If you want to know what a monstrous backlog we had last year on our blog, just imagine that “Dream of Odysseus” was released in August 2024. And I am only getting round to do it in April 2025. These past twelve months were insanely hectic: a wedding in the family, a new house, both Rita and I having to change jobs. But you know, good things come out from delayed reviews. If I rushed the coverage, I`d hardly notice half of the nuances on the record. My article would be shallow and incomplete. And I could not have it premiered on St David`s Day! So, grab a cup of finest Peterston tea, have a few Welsh cakes and let me take you on a trip across Ancient Greece to the tune of progressive rock. This voyage could not happen without one of Wales most intriguing shredders – Ruby Ravelle.
Album cover by Myra Harrison
Official bio: Ruby Ravelle is an artistic trans woman living in South Wales. She is an astrologer, poet, YouTuber, tarot reader, musician and all-around eccentric mystic. In her cultural endeavours she worked as an actress, voice actor, audio-book reader and literary editor. On stage, she is a singer and multi-instrumentalist (guitar, bass and keyboard) with perfect pitch and ability to adapt to most genres. She is recognized for her unique attire and a strong stage presence. Ruby have performed extensively around the country, primarily as part of the Frankie Wesson Duo/Trio. With Frankie, Ruby produced two albums to date. In August 2024, she released a progressive rock opera “The Dream of Odysseus” under the moniker Penelope & Ulysses in partnership with Jackson Brice.
I have known Ruby for about seven years now and I consider her a good friend. She contributed a video to Vanadian Avenue as part of our Alternative Christmas scheme. But I will happily call myself a fan of hers for the sake of this review. In the past I`ve written that Ruby is one the best guitarists of her generation in Wales and nothing proves my point better than “The Dream of Odysseus”. Ruby plays guitar like her own existence depends on it, she is fast and technically immaculate, can incorporate complex techniques almost effortlessly and could outplay Satan in an improvised solos duel if only devil went down to Abergavenny instead of Georgia. The fact that nobody has seen Belzebub anywhere near Wales should tell you folks a thing or two!
What I always found fascinating about Ruby is how well versed she is in music theory, different genres and how she keeps her horizons open. Her influences range from classical to experimental jazz, pop music, ballads to heavy genres of rock and metal. She then takes those elements and incorporates them in her compositions: complex chords, polyphonic rhythms and fusion to create her own soundscapes. In a way, she reminds me of guitarists such as Richie Kotzen or Kim Gordon – or perhaps she inherits best bits from both, a healthy mix of traditional approach and innovative edge.
Penelope and Ulysses – band picture by Ruby herself
However technical proficiency is just a third of what makes Ruby Ravelle such a powerhouse. The other two are her thirst for knowledge and her lyrics writing skills. Ruby is a poet, a damn good one at that, specializing in English romanticism. In some of her poems (like in my favourite of hers “Salome”) she describes macabre visions with cold stoicism, in others (“Broken Universe”, “Haunted Garden”) she comes quite close to John Keats or Anna Laetitia Barbauld with her reverence of nature and human imagination. Ruby`s poetry is crucial to understanding her lyrics on “Dream of Odysseus”. Every verse on the record, even the way each fragment is placed has a meaning and serves as a reference. To truly get the genius idea behind the record, you must do what Ruby does: have a very broad multidisciplinary academic knowledge and a soft spot for classical antiquity.
“The Dream of Odysseus” is not an easy listening record. It demands a hell lot of you even before you press play. You get 38 minutes of music, with each side lasting just under twenty minutes. Side A (aka Part One) is 19:43 while Side B (aka Part Two) is 18:45. Did you get the fact that these are the standards expected from an LP (long play) format? Of course you didn’t. What have I just said about possessing academic knowledge?! “The Dream of Odysseus” is on purpose calibrated in such a way that it can be kept at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures in Paris next to the International Prototype of the Kilogram.
There are just two tracks on the record. Each one consists of fragments of songs intertwined to such a degree that nobody can say where one ends and another begins. Seemingly different musical concepts crash with each other, collide, flow together like water under a ship forming a never-ending voyage. There is a vital reason why Ruby put them in this order and in this fashion:
Part One: Overture Agitato/From the Womb/Contact/Resistance/Sirens/Mare Crisium/Returning/Outro Ad Nauseum
Part Two: Penelope’s Lament/Odysseus Returns/The Chaos of Awakening/Waves of Rapture/Isles of Ogygia/Hall of Kings/Irresolution
“It took over four years to bring to completion” – says Ruby about the album – “Largely due to delays brought on by lockdown conditions, personal problems and the health issues of our producer”.
Ruby is a talented guitarist by Honey B McKenna
“The Dream of Odysseus” was recorded at the AR Studios in Herefordshire, a place where Ruby must feel at home since every Frankie Wesson album was crafted there. Ryan Jordan who produced and engineered is not just a studio owner but also movie composer and an accomplished lecturer at Herefordshire, Ludlow and North Shropshire College (a set of five colleges covering a big chunk of West Midlands).
