VA - Odyssey The Greatest Tale (2005)

At the time when Colossus (The finnish Progressive Music Association) was planning to make a progressive rock version of Kalevala nobody would have guessed that these kinds of projects would continue and grow to even more gigantic proportions. After “The Spaghetti Epic" and "The Colossus of Rhodes" many bands were inquiring about possibilities to take part in one of these projects. It seemed that there was so much interest that there was only one possibility: to have a new project with an even grander scale. This time there was only one possibility for the theme of the new project, Gomer’s Odyssey must belong to the most famous adventure tales in literary history. It is full of mystery, adventure, monsters, beautiful women and unexpected happenings. This kind of literary work is just what adventurous and experimental music like progressive rock is all about; in fact the adventures of Odysseus have many similarities with the struggles of artists playing progressive rock nowadays. Both seem to be driven by a manic urge to get the aim they have set for them fulfilled without saving any troubles in doing this.

The “Odyssey" tells about the journeys of Odysseus after the Trojan War (which was the theme of “Iliad"). Presented in twenty-four books the “Odyssey" has many different main themes that for this project were divided in nine parts. Each of the nine bands participating in the project made a suite of 20-25 minutes inspired by the part chosen for the band. In the traditional Colossus way and to ascertain the continuity of the sound from suite to suite the bands were advised to use only original 70's keyboards (Dammond, Moog, Mellotron, Fender Rhodes, Solina, Grand Piano etc.), guitars with early 70’s effects and the Rickenbacker as a preferred bass. No programming, drum machines nor digital sounds were allowed. The music of the suites should be in similar style of the early 70’s (1970-1975) progressive rock.

The reaction of the progressive bands of today was very favourable to the project, and soon all nine suites were reserved by nine bands coming from eight different countries. This time the project attracted the attention of many well-known artists in the field of progressive rock, and the bands participating come from three different continents, from Europe there are four bands: XII Alfonso (France), Simon Says (Sweden), C.A.P. (Italy) and Minimum Vital (France); from North America two bands: Nathan Mahl (Canada) and Glass Hammer (USA) and from South America three bands: Nexus (Argentina), Tempano (Venezuela) and Aether (Brazil).

As usual, all bands participating in the project were interviewed for the Colossus Magazine, and everybody was of the opinion that the project was a very interesting one and would present a big challenge to the bands participating. It was agreed that it is very stimulating when each band has the opportunity to express its vision of a same story. Many of the bands thought that this is an idea whose time bas come. Bands have been making concept albums for quite a long time, so it is only natural to extend this idea to include nine different composers, each with their own distinct voice, and create a true epic.

The project is unique because it has bands from all over the world share a concept and even musical melodies and they compose a whole opera contributing with different styles and cultures. The bands thought that this is taking the progressive rock concept to a maximum. The expectation of the bands was that the bands will present collectively an epic that equals the classic status of its subject. Everybody agreed that it is an honour to have a chance to do an album with all these great international bands. The bands thought that it is a good chance to interact with other bands on the same record and share different visions and approach of the same style of music and they were sure that they would learn something new from this experience.

Some bands felt that there was also a risk involved in having so many different bands with different styles from all around the world taking part in the project because this could endanger the cohesion of the whole opus. How well the bands have succeeded in eliminating this is left for the listener to decide.

Raimo Eurasto, Colossus Magazine