The Flower Kings - Unfold the Future (Limited Edition, 2002)

Cuando estábamos con el post de Kaipa, discazo cortesía del Mago, surgió la inquietud de comentar alguno de los mejores discos de The Flower Kings. Me puse a escuchar de nuevo y ¡todos son buenos! Así que elegí un poco al azar: aquí hay una muestra bien representativa de las habilidades de esta banda sueca que ya es una leyenda del mejor neoprogresivo al alcance. ¡Desaten el futuro cabezones, de la mano de los Reyes de la Flor!

Artista: The Flower Kings

Álbum: Unfold the Future (Limited Edition)
Año: 2002
Género: Progresivo Sinfónico / Jazz Rock
Duración: cd 1, 1:14:03 + cd 2, 1:17:19 (total: 2:31:22)
Nacionalidad: Suecia

Lista de Temas:
Disco 1
1. The Truth Will Set You Free
    I. Lonely Road
    II. Primal Instincts
    III. From the Source
    IV. Uphill
    V. The Stars the Sun the Moon
2. Monkey Business
3. Black and White
4. Christianopel
5. Silent Inferno
6. The Navigator
7. Vox Humana

Disco 2
1. Genie in a Bottle
2. Fast Lane
3. Grand Old World
4. Soul Vortex
5. Rollin' the Dice
6. The Devil's Danceschool
7. Man Overboard
8. Solitary Shell
9. Devil's Playground
10. Too Late for Tomatoes (bonus)

Alineación: 
- Zoltan Csörsz / batería
- Jonas Reingold / bajos
- Tomas Bodin / gran piano y teclados eléctricos- Hasse Fröberg / voz
- Daniel Gildenlöw / voz
- Roine Stolt / guitarras, voz y teclados
- Hasse Bruniusson / percusiones orquestales
- Ulf Wallander / saxos soprano y tenor
- Anders Bergcrantz / trompeta

Para el momento en que Roine Stolt comenzó a desarrollar el álbum solista The Flower King, ya era un músico completamente formado, con una trayectoria iniciada en Kaipa en los 70, y una decena de años (los 80) dedicado a perfeccionar sus habilidades como compositor, guitarrista y productor, con ideas, como él mismo dice, hippies respecto del mundo de la música en los 90: ante la salvaje competencia de la industria, él quiso plantear un remanso de "paz y amor" a través de una nueva aproximación a la música. Los músicos que reunió para iniciar el tour de The Flower King pronto se establecieron como banda fija y tomaron el nombre, hoy ya una leyenda sueca, de The Flower Kings.

En general los discos de esta banda tienen temas sorprendentes, tanto sinfónicos complejos como simples baladas y, en este en particular, mucho jazz improvisativo. Pero también hay que decir que en ocasiones, especialmente en los discos dobles, de repente hay minutos, largos minutos que sobran un poco, que no añaden al concepto, que podrían haberse quedado fuera. Hago honor a la verdad, que es lo que pide el disco. Elegí este un poco al azar; quizá inspirado por el título del álbum, Unfold the Future, literalmente "desdobla el futuro" pero creo que representa una idea más fuerte, algo así como "desata el futuro". Un buen disco doble del que aquí presentamos la edición limitada (con un largo bonus track instrumental); una muestra bien completa de los alcances de esta banda, orgullo del rock sinfónico sueco.

El estilo sinfónico de gran aliento de la banda está plenamente desarrollado aquí, con suites sinfónicas como "The Truth Will Set You Free", que parafrasea en segunda persona aquella máxima bíblica a la que la iglesia católica no le hace mucho honor: la verdad nos hará libres. La suite, dividida en cinco movimientos y con una duración de más de 30 minutos, recorre diversos esquemas estructurales, rítmicos y melódicos, y deja escuchar una letra abstracta pero conciente de la necesidad de verdad en un mundo tan lleno de mentiras. Esta perspectiva es constante en la obra de The Flower Kings: el comentario crítico pero un tanto abstracto (a veces nos da temor nombrar las cosas y optamos por la vaguedad) de los vicios de nuestra sociedad, que también se puede escuchar en el segundo tema del disco (entre otros), "Monkey Business", en el que Stolt hace una parodia de la evolución humana desde el mono peludo hasta el mono financiero que se ha convertido en nuestro querido dictador feliz.

Hay varias referencias más a asuntos bíblicos (no desde el punto de vista religioso sino del de la reflexión sobre la realidad), especialmente del lado "malo": la minisuite "Silent Inferno" y la segunda suite ambiciosa, "Devil's Playground" ("Caos en la galaxia del odio", dice al iniciar) que arranca con un arreglo orquestal y timbalero a la manera de la gran sinfonía rusa de del siglo XX como en Stravinsky o Shostakovich, y se va poniendo cada vez más progresiva.

Como siempre, este disco de los Reyes de la Flor incluye sus bonitas baladas de las que probablemente la mejor es la que cierra el primer disco, "Vox Humana".

Entre las joyas del disco hay tres temas instrumentales en los que los miembros de la banda dan rienda suelta a su destreza musical en tono totalmente free jazz, mostrando la profundidad a la que llega el universo de la fusión en ese país de grandes músicos (no es casual que uno de los miembros de la banda sea ex integrante de la genial Samla Mammas Manna, de la que tenemos extraordinarias grabaciones en el blog gracias al Mago Alberto.

Especial atención hay que poner a la guitarra de Stolt en el último tema del disco 2, "Too Late for Tomatoes", el bonus instrumental de 10 minutos de la edición limitada.

