpses of Yes and dreams of an open sky in lyrics. A real prog hit! In the middle of it, the «swirling» collision of keyboard and guitar motives portrays the struggle of higher powers. «Goodbye Outrage» with its sad strings accompaniment sounds very sentimental. It’s difficult not to mention «Tangerine» with its unexpected soul intonations and funky rhythms. The vocals are split here between Stolt and Fröberg, who enter into a semi-improvisational psychedelic dialogue. The album’s longest track, the nine-minute “Solaris”, is a small journey through the styles and different periods of TFK’s creativity. In the waltz «Heart of the Valley» the subject of death is transformed into a jubilant theme of a world that unfolds «like a rose», but in «Telescope» (second disc) the same soaring words sound dull and tired.
The opening song for the 2nd CD is a striking «All I Need Is Love» by Hasse Fröberg. If I am not mistaken, this is the first composition he wrote for TFK since «Life Will Kill You» from «Paradox Hotel» (2006). Despite the name, the song is not a “remake” of The Beatles tune, but something completely different. Opening with a melancholic string intro, the song switches rather abruptly into a dramatic rock hit. А melody that spins like a spring accompanying by an acoustic guitar in Latino or flamenco style is balanced by a smooth, but excitedly inspired chorus, in which the smooth descending theme from the song’s intro is recognized (and, by the way, on 7/8). The middle instrumental section leads to Stolt’s slow’n’lazy guitar solo in David Gilmour style, and then to the uplift and even brighter start of the reprise. Everything is sung exclusively with inspiration and power. This is the culmination and personally my favorite track on the album.
Some compositions from different parts of the album seem to overlap with each other. “Solaris” corresponds to «Northern Lights» with its wintery numbness and mysterious twinkling of timbres. «Journeyman» (1st CD) and «Hidden Angels» (2nd CD) are short jazz-rock instrumentals. “Tangerine” is answered on the second disc by «Fool’s Gold» (dedicated to the recurring “power of gold” theme) with a prancing bass beat. The fast-paced «Serpentine» is very much adorned by Rob Townsend’s light soprano saxophone (Rob is known for his collaboration with Steve Hackett, The Sea Within, etc.; by the way, his location was the fifth – Rob recorded his parts in Denmark). But the themes being touched in this are also serious – human suffering, hunger, cruelty. And the good-natured penultimate «Between Hope & Fear», again referring either to The Beatles, or even to Dixieland, loops back with «From the Ground» and «Morning News».
There are also two instrumental themes, growing one from another, which play an important unifying role in the album. Their path goes from the dynamic «Racing with Blinders On» to the closing track of the 1st CD «Man in a Two Peace Suit» (or is it a two piece? pun, as usual), the expressive guitar (almost) instrumental «Looking For Answers» and cosmic «A New Species”, to the ending of “Between Hope & Fear” and the last anthemic track “Islands”. One of these themes is a wide breathing melody, soaring up and smoothly descending. You can call it a theme of hope – at least, it gives such a mood. The second is uplifting, solemn and pompous, and its finishes the album. The classic theme of The Flower Kings, and, by the way, it was invented by Roine Stolt somewhere on the island, during a vacation, when no one knew about the evil virus yet…
The flowering “symphonic” arrangements were made by Zach Kamins, this time entirely on synthesizers. The “synth-strings” timbres also unify the whole sound and give a strong connection with classical music. So the allusions to Tchaikovsky here and there (especial after a nod to “Black Swan”) no longer seem to be accidental. In general, Kamins contributed even more to the album than the previous time, and many compositions he wrote together with Stolt. One of Zach’s own piece is the «cinematic» instrumental «A New Species», in which you can hear the echoes of Prokofiev (oh, again!), the colorful play with the harmonies and the crazy interweaving between virtuoso keyboards and bass lines. Various «choirs», including Catholic chants in Latin, gives the music another dimension. These are reminding of TFK’s characteristic theme of the relationship between man and God, setting the mood to think of eternity and forming a frame for «Looking for Answers» – a great track in a vein of Roine Stolt’s guitar works.
Returning to the recording process, it’s interesting to compare “Islands” to “Waiting for Miracles”, which was recorded at Benny Anderson’s studio in Stockholm, where the Kings gathered for several days all together. Working at “Islands” on distance, musicians were sending audio files to each other and discussing all the details in messages. It’s good that technology allows this, and even such complicated process as drum recording can be done if you have your own studio with all the necessary equipment. Not least of all, we note that Mirkko DeMaio, in addition to the “usual” drum set, brought a lot of percussion into the score, including oriental one, which creates its own flavor. Is there a difference in sound quality? In my opinion, it is, but purely subjective. Maybe «Islands» sound a little more restrained and calm than the previous album, but on the whole, this work did not lower the usual quality of The Flower Kings recordings. All instruments are balanced, we can hear all the tiny details, and vocals are recorded perfectly. There is no impression that the musicians are “not together”. They are together, despite the distance.
And most importantly, music gives us the necessary dose of consolation and hope. Each of the «islands» is beautiful, mysterious and attractive. If you listen to the album several times in its entirety, then it will appear before you in all its integrity and completeness, with a system of musical and meaning connections, with a lot of beautiful themes, with answers to difficult questions, even expressed without words. With a wave crushing on a shore in the final track «Islands». So listen to it… and feel yourself like an island in a warm and gentle ocean. And for now it is quite clear, that “Islands” is one of the best prog albums of 2020.
Elena Savitskaya
progressive rock 9/10
InsideOut Music / Sony Music
9
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