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Anders Buaas — Trollringen
(Apollon Records AP216, 2025, CD / LP / DL)

by Henry Schneider, Published 2025-08-02

Trollringen Cover art

Trollringen is Anders Buaas’ new solo album that he has been working on since 2019. Trollringen is a bit of departure, as this is his first album with songs mixed in with his instrumentals. When he started working on the music six years ago, it was without a concept in mind, but over time the music started to fit as a concept album loosely based on Sigurd Hoel’s 1958 novel Trollringen, a story about a rural community’s scapegoat, Havard Viland, who is wrongly convicted of his wife’s death partly as a result of his trying to introduce new agricultural methods. He becomes the victim of a circle of aggressive neighbors (the trollringen or troll circle) and officials intent on maintaining the status quo by sticking to the old, accustomed ways and business-as-usual politics. On Trollringen Anders plays acoustic and electric guitars, bass, keyboards, and percussion, along with guest musicians Steinar Børve (soprano sax), Henrik Madsen (drums and percussion), Rune Erling Pedersen (drums and percussion, Joakim Biondi (piano), Tim Condor (vocals), Tanya Wells (vocals), and Miriam Kjølen (vocals), plus a live string section the song “Best I Can Be.” Anders structured the music as a soundtrack, beginning with “Prologue” and ending with “End Credits.” As on his earlier albums there is a Mike Oldfield vibe on some of the instrumentals, plus some other influences. I detect a similarity to Alain Markusfeld on “The Last Drop,” with Anders’ lightning fast fingers and then some hints of David Gilmour on “As I Draw My Last Breath.” Having worked on the music for six years, Anders has honed the music so that the diversity between tracks and songs, happy and upbeat tracks alternating with darker sad music, makes for an enjoyable listening experience. “Best I Can Be” is a beautiful love song to Havard’s wife, casting doubt on his involvement with her death. “The Balance of Being One” conveys his depression and fear that he may never again see the light of day. And all this music is propelled by Anders’ mix of 70s prog, prog jazz fusion, Norwegian folk dances, and acoustic folk. All in all, Trollringen is quite a delightful release, though the story line is a bit of a downer.

Filed under: New releases, 2025 releases

Related artist(s): Bjørn Riis, Anders Buaas

More info
http://andersbuaas.bandcamp.com/album/trollringen

 

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