Major Parkinson: A sunset ride on a sparkling ocean boulevard under vivid deranged skies and looming mushroom clouds!
Major Parkinson – Valesa – Chapter I: Velvet Prison
Major Parkinson’s 5th album – a sunset ride on a sparkling ocean boulevard under vivid, deranged skies and looming mushroom clouds. Major Parkinson intertwines deep, intelligent music with more accessible melodies.
Says, «As we add another album to our catalogue, so follows another crowdfunding video. It is the way of our little world. Follow this link to support the creation and release of Valesa – Chapter I: Velvet Prison, our fifth studio album, due to be released October 7th on
Major Parkinson announces their long-awaited return with the new album Valesa – Chapter I: Velvet Prison, releasing on CD, vinyl, cassette and all streaming platforms on October 7, 2022. 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.
Major Parkinson is a Norwegian avant-garde pop group with four critically acclaimed full-length albums to their name: Major Parkinson (2008), Songs from a Solitary Home (2010), Twilight Cinema (2014) and Blackbox (2017).
Their free-flowing and unrestrained songwriting is constantly evolving and expanding into new musical territories, and the upcoming album, Valesa: Chapter I, could be seen as a lighter and more extroverted work than previous albums – while clearly maintaining the band’s experimental core operation. Earlier comparisons to Cardiacs still ring true, while there are echoes of names as diverse as Arcade Fire, Depeche Mode, Leonard Cohen, Duran Duran, Poppy, and Bruce Springsteen on Valesa.
Splashing about in their very own, near-overflowing bubble of progressive rock, avant-garde pop, dark humor and theatre, some claim Major Parkinson to be Norwegian music’s best kept secret. Yet, to their loyal and growing fanbase, they certainly are no secret.
Jon Ivar Kollbotn – vocals
Øystein Bech-Eriksen – guitar
Eivind Gammersvik – bass
Sondre Veland – drums
Lars Christian Bjørknes – keys
Sondre Skollevoll – guitar, backing vocals
Claudia Cox – violin, vocals
Tracklist:
Goodbye Blue Monday 1:12
Behind the Next Door 4:32
Saturday Night 4:07
Ride in the Whirlwind 1:42
Live Forever 7:16
Sadlands 1:15
Intermezzo 2:16
Jonah 6:35
Velvet Moon 2:01
Irina Margareta 5:08
The House 3:27
The Room 4:43
Posh-Apocalypse 2:07
Moma 2:16
Lemon Symphony 1:59
Fantasia Me Now! 6:57
Heroes 2:43
Major Parkinson continue their magnificent return with their new single, Live Forever: A technical powerhouse of a song that evokes a particular late 80s nostalgia, while fusing Major Parkinson’s signature elements of atmospheric synths, intricate rhythms and subtle virtuosity with the kind of anthemic pop hooks the decade was known for. Far from being pastiche, this amalgamation treads new ground for the 7-piece, as progressive electronic elements take center stage for the first time in the band’s career.
Returning guest vocalist, Linn Frøkedal (Megaphonic Thrift, Misty Coast) provides her considerable talents to a timeless chorus alongside the enigmatic baritone of Jon Ivar Kolbotn, colliding like seagulls in the neon haze. Live Forever releases September 9th on all major streaming platforms, and is the second single from the highly anticipated Valesa – Chapter I, due October 7th
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