The title translates as ‘for the first time’, which is what Mike Tramp is doing here by releasing an album in his native tongue. But while the lyrics are therefore unintelligible for the majority of his fan base, his voice remains familiar and undiminished.
True, he’s not pushing it too hard with these 10 songs at the gentler end of the melodic rock spectrum, but that’s the point.
He’s taken the opportunity, while abandoning his English vocabulary, to explore musical avenues he might never have followed while fronting White Lion, say, or Freak Of Nature.
- “Sometimes his lyrics are so indistinct they may as well be wordless. Sometimes they are actually wordless”: Jonathan Hultén’s Eyes Of The Living Night is brilliant and beautiful
- “Witness fulfilled so many dreams… I was in doubt about where to go after that”: VOLA’s battle to find a direction for latest album Friend Of A Phantom
Producer/guitarist Søren Anderson (on the ninth album the pair have made together) brings together pedal steel, mandolin, trumpet and string section expertly on an album that is surprisingly engaging.
