Ragnarok (4) – Ragnarok

The pearl of New Zealand progressive rock. Ragnarok in German-Scandinavian mythology is something like the end of the world, the great battle of good and evil. But in this case there are no pompous and pretentious drinking, exorbitant screams and musical Armageddon. But there are a lot of beautiful lyrics against the background of enveloping sounds of synthesizers and accompanying guitar. The eight tracks of the album are one of the variants of the European symphonic prog with a strong "acidic" influence, complemented by the ideas and melodic harmonies of the authors. So, four musicians formed their line-up in Auckland (NZ) in 1974. And although all the participants sang, the group was strengthened by Mia Maalfried, the soloist who opened the concerts of visiting celebrities. The album begins with the composition Fenris, here the energetic voice of Maalfrid bursts into the gentle passages of the keyboards and after the chorus, the musical array crumbles into a stringy monumental solo-a roll call of synthesizers. It's beautiful, there are no words, especially the modulation in the finale and Mia's echo vocalizations (Fenris released as a single took 32nd place in the national hit parade). On the second sad theme of Butterfly Sky, male vocals and a memorable beautiful soaring guitar riff appear. I would like to note that the dominant role of Andra Jayet's keys remains throughout the album: powerful waves of minor consonances, coupled with Ramon York's guitar effects, and of course the excellent polyphony of all participants is the band's calling card. The band demonstrates the best traditions of late psychedelia in the magnificent darkly depressive composition Rainbow Bridge. Moreover, most of the seven-minute composition sounds in an instrumental key and only in the last minutes there is a detached male voice floating above this world, gradually gaining strength and a certain positive. Then the ghostly mirages reappear in a fully instrumental Raga. The sense of proportion does not change the band and now Mia Maalfried lights up in the song Caviar Queen, replete with syncopations - quite a high-quality transition ending with the noise of the ocean. And now you can again abstract and dream while listening to another instrumental-progressive epic Dream. The final multi-part and heaped track Dawning Horn, sounds quite in the theme, if you remember what Ragnarok is.