Sin más preámbulos, ahí está esta ambiciosa producción sinfónica al mejor estilo de lo que caracteriza nuestro género favorito gracias a estos genios escandinavos.


Wikipedia:

Unfold the Future is the seventh studio album by the progressive rock band The Flower Kings, which was released in 2002. It is also the band's third studio double-CD. A limited special edition of the album contained an instrumental bonus track.
This album is the first appearance of both drummer Zoltan Csörsz, replacing the original member Jaime Salazar, and Pain of Salvation's frontman Daniel Gildenlöw, the latter as a guest vocalist on several tracks.
The style of the album shows several influences of jazz music and experimentation, with the inclusion of two free-form jams (or three, counting the special edition bonus track), along with the band's traditional symphonic progressive rock style.

Allmusic:

Unfold the Future is the Flower Kings' eighth studio album (counting guitarist Roine Stolt's initial solo disc that christened the band), and their third double-CD set in ten years. By now they have released 13 hours of material. It took Genesis a quarter of a century to do the same. Are the Swedish guys doing too much? Astonishingly, no. Unfold the Future is a strong album, better than its predecessor, The Rainmaker. It could have been scaled down to a single-disc affair without leaving much crucial material behind, but it still works well as it is. The group's short flirt with a harder-edged sound is now over. Instead, the music builds upon the jazzier vein that was buried deep into The Rainmaker -- that and ballads, lots of ballads. This album introduces drummer Zoltan Csörsz, taking the place of original member Jaime Salazar, although you will hardly notice the difference. The rest of the lineup remains the same, including returning guests Hasse Bruniusson (percussion) and Ulf Wallander (soprano sax). Two lengthy selections bookend the set. "The Truth Will Set You Free" (31 minutes) takes listeners immediately on the roller coaster of emotions and time signatures that is a Flower Kings epic. More coherent than "Stardust We Are" or "Garden of Dreams," it will make an exciting concert addition and will quickly rise to classic Flower Kings status. "Devils Playground" (25 minutes) gets a bit trickier, but it includes some very strong sections and provides a powerful, frenzied finale. If these two songs -- along with "Monkey Business," "Silent Inferno," and "Genie in a Bottle" -- all fly up to the group's quality standards, the surprises are found in lower-profile tunes like "Soul Vortex" and "Christianopel," two free-form jams. Accusations of self-indulgence will probably continue to fly, but don't mind them; Unfold the Future is a good opus, even though you may want to go through it in more than one sitting.

Keith "Muzikman" Hannaleck (originalmente en el desaparecido progressiveworld.net, conservada gracias al Wayback Machine de Internet Archive)

There are not too many groups that garner attention and gather the anticipation of a new release like Sweden's progressive rock superstars The Flower Kings. With that, the responsibility they carry on their shoulders attaches a huge accountability to everything they do. In a marvelous and humble way, they always come up with an outstanding effort every time they go into the studio to record. In addition, they have come out of several sessions with enough material to fill two CDs, which is once again the case with Unfold The Future.
They continue to amaze me with every album. I ask myself each time- "Can this band actually become better?" I answer that question with a resounding and affirmative "yes." They sound hauntingly similar to Yes, then follow with a track that puts them in a league all their own, quickly turning things around to sound like a stand alone great prog-rock band with a first class lead singer that has a definitive Swedish accent. They are indeed the purveyors of some of the most sophisticated and pure music here on the planet earth. With each listen of this album, and believe me there were several, I hear more intricacies and developments in their music that I did not hear on the previous listen. From my point of view as a critic and someone that studiously pays attention to every note, that carries a tremendous amount of weight. So where do I start with my rundown on this set with over two hours of prog-rock bliss? It is not an easy task mind you, but I will pick out what I though were the brightest spots on the recording.
Disc one starts things off with a classic FK oeuvre called "The Truth Will Set You Free." It is 30 minutes of progressive nirvana. "Monkey Business" is a rockin' romp in the musical jungle, putting a decidedly straight-ahead rock slant on their sound. My absolute favorite is the ever-changing "Silent Inferno." The time signatures in the song are extraordinary, and it is the band in their most essential element. They are obviously talented enough to flip-flop between genres and seamlessly blend several styles into one song by adding a tasteful saxophone here and an airy keyboard layer there. I normally rant and rave about Roine Stolt's guitar playing, and yes, it is always superb, but this time out I must say that this is a total and complete effort from every member of this group, it always is, I noticed it more than ever with this album though. The maturity of each group member, and how that aspect helps to evolve the band's overall sound, becomes more important as the recording plays deep into the first disc then continues with the second. The advent of successful solo albums by the members of the group also gives them more depth and variety than ever before.
Side two opens with a delightful "Genie In The Bottle" and "Rollin The Dice" is equally engaging with snappy hooks and dreamy vocals. The solos that each band member has the opportunity to produce is another factor that makes this release so much more intriguing and introspective than previous albums. I have enjoyed everything that this group has ever done, it seems now that they have moved up yet another notch and taken it all to the next level in their select dominion of prog-rock. I dare say that there are only a few groups with this kind of power and presence, I think you know who they are fellow prog-heads. This group has been one of the very few consistently great ones over the past 7 years. So, I ask you now, who will fall from your good graces this year? Moreover, who will stay right there in front of you to keep your focus? I can tell you that this group is not giving an inch on their position, with this album they have a firmer grip on their place in musical history reserved for only legends.

Y acá las reseñas de Progarchives (casi a nadie le gusta ahí).