Jethro Tull - Rokflote

 

2023 release from rock legends Jethro Tull — their 23rd album!

180-gram single LP

LP mastering at Fluid Mastering in London

Lacquer cutting and LP pressing at Optimal Media in Germany

"To my ears, RökFlöte is a notch or two above The Zealot Gene in terms of its overall intensity and verve on vinyl, as ably demonstrated by hard-driving tracks such as 'Hammer on Hammer,' 'Trickster (and The Mistletoe),' and 'The Navigators.' — Mike Mettler, AnalogPlanet, April 26, 2023. Read the entire review, including a Q&A with Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson here.

Hot on the heels of 2022's U.K. & German top 10 album The Zealot Gene, Jethro Tull release their 2023 studio album, RökFlöte. Twelve tracks reminding the world of the British progressive rocker's iconic and influential folk-inflected rock sound, recorded with the current Tull line-up of Ian Anderson, David Goodier, John O'Hara, Scott Hammond and Joe Parrish James.

Following 2022's The Zealot Gene, the band's first album in two decades, Ian Anderson and the band are returning with a 12-track record based on the characters and roles of some of the principle gods of the old Norse paganism, and at the same time exploring the ‘RökFlöte' — rock flute — which Jethro Tull has made iconic.

The name of the album comes from "Rock Flute" as the original idea was to make an album of mostly instrumental flute music. But eventually Ian Anderson stated that he was drawn to the phrase Ragnarök with "rök" meaning destiny, course, or direction. Ian Anderson would then change "Flute" to "Flöte" to "keep with the spelling."

Anderson wants to make one point abundantly clear about the album's subject matter. "I am in no way affiliated with paganism of any sort," he clarifies. "It's just that I made (The Zealot Gene), an album released in 2022 with, at the root of it, some references to biblical stories and biblical events. And for RökFlöte, I thought I would move on to looking at polytheistic religions," he told AnalogPlanet.

Continues Anderson, "I'm not suggesting these are anything other than personal feelings — just examples of the characters and the roles as exemplified in Norse mythology. This, for me, was the amusing way of doing it."

Side A

Voluspo

Ginnungagap

Allfather

The Feathered Consort

Hammer on Hammer

Wolf Unchained

Side B

The Perfect One

Trickster (And the Mistletoe)

Cornucopia

The Navigators

Guardian's Watch

Ithavoll

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