BJØRN RIIS – Everything to Everyone

The renowned musical genius that is Bjørn Riis never ceases to amaze me regardless of whether we are talking about his inspired work with Norwegian prog rockers Airbag or his stunning solo outputs. His latest work is the hauntingly beautiful “Everything to Everyone” where everything that made his past LPs so amazing has been refined and sharpened, which is to say that its six atmospheric and soul-stirring compositions stand tall and proud as his best and most memorable work to date. Words such as inventive and passionate do not even begin to cover the creative and emotional depth of the record and the whole thing is as elegantly composed as it is immersive and epic. Introspective and bleak yet full of power and vigor, each track on the disc is a journey in and of itself. Stylistically, one could draw a few vague parallels to David Gilmour’s solo albums as well as the Pink Floyd records post-Waters, but “Everything to Everyone” sounds uniquely different to anything else out there and all fans and lovers of atmospheric prog rock seriously ought to invest their time and hard-earned cash in this stroke of musical genius. Brilliant and quite obviously something that has to be experienced rather than summed up in a few short sentences.