Lars Fredrik Fröislie - 2025 - Quattro Racconti

(46:46; Karisma Records)






















This is the second album from Wobbler (and White Willow) keyboard player Lars Fredrik Frøislie to be released this year, but I am reviewing it first as this is actually a new version of his 2023 debut, now with Italian vocals provided by Stefano "Lupo" Galifi (Museo Rosenbach). Apart from bassist Nikolai Hængsle, all music is provided by Lars, and it is basically a huge list of keyboards: Hammond C3, Mellotron M400, Minimoog D, Chamberlin M1, Hohner Clavinet D6, spinet, Yamaha electric piano, ARP Axxe & Pro Soloist synths, Solina String Ensemble, Rhodes MKII, Wurlitzer 200, tremoloa (zither), recorder, drums. I have not heard the original release, ‘Fire Fortellinger’, but I can certainly hear why Frederik wanted the mighty Galifi involved as this is solid RPI as opposed to symphonic, and the Italian vocals make that even more so. 

It contains just four songs, with two six-minute pieces bookended by two sixteen-minute numbers, although I must say that the first piece feels like at least three different pieces which have been combined into one just to make it a longer piece. I have long been a fan of Frøislie’s playing, and there is no doubt that revisiting this with Galifi has been a masterstroke as this never sounds like a modern release, but rather as if it is coming to us straight from the Seventies when Italy was such a hotbed of innovation. It must have been interesting for Galifi to be just presented with the music, given the album has already been available for two years, making it very much his own. In some ways I am reminded of Geoff Mann joining Twelfth Night and taking one of their instrumentals, “Sequences”, and turning it into a vocal tour de force.

This is classic progressive rock, viewed as a genre as opposed to a desire, as this is a time machine as opposed to breaking new ground, but to anyone who enjoys the old days then this is a delight. 

Kev Rowland, December 2025

Links:
https://www.facebook.com/larsfredrikfroislie
https://www.karismarecords.no/

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