Major Parkinson, Valesa Chapter I: Velvet Prison – Cassette

The ever-evolving seven-piece has emerged from the primordial darkness of 2017’s Blackbox, into a neon haze of progressive synthpop/rock. Having chased the ever-elusive Ghost of Pop music from the early days of their eponymous debut album to the present, the band has always thrived within a melodic core – often clad under a shroud of progressive experimentation. On Valesa – Chapter I, the shackles are off, the curtain pulled back, as their compositions extrapolate with new focus and invention. Not necessarily less intricate, but definitely more pop.

The album features 17 meticulously crafted songs that explore new sonic territories, set to the political backdrop of the 1980s as they tap into the Zeitgeist of a period in human history that proved tantamount in shaping our world. From the halls of an abandoned American high school to the wine-stained head of Gorbachev — the album evokes an all-encompassing feeling of uneasy nostalgia, like humanity collectively looking back in time with a pair of cracked, rose-tinted glasses.

“Synth anthems set in a disco of nuclear anxiety.”, says vocalist Jon Ivar Kollbotn. “In this day and age, life is passing before our eyes before we can grasp anything at all, and we become spectators in our own lives. Like confused, geriatric visitors in a wax museum. As time passes by, the past is becoming brighter and nostalgia is growing bigger.”

The instrumentation is powerful and evocative. Guitars swell with subtlety as the bass and drums provide the groundwork for an explosion of synths as keyboardist, Lars Christian Bjørknes, takes center stage to create something wholly unique. Returning female vocalist, Linn Frøkedal, joins with the band’s very own Peri Winkle to complement Jon Ivar Kolbotn’s enraptured vocals and guide us through the brightly coloured maze of Valesa – Chapter I.

Weaving between nostalgia and failed revolutions, this album is a completely unique star in the soundtrack of 2022, offering you something that has rarely been done in any field of music.

Tracklist:
01. Goodbye Blue Monday
02. Behind the Next Door
03. Saturday Night
04. Ride in the Whirlwind
05. Live Forever
06. Sadlands
07. Intermezzo
08. Jonah
09. Velvet Moon
10. Irina Margareta
11. The House
12. The Room
13. Posh-Apocalypse
14. MOMA
15. Lemon Symphony
16. Fantasia Me Now!
17. Heroes