Cygnus Rock Band - Gästabud (Yggdrasil)

No, I won't tell what the song title means. Be nice, be a smart, responsible person who is capable of comprehending the consequences of their actions, or the lack of their actions. Use your brain. Or let me say, use that meatball that is grown on the upper side of your spine. It's full of neurons and I can make you sure they will be deeply grateful to you if you finally make them busy with thinking using them 😒

This song is a gem as it is. Barely more than 2 minutes, a rush of joy, beauty, sweetness, life and passion, poured right onto you, dear listener, on your head, to make you soaked with happiness down to your bones. 

I remember, at the very beginning, when I was just getting to know Cygnus and their earlier material - those that were released before Ancient Visions - my first impression about this song was that it's like as if at the end of a long day of rehearsing and recording the musicians leave the studio, putting away their instruments. Once the studio door is closed, the instruments suddenly wake up - you know, like those smaller and bigger objects in old cartoons - and start to make music on their own, just for themselves. And they are jamming and having a party all night long, then when the musicians arrive to continue rehearsing and recording, all instruments are again inanimate, laying in their case, where they were left.

The song starts with probably one of the most beautiful trios singing in any Cygnus-song: the tiple, the accordion and - if I'm not wrong - a whistle or piccolo. The first two enchant the listener right there; the thick, warm, golden-colored beauty is dripping downwards like wildhoney, getting under your skin right there. You feel the sweetness of them with all your cells in your body.

And the rhythm section is faithfully holding them all on its strong shoulders.

Then enters the guitar.

The easy, playful dance of the instruments immediately gets a more serious tone. 

Do I hear well an acoustic guitar, too, gently accompanying her powerful, electric big sister, singing together?... Meanwhile the tiple, like a tiny but colorful hummingbird is just flashing its myriad of tones, this way giving the duett of the two guitars a lovely, folk-ish flavor?...

Isn't it wonderful, dear listener?... Is this choir of stringed instruments not like a secret gem these wonderful musicians readily give into your hands with love, care, affection and the wish to bring beauty to your life? 

Isn't it something to be happy about, to rejoice? To reach out and hold all these treasures to your heart? To believe that there is still some beauty in this world that is worth fighting for?

The guitars suddenly quieten and the tiple reappear, shining bright. But keep your ears and your heart wide open, dear listener, because it just flares up for a moment, kisses you playfully, then disappears behind the virtuoso guitar.

The guitar then carries the song's main theme ahead with the gods' distant choir in the background

I seriously wonder how these musicians could catch this tiny detail from the Asgardians' voices, but nevertheless it tells more than 1000 words about how wonderful these rockers are

and dear listener, as you hear these divine voices, you can be sure that something great is about to arrive.

The guitar is teasing you. It keeps singing the theme, with the gods' choir's sublime, delicate, yet powerful presence. You know that they are all up to something, but they won't let you find out. They tease you, play with you, tickle you, you're begging but they just laugh and tease you ahead. Then suddenly the choir falls silent, the entire space clears up and the guitar steps into the spotlight.

And it sings. It's melodic, rich, warm, mellow, it's like the diamond in a king's crown. It shines bright, you reach out your hand for it to grab it and hold it tight. It smiles at you, pulls you tight to its strong chest holding you, then with its next move it pushes you up towards the sky. Worry not, dear listener, it's coming with you, takes you by the hand, it doesn't leave you. The acoustic guitar is dancing around the two of you. gently touching your face. And when you look at these two through your tears of joy, the guitar laughs at you and disappears.

You get scared. You think you will never see this beauty again, that nothing and nobody in this world will fill your heart with this much happiness. You desperately try to grab something, afraid of falling down.

You don't have to.

The guitar didn't disappear, it is back. It was there for the whole time, it was just teasing you again. And now it brought the entire symphonic orchestra with itself, along with the acoustic guitar and the tiple. 

Open your arms and your heart, dear listener. Open them wide to receive, hug, hold tight and never ever let this beauty go. Hold to your heart this beautiful musical catharsis and let yourself swept away by it. Life is full of times and places when you must hold yourself together for this or that reason; but this is not that time. Let those tears flow. Let your heart be filled with happiness. Fall in love with the singing of the guitars, the orchestration, the tiple, the accordion and the wind instrument. Be grateful that it all happens in your life and you are lucky enough to see it, hear it and experience it.

And most of all, dear listener: it's always with you. 💗