Norway’s self-proclaimed “retro-prog” trio are back with an album inspired by an abstract dance performance! Ring Van Möbius reveal why they jumped at the chance to move away from their comfort zone with the project that led to Commissioned Works Pt II – Six Drops Of Poison, and their plans for future releases – which could even include a recording of the soundtrack to the horror flick Suspiria.
Progressive rock can take musicians to all kinds of unexpected places, but it rarely requires them to put on their dancing shoes. Back in 2021, Ring Van Möbius were contentedly beavering away in the studio in their native Norway, working on the follow-up to The 3rd Majesty, the band’s second full-length that was released the previous year. Then, from nowhere, opportunity knocked.
“After we finished the last album, we figured we’d just continue with new material, which is always refreshing to do,” explains vocalist/keyboard maestro Thor Erik Helgesen. “You can start all over again and get creative, throwing the ideas out there. We were nearly finished with the sketches for the next album, when this guy Harald Beharie approached us, and he asked if we could make some music for his next abstract dance performance. We had absolutely no clue whatsoever about that world, so of course we said yes immediately! [Laughs]”
A respected dance maverick in Norway, Harald Beharie confessed to having little prior knowledge of progressive rock, and that he had discovered Ring Van Möbius via a simple Google search. Helgesen and his comrades, Håvard Rasmussen and Dag Olav Husås, were too thrilled by his offer to care.
“We’d spent half a year writing a new album, but we just paused that thought,” Helgesen recalls. “There was no discussion, because this was a very interesting opportunity for us to work with something completely different. We had no clue whatsoever about abstract dance or that whole area of the arts, so we were quite honoured. We had a meeting soon thereafter,and he didn’t really spell out a specific direction for what the music should be, and we had no clue what he was going to do. But we just thought, ‘Okay, let’s just do it!’ It’s good to move away from your comfort zone.”
“When we were working on Harald [Beharie]’s project, Covid was still around and so it became an amazing job opportunity. We had something exciting and creative to do, while everyone else was stuck at home.”
After some minimal discussions with his new creative partner about how this project was to unfold, Helgesen set to work on writing some music that could be moulded to fit Beharie’s vision. With riffs, improvisations and ideas conjured during months of lockdown isolation, and an assortment of additional material from Ring Van Möbius’ rehearsal jam tapes, the t
