ULF JORDAL – Heartbeat Of Time (2012)

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Born in Bergen, Norway, ULF JORDAL was trained as classical pianist, but in his teens changed his musical tastes influenced by American AOR and West Coast musicians.

Ulf played and recorded with several Sandinavian bands, and although it has taken some time for his debut album as solo artist, finally it’s here in the form of “Heartbeat Of Time”.

The CD shows Jordal’s different musical influences, mostly L.A. WestCoast AOR oriented, but there’s also some melodic rock melodies interspersed between these songs.

Ulf has a warm voice with a wide range and he gives to the background vocals a very important part in his music, crafting beautiful harmonies nicely blended with the tight instrumental arrangements.

The session musicians, all from Norway, are skilled performers with taste and refinement.

Opener “Understand” pretty much describes Ulf’s style, somekind of Toto’s material penned by David Paich. Ulf is really into the piano playing of Mr. Paich and his vocals are dynamic and colorful, with – as said – elaborated background harmonies. There’s a great rhythm into the song and a melodic, toneful guitar solo.

Follower “Every Connection” is even more classic Westcoast with a midtempo pace and the typical L.A. sound, as heard later on the very good “Start Believing”, “Turn the Page” and “Living On a Lie”.

Even if the base for the album are L.A. WestCoast / AOR sounds, Ulf also delivers Melodic Rock AOR oriented numbers such as title track “Heartbeat of Time” with a catchy chorus, “Look Out” which contains the most powerful riff on the album and got a very fitting reverb added when singing the chorus, and “Open The Door” with a great refrain and strong guitars.

We have ballads in the soulful “One More Try” and the orchestrated “Fight For Love”, where Ulf’s vocals really shine.

“Heartbeat Of Time” delivers a really good collection of classic L.A. West Coast AOR numbers interspersed with Euro Melodic Rock tracks with the usual quality expected from Scandinavian artists.

Everything is extremely polished and finely arranged. Ulf Jordal has a voice with a very special tone performing smooth leads and top notch background vocal arrangements, all sung by Jordal himself.

Most of the songs are of true quality, with flawless instrumentation and excellent production.

A delicate piece of music from Norway.

01 – Understand

02 – Every Connection

03 – One More Try

04 – Heartbeat of Time

05 – Start Believing

06 – Open the Door

07 – Look Out

08 – Fight for Love

09 – Turn the Page

10 – Love in Harmony

11 – Living On a Lie

12 – Holding On

Ulf Jordal – Lead & Harmony Vocals, Keyboards

Tobben – Lead & High Gain Guitars

Eivind Kvamme – Clean & Acoustic Guitars

Anders Bitustøyl, Thore Maehle – Bass

Torgeir Bjordal – Drums

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