Ring Van Möbius – Commissioned Works Pt II – Six Drops of Poison (Apollon Records Prog, 2023)
Ring Van Möbius is one of the finest progressive rock band sin the current Scandinavian music scene. Their new album, Commissioned Works Pt II – Six Drops of Poison is pure delight as it is deeply grounded in the classic 1970s bands. The trio plays superb, finely crafted, epic symphonic progressive rock, and they achieve this by using a wide range of colorful musical instruments, although keyboards play the leading role.
Thor Erik Helgesen masterfully uses electric organ, synths and Mellotron, combining dazzling solos with majestic Mellotron passages. His agile and skillful keyboard playing style is very diverse. Notably, you can find echoes of Keith Emerson (ELP) and Jon Lord (Deep Purple) as well as King Crimson, Tony Banks (Genesis) and Bach.
The material on Commissioned Works Pt II – Six Drops of Poison was meant for a Harald Beharie show called “Batty Bwoy.” However, the final result is quite different, and the band developed the music in a new direction. The band stated: “This album, however, is not the actual soundtrack for the finalized commissioned work itself, rather a reflection of the early visions; spontaneous reactions and a starting point for further collaboration. Being an independent body of work based on our early initial musical ideas, this can be referred to as loosely inspired by, but not limited to, the original concept by Harald Beharie.”
Ring Van Möbius was formed in 2017 in Kopervik, on the island of Karmøy in southwestern Norway. The band started performing live in 2018. Prior to Commissioned Works Pt II – Six Drops of Poison, Ring Van Möbius released two excellent albums on Apollon Records: Past the Evening Sun (2018) and The 3rd Majesty (2020).
Musicians: Thor Erik Helgesen on Spectral Modular Synthesis System, Hammond L100 organ, Steinway grand piano, Fender Rhodes piano, Yamaha upright piano, Mellotron, lead and backing vocals; Dag Olav Husås on Tubular bells, timpani, chimes, drums, glockenspiel, gong, cymbals, backing vocals; and Håvard Rasmussen on Danelectro Doubleneck 6-string bass, 12-string baritone guitar, Space Echo, and Ring Modulator.