André Drage - Journeyman (2025) [Official Digital Download 24/48]

André Drage is a name you probably may or may not recognize. Blending in electronic music, progressive rock, jazz, and classical music, Drage is a Norwegian music that comes from different forms of the genres I’ve mentioned. Inspired by bands and artists such as Frank Zappa, John Coltrane, Gong, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Elephant9. Black Sabbath, Eno, and Russian Circles, Drage has been keeping his musical roots alive for 13 years.

With his own different projects such as Tip the Scales (prog), Draken (hard rock), Aquafaba (ethno-jazz funk), Kennel (Noise Improv), and De la transistor (electronic duo), Drage’s drum work combines a groovy form of his own arrangements. Last year he launched his own label entitled Drage Records which will help range between prog, jazz, world music, and ambient-electronic music.

One of the first albums released on his label is Journeyman. This is prog-rock at its best. A spiritual journey into the unknown. From the Zappa orientations, Gong, and Eno, Drage is very much a musical storyteller, taking listeners to find their true selves, top to bottom. Recorded during the pandemic at Roff Sound Recordings in 2020, Drage wanted to make sure that everyone played a part in this adventure that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

‘Purple Vision’ which has that Zappa orientation, transposes into some crazy, wacky out of this world time changes. You have Haukaas, Stangnes, and Wei Ting Zing, firing on all cylinders when it comes to the Uncle Meat-era, followed by elements of Tangerine Dream’s Ohr years which speak of Atem and Zeit. Drage knows the source material, inside his heart.

Then, we head into the hot locations of ‘Lake Malwai’ which has a Miles Davis approach that speaks of ‘Freddie Freeloader’ from the Kind of Blue album. It’s also a display that Haukaas’s vibraphone and Alftret’s saxophone sets up a dance with this improvisational beat. Therefore, those nods to Gentle Giant’s In A Glass House, come in very handy and then returning to the krautrock genre.

I mean, how proggy can you get? All of the above if you want to push the envelope even further. The three-part suite of ‘A Soldier’s March’ which has that cavernous mellotron introduction Kjelldal introduces into a mournful overture before Zeng comes forth to make his cello wake the sun up, to start a brand-new day.

The second-part features Stangnes’ intensive bass workout, Drage laying down the tribe, Kjelldal and Nybo laying down the film-noir beat as if we’re in the late ‘60s, early 70s with an Italian vibration from the Giallo-era between Mario Bava, Lucio Fulci, and Dario Argento. Why do you think there’s elements of Goblin and Fabio Frizzi come into the picture? Because Drage is like a film score enthusiast who keeps up with his research.

The third and final part features the sound of wildlife, birds chirping, and I believe its Liverod or Nybo creating the calming effect that everything is okay after that intense workout the ensemble had to do as we fade off into the mystical forest, awaiting its listener. And then, all of a sudden, we go into this trip-hop momentum in which Drage returns to the African beats once more ‘In Between Is Always Forward’.

This isn’t just a jazz-rock album, this is a spiritual walk into the mellotronic rivers, awaiting you. The nods to Air’s score to The Virgin Suicides speak volume and ‘Schooldays’ tip of the hat to Gentle Giant comes back into the picture. Drage must have listened to them so many times, playing their first four albums repeatedly to get an idea on where he wants to take his composition.

Closing up Journeyman is ‘A Taste of a Bitter Fruit’. Here, all good things must come to an end. It gives us a laid-back, meditated guidance to clear our heads and reflect what we did in the past and moving forward into the future.

This might be the album we need for 2025. The Journeyman’s adventure will hopefully continue in the years to come, but in the here, and now, you need to play this album when you go for your walks, either in the morning or in the evening to look at the clear blue sky or when its nighttime, and feel the chillness down to your bone structure.

Tracklist:
01. Lake Malawi 10:10
02. Interlude 5:07
03. Purple vision 6:35
04. A Soldier’s March part I 1:48
05. A Soldier’s March part II 6:58
06. A Soldier’s March part III 2:07
07. In between is always forward 5:01
08. Taste of a bitter fruit 7:19


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