Vox Occulta Einar Solberg

• 1 Stella Mortua 05:28
• 2 Medulla 05:31
• 3 Vox Occulta 07:58
• 4 Liberatio 04:41
• 5 Serenitas 06:44
• 6 Vita Fragilis 05:27
• 7 Grex 11:49
• 8 Anima Lucis 07:05
• Total Runtime 54:43

Info for Vox Occulta

Einar Solberg (Leprous), returns with Vox Occulta, his second venture under his own name and a bold, heavy and symphonic statement, recorded in collaboration with the much-sought-after Norwegian Radio Orchestra. Solberg is out to cement himself as one of experimental music’s most epic-sounding characters: “I want to be seen as the cinematic person in prog,” he declares. “I want to completely own that. This is a very cinematic album, and that’s what I was aiming at.” ‘Stella Mortua’, Vox Occulta’s opening track, reflects that clarity of vision. Solberg croons over classical strings, before electric guitar chords emphatically join the fray and the vocalist powers his way through a majestic chorus. From there, each song has its own character – with ‘Medulla’ emphasising its huge, metallic riff and ‘Grex’ being a near-12-minute odyssey. Vox Occulta was co-produced by Solberg and David Castillo, known for his work with Opeth, Katatonia, Amorphis and more.

Einar Solberg, vocals, keyboards, piano
Jed Lingat, bass
Ben Levin, guitar
Pierre Danel, guitar
John Browne, guitar
Keli Gudjonsson, drums
Chris Baum, violin
The Norwegian Radio Orchestra

Einar Solberg
is as renowned for the tender honesty of his lyrics as he is for the eccentric majesty of Leprous’ music. But even by his usual standards, ‘16’ is an extremely emotional and dynamic piece of work. Einar describes the record as “the closest I’ve ever come to writing a concept album” and explains that the new songs are about a very specific and transformational period in the musician’s life. This is the sound of a restless spirit in his absolute element.

“It’s called 16 because that’s when the first really, really bad things started happening to me in life. From 16 to 19, there were a lot of very life-defining moments that happened to me, and that changed me,” he says. “That’s when I kind of lost my innocence and I started realising that life is serious and bad shit can happen. A lot of pretty drastic things happened within those three years. But this album is not only about the bad things. It’s also about some of the career-defining moments, like the moment I started playing with the band and began to find a community to belong to. Emotionally, I’m a bit of everything, so it covers the entire emotional spectrum!”

’16’ finds Einar collaborating with everyone from modern prog contemporaries like Bent Knee’s Ben Levin and Agent Fresco’s Toti Gudnason, to experimental cellist (and regular Leprous live musician) Raphael Weinroth-Browne and Magnus Børmark, best known as a member of Norwegian alt-folk troupe Gåte. He also once again collaborates with Ihsahn and Star Of Ash amongst many others. The record was mixed by mixed by Adam Noble (Placebo, Biffy Clyro, Nothing But Thieves) and mastered by Robin Schmidt (The 1975, Placebo, The Gaslight Anthem, etc.).

This album contains no booklet.