SWIFAN EOLH & THE MUDRA CHOIR

Scandi-prog whopper features a posthumous space whisper from Gilli Smyth.

Robustly affirming prog’s standing as keeper of the original hippie dream, this Norwegian outfit crucially offset their earnest woodlands ambience and complex Gentle Giant homaging with Gong-style cosmic wackiness, even deploying posthumous utterances from the late Gilli Smyth on Blessing Be. Singer-wordsmith-leader Rune Seip Bjørnflaten (aka Captain Cumulusnimbus) maintains, “The texts are expressions of a spiritually seeking attitude, finding inspiration in the esoteric traditions, addressing the labyrinths of the mind, still pointing out keys to freedom from the abyss of suffering.” The music runs its affectionate gamut of prog tropes, reaching back to VdGG and Crimson before pole-vaulting forward to guzzle snow off mountains they were about to climb. There’s operatic vocals, skintight ensemble riffing and jazz rock outbursts, notably the title track, chamber prog on Spiders In The Old Cafe, while Earth Shakes Rattles’N’Rolls mutates Big Joe Williams with wordless Magma-babble. When allowed to get going, the ensemble kick like a convoluted mule on Wounded Dreamers or float like a fluorescent butterfly on luminescent ballads including Heart Of Sadness.