Taken its name of Norse mythology by Snorri Sturluson’s Manuscripts of the Prose Edda by describing Gylfaginning as one of the halls of Asgard, Breidablik (Broad-gleaming) are an electro group from Bergen, Norway who launched back ten years ago. Inspired by the Berlin School of Electronic Music Movement in the 1970s and ‘80s, founder Morten Birkeland Nielsen has a lot of creativity by taking it a step further.
He goes beyond the aspects of Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, and Cluster by proving listeners that it’s more than the krautrock influences that he keeps inside his pocket. But being signed to the Apollon label, it gives him more power and brainstorming ideas he has brought to the kitchen table with the latest release, Alduorka.
It is an instrumental concept story about waves. You can close your eyes and imagine yourself watching the oceans crash right in front of your eyes. Tracks like the opening ‘Alda’ coming to life in this 8-bit video game soundtrack that takes aspects of Final Fantasy and Zelda II: The Adventures of Link. You have the Riley-sque structures that have come to life by playing on a loop and crossing over to the Abyss with Brad Fidel’s score to the 1984 sci-fi/action film, The Terminator.
‘Orka I’ is a trip-hop voyage into the unknown. You can feel the guitars going on this joy ride honouring Steve Hillage. It grabs you unexpectedly by diving into this whirlpool spin of terror while landing into the planet Arrakis for ‘Rán’. It becomes this nightmarish synthesised dust bowl that puts you on a jaw-dropping wonder.
‘Hraznō’ returns back to the waves crashing with its synth-like creatures taking listeners to the heart of the jungle. You can feel the heat, the sweat off your brow, and danger lurking behind you, there are aspects between Phaedra and Sorcerer rolled into one by transforming itself into this massive landscape.
But as the guitars come kicking in, it gives an approach to Bo Hansson’s Lord of the Rings-era. Now I can’t tell if its Oftung or Birkeland make this massive run to the flight of the fjords, but the mellotrons come swooshing in by adding more danger on the arrangements as ‘Himinglæva ok Kolga’ offers a calming-ominous storm that is approaching the city by clearing out the bad memories you had when you were very young.
During the piece, I had this complete image of the keyboards playing through a morse code-loop whilst the grey clouds come pushing in to increase more cold temperatures as it fades off into the night to give ‘Orka II’ the final curtain call with a fast-paced drive into the highway. With its ‘80s pack vibration, Breidablik are bringing everything to a standstill.
You feel the pulsing drum beats, bass, and synths that are on this cliffhanger, not knowing where the next chapter awaits for Nielsen to return. This album fills those massive voids that Breidablik unleashed. A concept album about waves? Well, it works very well to bring the terror and beauty that is brought to the silver screen.
