Review Netherlands August 2005
Background Magazine

Magic Pie – Motions Of Desire
(2005, 74:57, Progress Records PRCD015)
“Oh I’m riding my magic pie. It takes me trough the sky. I hope you like my magic pie. I’ll cut you a slice and we’ll fly away”. Does anybody know those lyrics? They were written by Hans Froberg for the song “Magic pie”. The song can be found on the Flower Kings album “Flower Power”, released in 1999. But Magic Pie is also the name of a new progressive rock band. The band hails from Norway and are a six piece unit who tries to mix modern prog music with influences from the seventies. Iam not sure if they named themselves after the mentioned Flower Kings song. But the lyrics of this song certainly reflects how I feel about the bands music. I would love to share a piece of this delicious pie with you. What we hear on their debut album “Motions Of Desire” is very good. Magic Pie sometimes tastes like The Flower Kings or Yes. But I also could taste ingredients of Spock’s Beard, The Little River Band, Deep Purple or The Beatles. The opening track on the album, “Change”, is the longest piece of music (20 min) and reflects how the band will sound in the future. During this song it becomes clear that they have three strong lead singers. Eirik Hanssen, Allan Olsen and Gilbert Marshall sound great when they do the harmony vocals. But they are also solo of a very high level. The last one is even a very strong keyboard player and song writer. On “Change” he very well improvises on the organ and electric piano. On the other album tracks he also shows that he can play great synthesizer solos. His flute samples and other sounds played on his keyboards are breathtaking. Together with Kim Stenberg he might be considered as one of the most important members in the band. Kim is not just an excellent guitar player but he also produced and engineered the album. He did the art pictures and CD cover. But most of all he wrote most of the tracks. The last track on the album “Dream vision” was written by drummer Jan Torkild Johannessen. It shows that he is not only a strong rhythm section together with bassist Lars Petter Holstad but also can write fine prog tunes. “Motions Of Desire” contains 8 strong tracks and was originally released by the band themselves. I had a chance to hear one of those copies and realized that they deserved a bigger audience. But thank God I was not the only person who found their music worth listening. The Swedish label Progress Records also got notice of this talented band and remastered the original CD and included a booklet which contains all the lyrics and band pictures. It certainly sounds a lot better and hopefully their next album will be recorded in a real professional studio with a larger budget. This way the music even more comes alive and gets this Magic Pie an even better taste. Sofar they are certainly one of this years real surprises. 
**** (Henri Strik)
www.progressrec.com www.magicpie.net