33 Years (Isildurs Bane, 1989)

The story of the French postman Ferdinad Cheval, who decided to build up a castle - the "Ideal Palace", as he called it - using the stones and the rocks he collected during his walks, has always charmed me. In not alone there, as Isildurs Bane recorded an entire album inspired by Cheval's extraordinary project, titled "Cheval - Volonté de rocher" (meaning "Cheval - A Rock Will").

This is the album cover...

 

...and here you are the Postman's incredible achievement.

 

This orchestral track including a spoken expanation of the story is called "33 Years", the time Cheval spent building up his fairy castle. The theme is very well found and the orchestra / rock band mix perfectly works. As always with Isildurs Bane, there's a classical arrangement graced by properly prog rock cameos. And a good deal of good taste, too.

Tom Bombadill (Isildurs Bane, 1981)

Back in 1981, this excellent Swedish band released their debut album, "Sagan om Ringen", dedicated (well, they were not the only one) to Tolkien's books. In particular, this mostly instrumental track describes one of the most funny and interesting characters from "Lord of The Rings" trilogy, Tom Bombadill. And funny this music is, with an original, almost funky approach to prog I rarely listened to anywhere else.

Left: the original cover art od 1981 LP.

Right: the 1992 CD reissue, also including "Sagan om den Irländska Älgen".

The creative percussions and the bass line on the background are among the best features of the song, but I can't forget the guitar, playing the lead role, nor the discreet and effective keyboards, drawing the basic pattern of the track. I don't especially like the rest of the album (Isildurs Bane surely did better things during their career), but this enthralling and unusual track lingers on in my ears...