Hard to describe what’s going on in Triangulus and Björn J:son Lindh. The closest analog I could think of 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.
Triangulus (half of this album’s equation) was born out of the “famous in Sweden” prog group Ragnarök that sound exactly as Swedish prog should sound like: clean, minimal European jazz mixed with “epic” Canterbury-style folk prog. Björn J:son Lindh has the longer trajectory, shifting from early, spiritual jazz-influenced jazz-funk into hardcore fusion, then off into esoteric ambient ECM-like jazz, while finally shifting into the stage where we’re catching him in: explorer of fourth world, dance and New Age music. Electric, minimal prog mixed with flutey spacey jazz, spacey synth explorations, orchestral funk, and fuzzy slap bass make up the majority of the structures propping up this album and teaming up to explore groove oriented music that could be mellow, rocking, and slightly funky in a way unexpected from such prior musical lineage.
Straddling many genres – New Age, Art Pop, ambient, balearic, and world music – Triangulus and Björn J:son Lindh pays very little lip service to what traditional prog listeners want (which alienates a lot of old prog heads who might be reviewing this album), but for the greater good, of course, more open minded listeners can see the specialness in their blend. A very hard to describe album, it’s sunny when the components are dark, and can get dark when the grooves are sunny. There are still parts that make you wince, but even those dated parts are forgiven when other tracks pitch such interesting atmospheric grooves that do hold a lot of intrigue.
Anyway, that’s enough of my yapping, it’s better when you take a listen and try to make sense of it yourself.
One response
It truly is a mesh up of different styles, cool stuff.