PLP can call themselves very lucky because in the person of Hermann Thorrisson they have found a lunatic who simply is mad about the band and even travelled all the way from Iceland to Sweden just to see the band perform during the launch for their new album “Vene Vidi Vici”. Hermann who is a famous mathematician apparently has solid contacts in Iceland and thus managed to organize not only a concert in Reykjavik but also got the national radio to record the event. It is that recording which has been stripped in order to fit onto a single disc so as not to interfere with the double “Live in America” set. In fact “Live in Iceland” offers completely different material to the “Live in America” set because on the latest album you’ll find eight out of the ten songs from “Vene vidi vici” augmented with two so far unreleased tracks. The line-up on this album is also different as it’s the first time you’ll hear newcomers John Hermansen on guitar and William Kopecky on bass.

In the beginning of ‘Gradus ad Parnassum’ Nisse’s vocals are way in the background which is a bit sad whilst Pär’s piano pieces are mixed way up front. The applause is rather thin and polite and it really needs the enthousiasm of Nisse to spice things up a little. Being a huge fan of ELP, hence his own PLP, Pär Lindh almost delivers an ELP tribute during the titletrack for ‘Veni vidi vici’ larded with tons of great Hammond C3. It really takes some time before the Icelandic audience wakes up and what better way to do this than during the powerful ‘Tower of thoughts’. Then it’s time for Pär to shine as a pure classical artist by means of the inclusion of the Prokoviev classic ‘Montagues & capulets’ which this time gets the company of both drums and bass in order to give it a more contemporary feel. Pär even seens the possibility to introduce some jazz as well here whilst Kopecky’s fretless bass really sounds as deep as can be. Pär continues with some ragtime written by Eubie Blake entitled ‘Charleston rag’ but one can ask oneself what it’s doing here as it does not fit the PLP music at all. This might be a fun thing to do as an encore but it certainly doesn’t merit a place on this album.

On the contrary ‘The river of tales’ is a wonderful song which blends Magdalena’s vocals perfectly with the subtle touches of the piano making this one of the standout songs on the album. A bit muddy in the mix the drums don’t work well together with the harpsichord during ‘Juxtapoint’ whilst Magdalena forces her voice too much into the rock direction she can’t really master. Her voice is better suited for the more classical approach like we witness in ‘Hymn’ where her nice voice is used against a backdrop of church organ. Sometimes though that voice is rather uncertain as we clearly hear during the final song ‘The premonition’ which kind of combines all of the band’s highlights into one energetic ball of musical fire with of course a splendid Hammond C3 ! The song also features some violin performed by Magdalena during the repetitive middle section. The album perfectly illustrates that the PLP we hear is not the PLP at it’s very best. Not enough gigs are probably the main reason why the music doesn’t flow like it should. It nevertheless gives us an idea of how it was that particular night in Iceland but apart from being a memory maybe you should stick to the other PLP releases instead.