Doing Being Music
Finland’s Von Hertzen Brothers new studio album “Red Alert in the Blue Forest”, their first since 2017’s critically acclaimed “War Is Over”, is an album that should be listened to in one sitting. The record is epic in scale and hard to categorise, featuring folk, rock, pop and progressive elements. The versatility of composition is one of the album’s strengths. “Northern Lights” features rarely heard sounds of the Aurora Borealis as captured by Professor Unto K. Laine. There are complex arrangements and uplifting melodies that the Brothers are known for. A highlight is the 7 minute single, “All of a Sudden, You’re Gone”, in which a tender acoustic ballad containing ethereal guitar tones evolves into a powerful orchestral finale, and “‘Peace Patrol”, a 10-minute prog opus with an outstanding sax solo. From the opening track “Day of Reckoning”, to the crescendo of “Blue Forest”, through a prog epic, to the boppy “Pirates of Raseborgian”, the gentle Simon and Garfunkelesque acoustic guitar in “Anil” and “Söderskär”, to the violins and keyboards in “Elbowed”, the album takes you on an imaginative journey through a melodic dreamscape of Finnish folklore and countryside. Be patient and listen to it more than once. It improves with each listen, and you will hear things you didn’t the first time around, due to its grand scope.
4,5/6 | Anne-Marie Forker
Release date: 18 March 2022