Runddans

Description

Runddans is the result of the collaboration between Todd Rundgren, Hans-Peter Lindstrom and Emil Nikolaisen. Its a spiritual magnusopus, that stands alongside Rundgrens most worshipped trippy albums of the seventies, fusing his blue eyed soul with Lindstroms disco epics and Emil Nikolaisens studio trickery into a cosmic mix of soul, synth, pop and disco.

The collaboration was born after Rundgren did a stomping remix of Lindstroms track «Quiet Place To Live» in 2012 (Rundgrens first ever remix). The three of them met in a studio in wintery Oslo that same year, and the music slowly mushroomed from there. Ideas grew and took u-turns that lead into a violently beautiful and strange creature. The highly detailed and cacophonous sound of the album clearly conveys the international feel characteristic of Rundgrens cutting edge soul of his most studio-driven epic, 1973s A Wizard A True Star as well as his classics Todd and Initiation. The synthesizers, the restlessness, the suites, the sonic antics, the search for understanding, fulfilment and good times: its all here. It also references his lost classic, the massively spiritual voice-only album A capella from 1985. This, combined with Lindstroms signature extended cosmic compositions and Emils psychedelic sound-quilting, paint the picture of three individuals on a journey towards musical bliss.

Runddans is the record that Toddheads have been waiting 40 years for. Cosmic disco pioneer Hans-Peter Lindström and Emil Nikolaisen of Serena-Maneesh have taken Todd Rundgren back to the future, back to the mid-70s glory days of Todd and Initiation, albums filled with spiritual longing and a desire to achieve transcendence. Dense, complex, thrillingly intricate yet sweepingly emotional, here the original laptop kid and the Norwegian electronicists capture a long-lost time while also managing to sound utterly futureperfect. Its the album of the year. And the year is 1975, via 2015. Paul Lester (MOJO)