Gamle Meister- Progressive Voyages Review PV076

Gamle Meister – Lars Frederick Froislie- Progressive Voyages Review PV076

This remarkable album comes from Wobbler Keyboard player Lars Frederick Froislie and is his second solo release after Fire Foretellinger from 2013, whilst I’ve never heard that I have heard Wobblers music in the past and noted that wobbler use vintage equipment in their sound most impressively, which is possibly why this latest release from Lars continues with that same tradition.

The album Gamle Meister (Old Master) consists of six tracks, the title is from a painting of a tree found at Krodsherad Presegard in Norway. And a poem of the same title by Jorgen Moe, the tree represents a theme through the album espousing Wisdom, Endurance and the passing of time.

It is a largely instrumental album although Lars does sing softly in Norwegian, the vocals serve as a further instrument rather than being the focus of track, the vocals tracks,

The album naturally has a very 1970’s feel, and fans of the classic fans of Rick Wakeman, ELP, Camel, Yes and others will definitely find much that will appeal to their ears as this wonderfully composed, constructed and performed music encapsulates Al the finest progressive music of that era in a very satisfying and worthwhile manner, You never get the feeling that this is a copy of that time rather this is music that is inspired and influenced by those halcyon days.

The album begins with Demring (Dawn), which is a masterful blend of vintage instrumentation including Mellotron, Moog synthesisers and Hammond Organ amongst others, This track has a strong touch of Rick Wakeman Six Wives album, In it use of Hammond and Synths and also a strong bass line and simple drum patterns, that adhere to the beat and lock in with the bass, it’s not a long track but certainly operates as a great opening salvo, the subtle flute echoes Camel’s Snow Goose album, the only element missing would be Andy Latimer’s beautiful guitar lines, in fact the whole album lacks guitar.

Although there is an acoustic guitar on De Tre Gratier (the three Graces) which adds colour to a great track, the whole album is very cinematic in tone and really blends together to make a cohesive and colourful statement, it has moods and textures that emerge the more you listen to it. This feels like an album that you will return to frequently as it’s warmth and strong and sensitive music really makes a positive impression on you as you hear its sheer elegance and class. In places where you think you hear a guitar are really synthesisers, it’s almost like where Queen used to state No Synthesisers! this album maybe should state “No Electric Guitar”

De Tre Gratier (The three Graces) refers to the daughters of Zeus rather the buildings of the same name that adorn the waterfront of Liverpool, this is another of the albums longer tracks which leaves lots of room for excellent keyboard adventures and a strong rhythm section of bass and drums that interplay between the wonderful vintage keyboards sounds, the Hammond and the Moog Synths in a really complementary manner here the acoustic guitar has more than a touch of ELP’s Greg Lake and comes across like an outtake from the Trilogy album, which is very high praise indeed.

The album really is a fantastic listen and you can hear just how lovingly it has been completed with the graceful and sympathetic mastering of Jacob Holm Lupo (of White Willow and others) which is incredibly warm and beautiful and adds another level of class to this very sophisticated and yet very endearing album.

The albums final track is Skumring (Dusk) which is gentle melodious piano piece, which adds great colour to what has preceded it and as a solo piano piece, has lots of moods and shades of colour moving from very gentle to very strident and emotionally charged section before returning to a calm closing motif and melody, it really is a very graceful piece of music that concludes what is quite frankly a brilliant release, One I will return to often as it really is something very special indeed.

I seriously urge you to explore this wonderthil album for yourself I have a feeling that you might well thank me for this.

Info here: www.larsfrederickfroeslie.bandcamp.com.

Author John Wenlock-Smith