[Cover art by Lars Bigum Kvernberg]
This is the second installment of our review of The Songs & Tales of Airoea, a trilogy released by the band, The Chronicles of Father Robin. This second album was released in December, but we waited to publish it because December is List Season and we were afraid the attention that rightfully garners might diminish the spotlight this record also deserves. Below is the introduction to the trilogy, originally published with the review of the first record in September. The second album’s proper review follows.
Most of us must have core memories of grand plans we made with our best buds in school. To grow up and all be cops or robbers or sports stars or spies or treasure hunters. Or to all be so rich and travel the world together or live in some exotic place on a mountain with pet lions and private rockets and a summer home on Mars. Or to be famous actors on a TV show together. Or to be in a rock and roll band. And most of us realized exactly zero of those inspired visions. That’s no knock on any of us. We’re human, after all, and were children then. Fickle. Fallible. Feckless, some of us. But it is a pretty strong reminder that when people do realize a childhood dream, especially together with the kids who shared that dream, it is special indeed.
In the early 1990s, a group of childhood pals in Norway founded a prog rock band called Fangorn in high school. They emulated the greats of the 70s but also modern luminaries of Scandinavian prog rock. They jammed together and drew inspiration not only from predictable sources suggested by the band name, but also from their lives together, and they developed a conceptual framework for what would become The Chronicles of Father Robin about a mythological creature who “embodied all the members of the band into one being,” and included original world building around the fantasy realm of Airoea.
Years would pass and each of the friends would go on to achieve renown as members of Wobbler, Tusmørke, The Samuel Jackson Five, and Jordsjø, all of which are familiar by now to anybody who has a passing familiarity with Scandinavian progressive rock. But they never lost sight of their dream and now, thirty years later, The Chronicles of Father Robin, at this point constituting a legit prog supergroup, has been fully realized via a triple concept album called The Songs & Tales of Airoea, released first as a boxset and then as individual albums to follow*. Achieving full integration with the project’s mythos, the amazing artwork of Lars Bigum Kvernberg, commissioned exclusively for this project, adorns each album to include covers, sleeves, lyric sheets and booklets, and gorgeously rendered maps of mythical Airoea.
If one had heard The Songs & Tales of Airoea Book I: The Tale of Father Robin (State of Nature) by The Chronicles of Father Robin and been waiting with bated breath for the second installment of this fantastical trilogy, one would surely be wondering what’s in store. Would it be Book 1, Part 2? Or would Book 2 be its own thing entirely? Might it be somewhere between? No one knows! and let’s be honest: big, complex, sophisticated projects like this will sometimes knock ‘em dead with the opening salvo and then drop a deuce on the follow up. Then again, the first record showed an incredible dedication to the concept of this ambitious project from album art to story and lyrics through to music and songs that reflected the characters and themes within so well. And so, even without having heard the second album, one might consider its titles and cover art.
Book 1’s cover features a pastoral depiction of Airoea’s terrestrial wonders beautifully represented in bright colors and dynamic textures and these are faithfully elaborated in its songs. By comparison, Book 2, subtitled Ocean Traveller, is adorned with similarly dynamic art, but the energy is decidedly different, tuned to the cool aqua blues and greens of the sea, so the astute listener would expect the songs within to be at least a little low key in comparison to the fantastic bravado of the first book, and they’d be right. Said listener might also assume then that Book 2 is less dynamic, less engaging than Book 1, and on this account they’d be wrong. It’s important, however, to qualify that last assertion with the observation that the songs of the second book were written with the primary purpose of telling the tale of Father Robin through the second stage of his travels in Airoea. As many great concept albums do, this one is perfectly fine and enjoyable as a casual listen, if you already enjoy the styles, and has so much more to offer in the full immersive experience of the accompanying art and lyric sheets.
Book 2: Ocean Traveller (Metamorphosis) opens with a slow, melancholic meditation reflecting on the journey from The Gates of Dawn at the close of Book 1 and “Over Westwinds,” representing transition between Airoean biomes. Notably, in stark contrast to most of Book 1’s multitudinous instrumentation, and consistent with the observation above of the cover art, “Over Westwinds” is made from just acoustic guitar, flute, church organ and vocals. The feel is weightless, dark, and slow, the melodies reminiscent of Yes and especially Jon Anderson, vocals plaintive, longing, yearning for rest. It’s beautiful.
