TODD RUNDGREN, EMIL NIKOLAISEN & HANS-PETER LINDSTROM
Written, Arranged, Recorded and Produced by T.H.E.
TODD RUNDGREN: All Vocals, Lead and Rhythm Guitars, Keyboards, Programming
EMIL NIKOLAISEN: Drums, Keyboards, Rhythm Programming, Bass Guitar, Rhythm Guitar, Sampling and FX
HANS-PETER LINDSTROM: Keyboards, Bass Synth, Rhythm Programming, Sampling and FX
Released May 5, 2015
Before we go any further, I feel the need to travel back into the past.
1987 was the year in which I began to seriously immerse myself into the musical world of Todd Rundgren. While my curiosity had already been piqued within the previous year, and I had found a few albums on cassette in record store cut out bins, the fullness of Rundgren's musical vision and artistic exploration had not completely taken hold of me just yet. By late summer, when I was 18 years old and just about ready to begin my college life in Madison, WI,, I happened to see an article published within the Chicago Sun Times promoting a stop in my fair city on Todd Rundgren 's (then) latest tour, and to also promote the (then) new re-release/re-issue campaign schedule of Rundgren's archives through the Rhino label, officially placing his catalog onto compact digital disc for the first time. The albums were being released about four at a time and non-chronologically. Out of those very first four albums which were profiled in the article, the one that captured my eye instantly was a brutally harsh review for the album "Initiation" (released June 14, 1975).
While much praise was heaped upon that album's opening track and single, the eternally gorgeous anthem to self-discovery and personal evolution "Real Man," the writer then began to bash the remainder of the album profusely, and in a manner that seemed to border on being offended with Rundgren's spiritual and musical explorations which defiantly ran against any pop music accessibility. What really angered this particular writer was the album's second side, a 36 minute, HEAVILY synthesizer driven instrumental no less, entitled "A Treatise On Cosmic Fire." In fact, the one word that I can remember to this very day in this writer's ferocious description of the track was "unlistenable." And for inexplicable reasons, I just knew that this was the album I needed to hear first.
For the unfamiliar, the song "A Treatise On Cosmic Fire" is a beast of a piece of music that truly exists within its own universe. Seemingly built from and existing as the culminating work that began with sequences and instrumentals from Rundgren's albums prior to "Initiation"--tracks like the bouncy, dreamy "Breathless" from "Something/Anything?" (released February 1972), the spacey "Flamingo" from "A Wizard, A True Star" (released March 2, 1973), and the wholly indescribable "In And Out The Chakras We Go (Formerly: Shaft Goes To Outer Space)" from "Todd" (released February 1974), among others--Todd Rundgren, with some assistance from Utopia bandmate/keyboardist Roger Powell, fashioned a vast yet thorny epic based upon the spiritual writings of Alice Bailey.
While the track is essentially one long, continuous song, it is divided into five movements with the fourth movement (entitled "I. The Internal Fire-or: Fire By Friction") divided into seven sub-sections. It is a song that is melodically lush and oceanic, like something you just might find upon a Vangelis album, and then the track mutates into sections that sound like an interstellar carousel, speedball guitar heroics that feel as if they were delivered by lightning sent through hyperspace, another sequence that is nothing but...well...sounds (as if Rundgren programmed a collection of drum machines completely wrong, pressed play and left the room for a while) and final segments that are weightless, shapeless, formless atmospherics before returning to the song's beginning lush theme for the finale.
When I purchased my copy of "Initiation" within the very first two or three days after I began to settle in on my new college campus residence, I actually rewound the second side of my new cassette so I could hear "A Treatise On Cosmic Fire" first, as I was that anxious to hear what could possibly be so "unlistenable." What surprised me about the experience--for that is definitely what listening to a song like this actually is--was that I took to the song instantly and completely. Yes, I could completely understand how a song like this could put many listeners off, especially ones looking for accessible pop tunes and not unrepentantly difficult, synthetic spiritual epics. But again, for inexplicable reasons, on the very first listen to Todd Rundgren's "A Treatise On Cosmic Fire," I took to the experience as naturally as any song that I instantly and completely loved. Somehow someway, the song just made sense to me and the only thing that didn't make sense to me about it was how in the hell did Todd Rundgren ever conceive and realize such a piece at all in the first place. My sense of musical hero worship skyrocketed after hearing this song, as well as the entire album, and it remains a favorite to this day.
Ever since I first heard it, "A Treatise On Cosmic Fire" has existed as my "go-to" piece of music if I ever need to take some time away from the world and get lost for a little while. Even as dissonant as it can be in some parts, I find it to be as calming and meditative as it is surrounding and overwhelming. And I can easily say that it is one of the very few pieces of music that I have heard in my entire life that sounds absolutely, positively, undeniably nothing like anything else...
