Swedish vocals, instrumental
International relevance: ***
Founded in 1976 and hailing from
Halmstad (home of Per Gessle), Tolkien fans and symphonic rockers Isildurs Bane didn't make
their album debut until 1984 with ”Sagan om den irländska älgen”
('the saga of the Irish elk'). They weren't entirely unknown then,
having recorded a lengthy session for Swedish Radio's slot for live
music Tonkraft in 1982. And they'd been recording prior that, as
archival compilation ”Lost Eggs” reveals.
Seven of of the
tracks herein fall outside the scope of this blog as they were
recorded between 1984 and 1994, but the remainder was put to tape
between 1976 and 1982. So let's concentrate on them.
I'm not a fan at all of the synthetic
approximation of British prog rock somewhere between Jethro Tull and
Gentle Giant as presented on ”Sagan om den irländska älgen”, but their sound was most deliberate as proven by these early tapes. Many of their
elements were already in place, the mid 70's FM rock guitars, the
dated synthesizers, the 'complex' time signatures, the twee vocals
and the overall cheesiness. The only difference is that ”Lost Eggs”
isn't as cohesive as their proper albums, but that's no surprise as it wasn't recorded as such.
Isildurs Bane nevertheless proved to be
a long lasting and well liked unit. They've even released two
collaborative albums with prog master Peter Hammill in 2019 and 2021
respectively.
Full album playlist (Bandcamp)
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