Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Landberk
Label: Record Heaven Music
Release date: April 1, 1996
Running time: 46:05
Rating: 3.5/5
»Indian Summer« was the fourth and final album from Swedish prog rock revivalists Landberk, best known for building dark atmospheres and for letting the Mellotron play just as big a role as the guitar. Unlike their much better-known and more revered countrymen Anglagard and Anekdoten, who are still making new music today, Landberk never hit cult status among prog rock fans, even though plenty of people credit them with an important influence on the Scandinavian-American third wave of progressive rock. They called it quits after just four studio albums, and one of those, their second, »Lonely Land« (1992), was ‘merely’ an English-language version of the debut »Riktigt Äkta« (1992), which had Swedish lyrics. Landberk hit their creative peak with »One Man Tells Another« (1994). Their best-known member is guitarist Reine Fiske, who later played in a whole slew of Swedish prog rock, jazz rock and indie rock bands and projects, such as Morte Macabre, Paatos, Dungen, The Amazing, Elephant9 and Motorpsycho, to name just a few. Like Anglagard and Anekdoten, Landberk were always in love with King Crimson, which is why the Mellotron sits almost front and center in their sound. Toward the end of their career they drifted a bit from their prog rock roots and started dabbling in post-rock and alt rock.
Compared to those better-known countrymen, who loved to ‘complicate’ things with all sorts of improvising, Landmark always put melodic structure first in most of their arrangements, and »Indian Summer« is no exception. It was undoubtedly their most easygoing and accessible record, even for those of us who find listening to post-apocalyptic Scandinavian prog experimentalists a serious challenge. At this stage of their career they had begun soaking up elements of post-rock and alt rock, which was quite a departure from their beginnings. Opening track »Humanize« is a classic Landberk intro with a melancholic Mellotron arrangement at its heart that sucks the listener straight into the chill of a Scandinavian night, while the nine-minute dark requiem »All Around Me« flirts with psychedelia and at times sounds a little like early Porcupine Tree, vocoder included. The terrific instrumental section, with its sprawling guitar soloing and Mellotron waves that conjure an ethereal mood, is an especially nice touch.
On the relatively compact »1st of May« things really come alive with punchy guitar phrases, which are why some people label Landberk ‘heavy prog’, while singer Patric Helje, who at times sounds a lot like Bono (U2), effectively builds a melancholic drama. »I Wish I Had a Boat« is a Mellotron-driven ballad with plenty of short improvisations, interesting effects and a gloomy mood that freezes the blood in your veins. »Dustgod« has sorrowful vocal harmonies layered over complex drum fills with lots of jazz fusion flavor, and the closing guitar solo wraps it all up very effectively. »Dreamdance«, drenched in dreamy Mellotron waves, opens with an interesting bass improvisation, followed by a rhythmically smart build-up and the creation of an intense atmosphere.
»Why Do I Still Sleep«, which moves at a slow pace, is gloom incarnate even by Landberk standards, and the guest vocals of singer Sara Isaksson deserve special praise, creating a striking contrast and deepening the indescribably melancholic atmosphere even further. The album closes with the post-rock-leaning title track, »Indian Summer«, which sounds like a funeral requiem, with Fiske plucking away at a single guitar string for half the song before a minimalist improvisation takes over. Of everything on the album, it’s easily the strangest experiment, one that stirs up pretty mixed feelings depending on your mood at the moment, and it might appeal to fans of late Talk Talk too.
The masters of Scandinavian gloom and melancholy closed out their short but admirable career with »Indian Summer« in fitting style. They didn’t come up with any real standouts on their farewell album, and at times it feels like their songwriting inspiration was slowly running dry as they soaked up post-rock elements, but every track on the record is solid at the very least. Of course, you shouldn’t go in feeling depressed, because »Indian Summer« is definitely not going to soothe you in that department. Unlike Anglagard and Anekdoten, Landberk didn’t produce any landmark masterpiece in their brief run that would rank among the prog rock classics, but all their albums were interesting and appealing in their own way for anyone who, in the early nineties when the third wave of prog rock got going, missed King Crimson, just without the grand improvisational experiments. Fiske later developed the art/post-rock style heard on »Indian Summer« much further in his later band Paatos, which the prestigious prog rock label InsideOut promoted heavily for a while.
Lineup
Patric Helje – vocals
Reine Fiske – guitar
Stefan Dimle – bass guitar
Jonas Lindholm – drums
Simon Nordberg – keyboards
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Sara Isaksson – vocals (7)
Lotta Johansson – saxophone (1)
Sebastian Öberg – cello (4)
Production
Simon Nordberg
Track list
1. Humanize (6:07)
2. All Around Me (9:03)
3. 1st Of May (3:34)
4. I Wish I Had A Boat (5:41)
5. Dustgod (5:04)
6. Dreamdance (4:49)
7. Why Do I Still Sleep (7:55)
8. Indian Summer (5:12)
