[The following review was writen by my wife and my co-host in Prog & Roll radio show,who is also participating in this album by singing in two songs.I believe it's an excellent and very thorough review, that's why I'm posting it here. (Exactly the same review can be found in Prog Archives)].
Opening to the wise words of Jacob Bronowski, the latest concept album of Salander “The Fragility of Innocence”, is an experience to me on a
personal level. Based on the heartbreaking story by Dave Curnow himself, “The
Fragility of Innocence” sets a fictitious stage on what you first think to be Auschwitz before you realize that the album in fact
has got nothing to do with WWII but is about brutal, involuntary medical
experimentation and corporate greed. As a matter of fact the story takes place
in modern times, in a remote part of Iceland, where a helpless mother and
daughter are ripped from their homes under false pretenses, to be brought and
placed in a ghetto of experimental nightmares, satisfying men’s almost carnal
desire for immortality. In a way, both the album and the story is a bitter
reminder of how close we are to the evil that is humankind. No German SS
soldiers, concentration camps, guns and trenches are needed to be reminded
that, mankind, regardless of nation, religion, intelligence and statue, is
capable of sinking the lowest levels of beastliness in order to achieve their
ambitious goals where remorse, much too our distress, comes too late if it
comes at all. And such is the story of Fragility
of Innocence.
Dave Curnow
and Dave Smith, who were kind enough to let me participate in a
few songs on vocals, worked wonders on this tragic story. The lyrics and the
weeping guitar by Dave Curnow vividly portray the pain, struggle and
desperation of the family while the mellotron, synths and bass by Dave Smith
create a chilling Segway between our age and the recent history that we know
only too well.
The first of the nine tracks, Aldri Sakleysi Er Farinn (Age of Innocence is gone) calls to us
listeners from the depth of modern history, while the music slowly works its
way into universality and modern ages. Aldri as a song is the first glimpse
into the main idea that is hidden within the core of this album.
The second track, Cold
Icelandic Winter has got ironically paradoxical warm melody in order to
display how nature’s cold is in fact warmer than the coldness of an evil heart.
The tunes are innocent at first much like the child of the story, with a hint
of impending doom or an unspoken fear that is to come.
The third and the fourth tracks Tomorrow is a New Day and Leroy’s
Tale,are about false hopes and deception. The music is full of hope
excitement and happiness, to display how innocent and pure hearts are the
easiest of preys by default because they deem others just like themselves.
The fifth song Internal
Doors is our first step into the reality that comes uninvited. When one door
opens, the other closes eternally much like death itself. The song beautifully
portrays the threshold and the transition from innocent dreams to harsh
reality.
The next song, And
So to Sleep, is by far my favorite of the entire album. I find it
impossible not to cry at. The helplessness, the desolation, sorrow, loss, it is
all there all too nakedly. The downfall has reached its peak at this song, there
is no future or hope left as is felt throughout the tragic, almost ethereal
tunes.
Malansky
and Evil Doctor which are the
seventh and eight tracks are two sides of one coin. Two doctors of the same
corporate project, one embracing most humanly emotion which is remorse, the
other consumed by greed and ambition, incapable of ever becoming human again…
The last track of the album Race Against the Machine in fact feels like a race against both the
literal machine and the machine that is the humankind. The race is lost but
something is gained before it all ends in the same innocent melody of Cold Icelandic Winter. In remorse
somebody rediscovers the innocence of the heart at the very end.
All in all I have to say that the concept album The Fragility of Innocence speaks to
the humanity and its emotions through the most universal language above all: The
Music! All the songs are in perfect sync with what they convey as an idea and
Salander’s vision of this story is beautifully mirrored in what they created:
An excellent Album.
For further
info and downloable content, please visit: http://salander.bandcamp.com/
Thank you for reading...
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