DisAgreement Online

It is possible that the name Lars Fredrik Frøislie won’t ring too many bells with people, but the Norwegian keyboarder has quite the resumé, with bands like White Willow, Tusmørke and especially his main band Wobbler. If you expect now finest vintage progressive rock, you will definitely not be mistaken. Fire Fortellinger (Four Stories) is his first solo album, which materialised during the COVID lockdown months. Otherwise most of the ideas might have been used for a future Wobbler album. This way, we get a more unfiltered look at the inside life of Lars Fredrik Frøislie. The main difference to Wobbler is that Fire Fortellinger comes without any guitars.

We have Frøislie on all kinds of keyboards (Hammond C3, Mellotron M400, Minimoog Model D, Chamberlin M-1, Yamaha CP70B, William de Blaise spinet, Hohner Clavinet D6, Rhodes MkII and an Arp Pro Soloist), drums (which he plays surprisingly good, considering he’s a keyboarder first and foremost) and vocals, which may not have the range of more epic singers, but his voice has a narrative quality that works really great for the music and the lyrics in Norwegian language that recall the olden times of his native country. On bass we hear Nikolai Hængsle (Elephant9, Needlepoint…) who is always at his best when he plays his heavily distorted Rickenbacker bass.

True to its progressive rock spirit, Fire Fortellinger contains only four tracks, with epic seventeen-minute monsters opening and closing the album, and two shorter seven-minute in between. The opener Rytter av Dommedag is a wonderful example of vintage prog, with mellifluous mellotron melodies and recurring motifs. This might be overindulgent for those who don’t know what’s good, but connoisseurs of the matter will be utterly delighted. I especially love the four-minute closing section which moves me again and again. The following Et sted under himmelhvelvet is the album’s first single, and despite its more concise length, it is just as magical.

Frøislie’s vast array of keyboards make sure you will never be bored, as the next sonic surprise is waiting just around the corner. Jærtegn is the album’s closest track and comes with a more hard rocking mood, although the middle part has a medieval flair due to the spinet we get to hear. The concluding Naturens katedral has a doomier sound, reminding me at times of very early Van Der Graaf Generator.

Fire Fortellinger is mainly a vintage progressive rock album for fans of vintage keyboard and synth sounds. The instrumentation of keyboards, bass and drums occasionally recalls Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Other influences are early hard rock and even Norwegian black metal, which isn’t so strange, considering that Frøislie used to be in a black metal band called In Lingua Mortua. I have been a huge fan of Wobbler for many years, and am happy to proclaim that Lars Fredrik Frøislie’s solo effort sounds somewhat even more endearing. The more direct approach to the music, the sometimes improvised sounding solos and a sound that sounds as if you were standing right in front of the stage make this a very intimate yet also expansive listening experience. The more I listen to Fire Fortellinger, the more I love it.