“Orias & the Underwater City” reintroduces the standard rock band arrangement, along with five different organs and synthesizers, but the mood remains cool, chill, minimal, though now with additional layers, sounds recalling Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze and even Mort Garson. 
It all feels like floating through the deep ocean, exploration and then arrival, bringing to mind the classic animation of the 70s, as if the crew of (OG) Sealab were approaching a just-discovered undersea metropolis. As vocals describe the submerged city coming into view, the atmosphere is mysterious, but benevolent, an experience of awe absent threat. Again, there is virtually none of the high energy of Book 1 here, even after nearly ten minutes of new music, but there is definitely an anticipation and it is growing.
And then, a little like the funky beat of “The Death of the Fair Maiden” from Book 1, there’s a curious shift as “Orias” leaves the listener a bit discombobulated, emerging from the ethereal drift to a bubbling calypso beat with synthesized accoutrement, building an atmosphere of strange fascination and then evoking the welcoming warmth of a bustling tropical maritime culture. “Ocean Traveller” lifts the veil completely, bright and light and jaunty, with grand piano, acoustic guitar, and big, fat bass lines buoying a story of parallel discovery at the ocean’s surface. There’s a clear reference made here to Gentle Giant’s grandiloquence that portends a major turn of events, some crucial twist in the heretofore pleasant if somewhat puzzling journey of Side One.
Still at the surface, Side Two opens with a familiar calm now lighter, brighter, like sunlit seaspray, as “Lady of the Waves” remembers Steve Howe’s delicate melodic touch, but also his great strength as melody explodes into rockin’ riffs and a ringing lead, emulating the Lady among swells and surges and breaking of waves. The turn then back down into the depths is briefly disconcerting, heavy and dark once more, and now angular and askew, as if the listener is sinking through the “Green Refreshments” (uh… refreshments for whom, exactly?), swirling, looking up through towering seaweed columns, the sun an amorphous glow beyond. A sudden focusing of rhythm and melody suggests stabilization, acclimation, and forward momentum. There’s an intriguing mix of sounds and styles here that recall Van der Graaf Generator’s gloam and King Crimson’s vague menace with Middle Eastern melody and vocalizations that radiate the exotic majesty of the sea’s great kelp forest.
The Ocean Traveller’s saga reaches its apex at “The Grand Reef” where flute and electric bass assume dominance once more in a soundscape that parallels that of Book 1, bright, bouncy, and dynamic. The story takes a final harrowing turn, bringing in a runneling, rumbling tension and slow build to a magnificent crescendo that leaves the fate of poor Father Robin hanging in the balance, at least until the story commences with Book 3.
Hopefully, the preceding paragraphs have impressed upon the reader that, whereas the quality of Book 2 is on par with Book 1, it is a decidedly different listening experience. Most noticeably, the general energy level is much lower overall and, to the casual or impatient listener, that will surely translate to a let down in direct comparison to Book 1. On the other hand, it is similarly hoped that the preceding paragraphs have impressed upon the reader that this album prioritizes atmosphere and storytelling over the immediate hook to maximize the musical interpretation of the tale of Father Robin and, to the engaged and patient listener, that will surely translate to a rewarding experience, however understated in comparison to Book 1.
*Last Rites will review Book 3: Magical Chronicle (Ascension) nearer its release date.
The Chronicles of Father Robin
– Andreas Wettergreen Strømman Prestmo / Electric guitar, 6- and 12 string acoustic guitar, vocals, Kawai SX-240, Visconti M30 Intercontinental Organ, bass, percussion
– Aleksandra Morozova / Vocals
– Kristoffer Momrak / Buchla Music Easel, Behringer Model D
– Håkon Oftung / Mellotron m4000D, Solina Strings, Fender Rhodes MK II
– Jon André Nilsen / Bass, backing vocals
– Henrik Harmer / Drums, percussion, backing vocals
– Thomas Kaldhol / Electric guitar, electronics, backing vocals
– Regin Meyer / Flute, Steel flute, Church Organ, Yamaha Grand Piano, backing vocals
– Lars Fredrik Frøislie / Hammond C3, Arp pro Soloist, Minimoog Model D, Fender Rhodes Mk II, Mellotron m400