Until now...
At this time, we arrive at "Runddans," Todd Rundgren's second album release of 2015, yet unlike the solo album "Global" (released April 4, 2015), the work is a collaborative effort between Rundgren and Norwegian producers/musicians Emil Nikolaisen and Hans-Peter Lindstrom.
I have to admit that I originally thought that "Runddans" was possibly a play off of Todd Rundgren's surname when in actuality, the word is a play off of the Danish word "Rondel," which translates as "circular object." Additionally, one of the album's tracks, entitled "Rundt, Rundt, Rundt" (something else I thought was playing off of Rundgren's name) translates as "around, around, around." In some ways, that translation may be the very best way to describe the album succinctly because "Runddans" is an endlessly revolving and evolving work that is cyclical in conception and execution. It is also an immensely immersive, innovative and intoxicating album that has already sailed to the top of my personal list as being one of the finest albums 2015 has to offer.
Presented as one continuous piece of (mostly) instrumental music that runs for the duration of 39 minutes, and reportedly is based around the concept of the life cycle as represented by an eternally repetitive sequence of 8 chords, "Runddans" opens appropriately with "B For Birth," a selection that sounds like an arsenal of synthesizers waking and warming up to face the universe of creation. Over the course of "Liquid Joy From The Womb Of Infinity" and "Oppad, Over Skyene," the album's second and third tracks, we are introduced to the aforementioned repetitive 8 chord structure. As the 8 chords revolve, more elements are added into the mix from percolating sequencers performing the same 8 chords to subtle drum programming, bass drops, and snippets of Rundgren's vocals all building to a crescendo that begins to sound like an inter-galactic EDM rave. But strikingly, once this section hits its groove, the music blasts itself apart until everything fades into nothingness, save for a small, ticking sound, like a clock or a metronome.
From the silence, we hear the voice of Todd Rundgren in full on "Solus," a section of ethereal vocalizations that recalls "There Are No Words" from his debut solo album "Runt" (released June 1970). It is a movement of raw, naked beauty, a brief showcase of Rundgren's superior vocal gifts, yet completely (and wisely) unpolished as the track originated from some of the initial recordings for this project. If "Runddans" is indeed designed to work as a representation of the life cycle, "Solus" truly sounds like a baby's first cries.
Then, seemingly from the depths of the human spirit, and echoing the 8 chord sequence, we hear Rundgren sing the following words:
"I have waited for this moment for what seems like nine lifetimes
You will never be closer than you are right now
Put your arms around me
Put your arms around me
Wrap your love around me
Now we can dance"
"Put Your Arms Around Me" and the following "Altar Of Kauaian Six String (Todd's Solo)," catapulted me into a musical time warp as this section, where the 8 chords return in full, complete with Rundgren's iconic stacked harmony vocals and his enchanting guitar heroics, which spiral upwards and beyond the moon and stars, instantly took me back to songs like "Born To Synthesize" from the "Initiation" album and the three part metaphysical, meditative suite from "Healing" (released January 28, 1981). As the three musicians luxuriously weave together a wall of keyboards and synthesizers and Emil Nikolaisen's drums suggest the astronomical flow of Pink Floyd's Nick Mason, the 8 chords transform themselves within a hallucinogenic frenzy of a sequence where they are broken apart and reconstructed, as if some astral figure was playing with the dials of a Karmic radio station.
"I think I'm going out of my head," sings Rundgren (echoing Burt Bacharach possibly?), as his vocals are reverberated, manipulated, synthetically altered, stripped bare and repeated alongside the 8 chords, as if we are travelling through various states of consciousness and perception. By the arrival of "Out Of My Head (Lone Vibes)" and the aforementioned "Rundt, Rundt, Rundt," we hear the 8 chords re-interpreted through passages of tranquility, dissonance, the romance of some vague bossa nova, and also what sounds like a nose flute (shades of "Eastern Intrigue" from "Initiation").
"Runddans" continues into its third major sequence with the more overtly psychedelic vortex of "Wave Of Heavy Red (Disko-Nektar)," the interlude of "T.H.E. Golden Triangle (Dry Mouthed Gargoyles In A Fountain Of Fluorescent Shepard Tones)" and what feels to be the album's finale, "Ravende Gal (Full Circle)" where the album breaks completely out of its 8 chord structure for a percussive dance floor spell and augmented by the voices of Rundgren, Nikolaisen and Lindstrom all on telephones discussing just exactly how should they conclude this piece of music they have worked on together over a duration of three years.
