Released
1998
Label
Cold Meat Industry
Reviewed by
Michael C. Lund
Contact
Cold Meat Industry
PO Box 1881
581 17 Linköping
Sweden
Visit
Last Edit/Update
24 March, 1999
The Protagonist
A Rebours
Track Listing
1. The Eternal Abjectness Of Life
2. Kämpfende Pferde
3. Mutability
4. Zoroaster
5. Song Of Innocence
6. The Puritan
7. Imitation
8. The End
After a series of appearances on a number of the more interesting compilations of recent
years (Riefenstahl, Absolute Supper, and Thorak, amongst others), The
Protagonist's debut full-length A Rebours has finally been released. The
CD has been made available by Cold Meat Industry, and features eight
tracks -- half of which are original to the album, the other half being new versions of
songs that have appeared on the aforementioned compilations.
The Protagonist is
technically the solo project of Magnus Sundström -- who wrote, and largely
performs, all the songs on A Rebours. However, on most of the tracks Magnus
has chosen to enlist the aid of either guest vocalists or musicians, thereby adding warmth
and nuance to the individual songs. On the whole, the music is of grand orchestral design,
dramatic in most instances, and often fuelled by a romantic passion and penchant
for the adventuresome. Magnus' compositions as such display a strong classical
sensibility, which is further accentuated by the homages to -- and lyrics adapted from --
poets and artists of the classical tradition. Here are the images of Leni Riefenstahl
and the sculptures of Joseph Thorak translated into sound, and here are the words
of Poe, Shelley and Huysmans set to music; here is above all an
imagination that dares to confront the immortals, and, rather than tear their work apart,
attempts to build upon it.
A Rebours opens with
"The Eternal Abjectness Of Life" -- a piece that relies strongly on strings, and
finds musical beauty in the melancholic. At one point the music comes to a halt, as Magnus
whispers a few lines from Huysmans' "Là-Bas;" a quote that singles out
'imagination' as the one aspect of life that makes existence bearable. The quote is well
chosen, and, as such, Huysmans' words set the mood, and motivates the rest of the
album.
"Kämpfende Pferde" takes
its departure in a sculpture by Thorak, and is dominated by heavy brass themes
and marching drums that combine to imbue the piece with sensations of movement and latent
possibility. The image of stallions engaged in a battle emerges vividly from the music,
even if one (like me) has never seen the sculpture that is being celebrated. Neither need
one be familiar with the work of Percy Bysshe Shelley to be moved by the next
composition -- "Mutability." Here, the music alone describes the sense of wonder
and challenge of the world that characterized both the life and poetic works of Shelley.
Listening to "Mutability," one can literally feel the sun and wind on the skin,
taste the salt on the tongue, smell the ocean, and see the young romantic set sail for the
Mediterranean horizon that would swallow him up. It is an inspired composition -- arguably
the best on the album -- that is further graced by a great vocal performance by Mark
St. John Ellis (Elijah's Mantle).
Heavy, ritualistic drum rolls, and
disconcerting bursts of strings and brass serve as the foundation for
"Zoroaster," the brief whispered words of which derive from an ancient text by
the Chaldean Oracles of Zoroaster. Interludes of a music box theme, and thematic
constructions of a more dramatic orientation lend a fairy tale or cinematic atmosphere to
the piece. By contrast, "Song Of Innocence" is a rather subdued composition,
which features the warm presence of Marcus Ohlsson on cello, and Peter
Petersson delivering classically inspired vocals. The 'innocence' of the title is
strongly felt, especially in the use of a lyrical flute theme that playfully weaves in and
out of the music.
"The Puritan" is another
composition inspired by the work of a great artist of the past. It is a piece that appears
to stride forward into the very eye of a storm. And, indeed the homage is here directed
towards Leni Riefenstahl, whose aesthetic purity and mastery of the film medium
was eclipsed by her involvement with the German Nazi regime during WWII. Magnus
once more manages to translate the qualities of another artist in a different medium into
his music; in this instance he above all captures the greatness and elitism of Riefenstahl's
films.
Emerging out of a downpour, with
strings shimmering at fever pitch, incessant pulsing kettle drums, and suspenseful
thematics, "Imitation" is a regular soundtrack to a thriller. This track
appeared on the Absolute Supper compilation, but here a recitation of Poe
by Mårten Kellerman has been included, and adds meaning to the title of the
piece. After this climax of intensity, A Rebours ends with a comparatively serene
composition entitled simply "The End." Carried on the wings of a high-pitched,
swirling string theme, and nice twinkling acoustic guitar chords, the piece moves along at
a stately pace. After the high-powered, expansive orchestrals that dominate most of the
preceding material, "The End" affords the listener a moment of emotional
release, before the actual end of the CD.
A Rebours is a truly
accomplished debut that provides a strong musical rush on initial listens, while
being complex, intelligent and sincere enough to sustain continued listening. It is an
album that celebrates the high rather than the low in Western culture, and for that alone
it deserves to be commended.
