35 Tapes – Veil on Life (Apollon Records Prog ARP095, 2026)
With Veil on Life, Norway’s 35 Tapes moves with a quick pulse. The songwriting is leaner, more decisive, with hooks that make the music accessible and elegant at the same time. The vocals are warm, melancholic, and quietly searching, like someone reading old letters beneath a dim lamp. Around it, guitar and piano lines unfurl with grace, skill, and creativity.
“Hallway” feels like walking through the corridors of your own past. “Waters” widens the horizon, carrying the listener on a slow metamorphosis, as if the song itself were learning how to move from one form of life to another. “Brisé Volé” turns inward with a sharp and necessary honesty, holding up the mirror without mercy. “Clueless” trembles with hunger. Then “Cities” gazes outward again, toward all that glitters and all that alienates.
Instrumentally, 35 Tapes remains rooted in the progressive rock longtime listeners will know well: Mellotron delights, Therevox, comforting vintage synths glowing like old streetlights in rain. Finely crafted electric and acoustic guitars lines provide brief moments of delight, supported by inventive bass and drums.
Musicians: Jarle Wangen on bass, guitars, vocals; producer Morten Lund on guitars, keyboards, vocals; Jo Wang on keyboards, Therevox; Andreas Eriksen on keyboards, percussion; Kai Lundewall on drums, vocals.
Frank Lewis: live sound, recording engineer, guitar amps, circuit wizard.
Previous recordings include Lost & Found (Apollon Records, 2019), Home (Apollon Records, 2021) and Fabric of Time (Apollon Records, 2023).