Yet, before we even realize it, the voices have all faded away and the 8 chords have returned in another re-contextualized section which accelerates and increases in intensity as if we are all voyaging at the speed of life, a rate that seems to increase as we age and move closer to our inevitable mortality. Rundgren's vocals, which now serve as some sort of spirit guide, plus the reformed 8 chords return in the album's final track, "Ohr...Um...Am...Amen (Aftermath)" which brings us back to the lyrics of "Put Your Arms Around Me." Yet, instead of a baby cries to a parent, this time, the music and singing feels like the voice of the soul being delivered into eternity.
Dear readers and listeners, I cannot express to you enough how much "Runddans" has enveloped me. Without question, I have been listening to the album constantly over the span of the full week since having received it and for whatever inexplicable reasons, I took to it instantaneously upon my first listen. Like "A Treatise On Cosmic Fire," the album just made sense to me.
In addition to serving as a beautiful companion piece to "Global," and like Rundgren's entire oeuvre, "Runddans" feels personal and universal, intimate and epic, singular and meant for the masses and fully inviting while also seeming to be impenetrable. If i could describe "Runddans" in cinematic terms, I would say that it kind of sounds like Director Terrence Malick's "The Tree Of Life"(2011) with the wormhole sequence from Director Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968) thrown in!
While it indeed lovingly recalls the classic Rundgren era which contained "A Wizard, A True Star, " "Todd," "Healing" and most notably, "Initiation," this new album also sent echoes to the likes of "A Cappella" (released September 1985), the musical jigsaw puzzle of "No World Order" (released July 6, 1993) and even Rundgren's ingenious production and contributions to the second side of The Tubes' "Love Bomb" (released February 1985), which collected a suite of nine songs all set to the exact same tempo as heroically performed by drummer Prairie Prince, and also was a work simultaneously influenced by and pre-dated much of the imaginative usage of sampling within rap and hip-hop.
While Todd Rundgren has certainly not lost a step whatsoever over the years, there is something that sounds re-invigorating about him throughout "Runddans." At times, he almost sounds younger than he has in some time, as he vocally hits notes, pitches and phrases that feel like old friends. Perhaps collaborating with Emil Nikolaisen and Hans-Peter Lindstrom, musicians he has clearly influenced with musical styles he essentially invented and now returning to a style he has not ever fully revisited, has been a musical fountain of youth of sorts. Rundgren just sounds rejuvenated and re-inspired, just like the 56 year old Prince with his new all female and much younger bandmates in 3rdEyeGirl.
Now I will say that as I listened that very first time, there were points when I very briefly wondered to myself about the album's repetitive nature. But then, I was captivated away from any mental rumblings as the music just continued to wash over me in the warmest waves imaginable. Since having heard the album perhaps 20 times or more by now, I actually recall an interview from Jimmy Page regarding the mystical magic that lies within creating the perfect guitar riffs. While I am paraphrasing, I believe that he proclaimed that the best riffs should function as mantras due to their repetitive nature, that the listener has to almost be placed within a trance like state by the riff in order to be fully affected. Lenny Kravitz also expressed similar feelings when describing the emotions he experiences playing the more repetitive rhythm guitar as opposed to lead guitar. Again, I am paraphrasing, but he likened the rhythm guitar to functioning somewhat as a study in patience and how you could get lost in the cyclical nature of playing the same rhythms over and again for extended periods of time.
To that end, "Runddans" then began to remind me of a couple of non Rundgren related albums that also served repetitive musical themes that always seem to shape shift while also remaining constant. Albums like Miles Davis' "In A Silent Way" (released July 30, 1969) or even the 22 minute title track to Paddy McAloon's "I Trawl The Megahertz" (released May 27, 2003).
With the theme of the life cycle placed firmly at the core of the album, maybe we can think of "Runddans" existing as an enveloping, existential figure eight, a work that double-ends upon itself time and again, with all of the changes and developments resting deep within the curves.
No, "Runddans" is not for everyone. But then again...maybe it really could be, if people really gave it a chance. I really believe that it is more than fitting that "Runddans" is arriving in 2015, a full 40 years after the original release of "Initiation." Once again, Todd Rundgren, vastly far ahead of the curve, created music in 1975 that honestly took the medium of music itself a full 40 years to catch up to it. And then, in collaboration with Nikolaisen and Lindstrom, Rundgren has now caught up with himself and has also propelled himself even further.
Music has evolved considerably over the years and for generations of listeners who possibly grew up with the likes of The Chemical Brothers, Sigur Ros, Air or even the late and masterful J Dilla's "Donuts" (released February 7, 2006), his stunning hip-hop instrumental song cycle of death and dying, or even Flying Lotus' inscrutable "You're Dead!" (released October 6, 2014), "Runddans" just may hit those individuals in their respective wheelhouses.
But for me, having received another gift from one of my greatest musical heroes, it was nothing less then wondrous hearing "The Wizard" at work weaving his magic spell all over again.
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