RIVERLAND – Spring

Inverse 2015

RIVERLAND - Spring

RIVERLAND –
Spring

Drinking from the source, Finnish duo finds ultimate art in all things natural.

Prog rock has become conservative and artificial lately, but vocalist Mikko Heino and guitarist Roni Seppänen don’t seem to pay much attention to the flow of time – they’re more occupied with a flow of water, something material yet ever-changing. That’s why their debut EP for all the complexity and fine texture on offer is rooted in folk, and that’s why “Something Beautiful And Deep” which lies in the album’s heart – prefaced with the pastoral spell of “Harmony” – lives up to its title.

Building up from acoustic riffs and piano chords, the piece arrives soft-voiced but gently insisting, while it’s “Flower Soul” where synthesizer-smoothed and falsetto-frilled pop playfulness blooms. But it takes the watercolored title epic to betray the band’s debt to Syd Barrett’s and to lose their initial tuneful intent to a cosmic reverie before flying, hymnal, to the sun. A grounded soaring that’s better be a cliffhanger for a full album to come and fulfil its promise.

****1/4

September 24, 2015

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