By: Stuart Benjamin
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The band have certainly done their homework – there are plenty of nods to classic 1970s prog such as Peter Gabriel era Genesis, Van Der Graaf Generator, King Crimson, Gentle Giant, and Tangerine Dream. Also, In corralling ten musicians together they recall the great multi-instrumental collectives such as Magma, Gong, Amon Duul II. We could throw around names like this all day. What this recording does is draw together these influences together with enough originality to pull off a début album which is creatively strong, musically adept, and provides a solid base upon which Gentle Knife can build.
I wouldn’t say the album is perfect. My feeling is the band are still finding their way to some extent. I’d like to see the overall tempo sped up a bit, and few more twists and turns in the time-signatures, but then I’m a bit fussy like that. The album also hangs on the repeated motif of being lost in the woods (a theme used by everyone from Sondheim to The Brothers Grimm), which isn’t exactly fresh or new – although it does fit in with the overall retro-themed cosmic rock that the recording delivers. For me the whole thing looks backwards a little too often at times.
But here’s what I did enjoy. I really like the split dynamic of the male/female vocals which mostly blend well together, and I also love the fact that you can tell this is a Scandinavian band as soon as the singing starts. It’s so much nicer to hear the cadences of an accent rather than a bland imitation of a midwest US drawl which so many bands slavishly copy. Melina Oz’s vocals are of particular note, falling as they do somewhere between Kate Bush and the unnamed masked priestesses of Goat, and Håkon Kavli’s gentler, heartfelt vocals are the perfect foil for her.
The musicianship on show is also extremely confident: Squalling guitars, pumping brass sections, and hysterically spacey keyboards are all drawn together effectively and are given the space to shine both individually and as part of the ensemble. There are some sublime musical passages on the record, ‘Beneath The Waning Moon’ is a beautiful instrumental, as is ‘Epilogue – Locus Amoenus’, which references early Tangerine Dream, I’d have loved to hear more of this kind of electronic experimentation throughout the album.
I also admire the fearlessness of the band. Not many groups would kick-off a debut with two epic tracks that clock-in at over ten minutes each. With the mixture of instruments modern and ancient the band heads, quite often, into Knifeworld territory and my guess is if you like Knifeworld, you’ll find much to like here too. The songwriting is also very good, ‘Eventide’ and ‘In Our Footsteps’, those two opening tracks are a powerful statement of intent, throwing all kinds of musical ideas into the mix. I did laugh at the opening synth fanfare of ‘Eventide’, there’s just something so retro-about it that you can’t help thinking – here’s a band with a sense of humour – which is good as a lot of prog can be tediously straight-faced at times.
By the end of the album I loved this band so much I gave them a cheer, after repeated listening I still loved them. So, in summary, a strong debut with a few flaws, but the positives outnumber the negatives – expect great things from Gentle Knife.
Gentle Knife are a 10-piece progressive rock outfit from Norway, made up of Astraea Antal (flute, sax), Pål Bjørseth (keys, trumpet, voc), Thomas Hylland Eriksen (sax, duduk), Odd Grønvold (basses), Håkon Kavli (male lead vocal, guitar), Eivind Lorentzen (guitar, synths), Melina Oz (lead female vocal), Ove Christian Owe (guitars), Ole Martin Svendsen (drums), and Brian Talgo (words, visuals, mellotron, percussion).
