Hard As A Rök

After a gap of more than 20 years, Jethro Tull have returned with their second album of new material this decade. RökFlöte finds the band exploring Norse mythology with a harder edge than last year’s The Zealot Gene. Prog catches up with Ian Anderson to discuss Norse gods, ageing and his ambitious plan to release three studio albums in as many years.

James McNair

Playfully pro-umlaut, Jethro Tull’s 23rd studio album, RökFlöte, began life as an LP of flute instrumentals, but ended up being a scholarly song collection exploring Norse mythology and paganism. This partly explains its title’s merger of the Icelandic word ‘Rök’, meaning ‘destiny’, and ‘Flöte’, which is German for the woodwind instrument Ian Anderson has played for decades. “I suppose I liked the idea of toying with the flute of destiny,” smiles Tull’s venerable leader, chatting from his Wiltshire home via Zoom. Agreeably, he isn’t averse to sending himself up. One doesn’t really ‘interview’ Ian Anderson; you hang on while his brain shoots off at tangents. His answers are long, winding roads, because that’s how he likes to field the questions you might occasionally manage to interject. Not that Prog isn’t…

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Prog (Digital) - 1 Issue, Issue 139

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