A solo project of former In The Woods… guitarist Christer Cederberg, Stille Opprør takes a more traditional Progressive route, mixing influences such as Pink Floyd with Indie and Alternate Rock to create a compelling mixture all of his own. The seven tracks present on S.o2 could all be termed ‘songs’ and wouldn’t even sound out of place on the radio, but they’re hardly commercial. Instrumentally it’s pretty much as you’d expect, vocals at the foreground with acoustic strumming, keyboards, bass and drums weaving a complex web, the likes of opening song L Tune laid back and dreamy yet seizing your attention.

It’s hard to describe each song as a separate entity, as each touches new areas of melody, each moment hypnotically shaping aural hills and valleys. Meanwhile adds a restrained sense of foreboding with repetitive drumming before electric guitars give it more of a Rock vibe, even touching on U2 territory. Fans of recent Ulver will love the delicate Reconnect, with female vocals interplaying with the male, whilst the ten-minute title track opens with Placebo-esque fuzz, moving through the type of territory traversed on Opeth’s Damnation album as well as Porcupine Tree at their most relaxed, with some more excellently-placed female vocals bringing The Mars Volta’s style to mind.

All too often these days Prog Rock ignores the song in favour of the instruments, doesn’t give the listener enough to let them in gently, instead forcing them to struggle. Here, Stille Opprør have created a beautiful piece of music that takes you by the hand and leads you over its progscapes rather than merely dropping you in at the deep end as so many bands do. By the time the closing Instrumental comes around with its touches of Folk and Post-Rock it seems the natural thing to start the album again, it’s all so compelling and listenable. That the band does this without a trace of contrivance, without pomp or nerdy insistence makes the whole experience little short of sublime. Fans of classic Prog will enjoy this, as will anyone that appreciates beauty in their ear candy.