Isildurs Bane
Mind, Volume 1

"Tarots and the North" (twelve writings each associated with a Major Arcana by Luis Royo)

"XII. The World"

Turning one's gaze to the road traveled is typical of those approaching their destination. Observing the silent obliteration of the countless footprints left along the way, overwhelmed by the immaculate snow of narrow mountain paths, concealed by the peaceful passage of emerald valley pastures, or pushed into oblivion by the cold fingers of a sea intent on lapping the steep fjords of the Scandinavian coasts. The transience of the uncertain marks we leave behind pales before the prodigious force of the images projected inside us by this splendid land, so superior in its ability to engrave memory with bursts of indelible suggestions, as to fuel the doubt that, during the entire expedition, it might have been the land exploring us rather than the other way around.

The North, with its music, insinuates into the recesses of the soul, invades it as if it were a poison injected into the body to immunize it from its ailments, reveals and heals it, proving to be a faithful ally in the search and gain of that contemplative dimension so lucidly described by Seneca in his letters addressed to his dear friend Lucilius, also full of precious advice to lead a serene life: "I will then tell you what has been a comfort to me; but first, I want to tell you that these things in which I found solace have had the effectiveness of a medicine for me; good comforts turn into medicines, and whatever uplifts the soul also benefits the body."

The sound, through the beneficial waves emanating from it, has an almost unlimited soothing capacity, but it must be cultivated and lovingly nurtured until it assumes those exquisite forms capable of vibrating in harmony with the most intimate stirrings of human nature. The Isildurs Bane, undisputed masters of such science, spent over a decade before achieving such results, strengthening the symphonic foundations of their beginnings, extinguishing the jazz vein of subsequent works, and increasing the acoustic aspects of "Cheval," finally, in 1992, materializing that instrumental cornucopia proudly responding to the emblematic name "The Voyage."

The scene unfolds at the end of the journey. Not only ours, discovering the progressive wonders of the European taiga, but also that of the Swedish sextet, proud of crowning their ascent with a majestic masterpiece, and extraordinarily capable of repeating themselves, five years later, inaugurating the "MIND" project with a stunning manifesto of experimental chamber rock, sculpted by the multifaceted contributions of percussionist Klas Assarsson, subtle coordinator of the bold sorties of flute and guitar ("The Flight Onward"), and meticulously refined by the electronic chiseling of the keyboardist, as well as the main composer, Mats Johansson, director of an epic chess match between the classical rigor of strings and the avant-garde theses of brass ("Holistic Medicine").

Such a magnificent sound temple does not find its emblematic figure in the solemn assemblies between the oboe and Kjell Severinsson's drums, depicted in the main pediment ("Opportunistic Walk"), but in the delightful series of metopes running along the faces of the frieze and eternalizing the dazzling sensations of Jonas Christophs' guitar and Fredrik Emilson's bass, one guided by the flute through the meanders of ecstatic visions ("The Pilot", "A Blank Page") and the other in devoted audience to the teachings offered by Joachim Gustafsson's violin ("In a State of Comprehension"), the angelic jeweler of the soul, able to elevate it by embedding his celestial jewels of wisdom ("Ataraxia", "Unity").

In these notes, compiled in the grand live "MIND Vol.2", a miraculous panacea takes shape, guardian of that same therapeutic property that Seneca, as a perfect stoic sage, identified in calm and reflection, writing: "Studies have been my salvation; it is thanks to philosophy that I rose from bed, that I am healed: I owe my life to it, even though this is the lesser debt I have towards it." But standing against the difficulties of a mortal existence from the ethereal domains of thought befits only the cultivators of true virtue and is unthinkable for those who, like myself, grope in the dark of an ambiguous reality lacking points of reference, desperately needing the peace and support derived from listening to prodigious musical works, a heritage of a progressive world of which the Scandinavian scene is but a small, fertile, and enchanting province.