But despite familiar surroundings, the creation of the album must have been a gruelling endeavour. In the press note to “The Dream of Odysseus” one can find this quote from Ruby Ravelle: “It is a very personal, cosmic retelling of Homer’s Odyssey – a marriage of myth and music. I wrote the album when I was 29 and wanted to create something that was a synthesis of everything I had learned, musically and existentially, up to that point. Something that would push me to the very limits of what I was capable of doing technically and emotionally”.
And you can hear Ruby`s determination and resilience in the music, the exhaustion and energy poured into an attempt to achieve what was planned. The care about every detail is either phenomenal or frankly, insane.
Just like the ancient epic “Odyssey”, “The Dream of Odysseus” follows a chronological timeline, skipping between Odysseus` journey and the situation at home in Ithaca. Part One focuses on the argument of the hero with Poseidon (“Contact”), his resentment of human fate and being tired of gods` whims (“Resistance”). We see him travelling though the seas of sirens (“Sirens”), navigating to the island of Aeolia and making a narrow escape from two sea monsters – Scilla and Charybdis (“Mare Crisium”).
I am going to make a small footnote here because I don’t think many of my readers will pick up the reference here. Mare Crisum translates from Latin to “The Sea of Crises”. Between Aeolia and fighting the monsters of the deep, Odysseus loses almost half of his men and is swept away from his destination by the winds into the open seas. Crisis after crisis. But Mare Crisium is also a lunar mare – gigantic plains made by lava flow that are visible on moon`s surface as dark spots. They can be compared to Earth`s oceans hence the name “lunar sea”. Moon, like stars and constellations, have been a vital tool in navigating ships in ancient times. Astronomy and celestial navigation would be known and used by Odysseus in his quest to return home. Fun fact – and I must now sound like Janet from The Good Place – Mare Crisium is similar in total area size to that of the United Kingdom. And maybe it is some sort of explanation why we have had one crisis after another since Brexit on this island. 
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Anyway, back to the record. Part Two tells of Penelope grief for her lost husband (“Penelope’s Lament”), Telemachus hesitations and doubt (“Irresolution”), the undercover arrival at Ithaca (“Odysseus Returns”) and the killing of Penelope`s suitors (“Hall of Kings”, “Waves of Rapture”). But it also retells the story of Circe and her unrequited love for Odysseus (“Isles of Ogygia”). If Part One is more action based, then Part Two is more melancholic, serene, almost toned down.
On “The Dream of Odysseus” Ruby portrays a number of characters. She voices the gods, Odysseus himself, Penelope and – in true nod to the classics – the choir. In Greek theatre Choros was a group of performers who spoke in a unified voice and offered commentary on the events taking place on stage or offering an insight into the background story. If you want to be true to ancient tradition, we should consider Ruby to be modern aoidos– skilled singer and performer specializing in bringing epic poems to the audience.
The Odyssey is attributed to Homer, but we know that it is a work of many artists, probably over the course of a century or more. It`s text is made of fragments stitched together but differing in style, verses and even dialects. “The Dream of Odysseus” may have only two contributors, but they did waive a patchwork of incredible nuanced songs that make a coherent and very well thought record.
“The music is a collaboration between myself and Jackson Brice” – explains Ruby – “It was ultimately meeting a musician who was willing to take on the demands of learning and performing this extremely complex and challenging music. It gave me the confidence to write something this ambitious, and on such a symphonic scale”.
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For the sake of this record, Ruby Ravelle performed all the lead vocals, composed and performed lead guitar parts, played keyboards, synthesizers and bass. There is not much I could find about Jackson Brice online. He is Welsh musician, martial artist and like Ruby, he is a multi-instrumentalist. On “The Dream of Odysseus”, Jackson played drums, rhythm guitar and contributed backing vocals and tribal chants. I like the idea of just two people working on a project that is the most eclectic and grandiose album I have heard in years. I don’t want to sound cliché. If I wanted to find some flaws or repeats, I probably could. Yet, this is what makes the independent releases so intriguing and honest – they are not polished, overproduced and saturated to death. They are like live organisms, with good, great and occasional blips, glitches and anomalies.
It takes two individuals to create a concept album that shames a lot of recent psychedelic rock releases. Ruby and Jackson took classic, legendary achievements of the likes of early Genesis, Frank Zappas or Captain Beefheart and built upon it. Borrowing from Queen (singing in high registers), The Beatles (harmonies) and The Beach Boys (guitar riffs), metal music (especially Death with its sudden changes in tempo), blues, contemporary guitar virtuosos, study in classical guitar music (“Overture Agitato”) and even opera – then mixing it and owning it. If that doesn’t at least open your mouth in astonishment, then you may be deaf.
If there could be a leading single from this album it must be “Contact”, a lyrical and musical motif that appears throughout the record and brings it together.
The main motif of Odyssey was the homecoming of a hero – nostos. After trials, temptations and loses the main character returns, changed, wise and with a higher social status. If you ever wondered how Odysseus` journey looked like, you can see it here.
“The Dream of Odysseus” is faithful to the work of Homer. It has its own nostros at the very centre. Not a sea voyage, but nonetheless a courageous and dangerous path to follow indeed, especially in today’s climate. Ruby`s transition into womanhood. Yes, “The Dream of Odysseus” is about a trans woman’s journey of self discovery and fulfilment.
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“It was the final thing I composed before I decided to transition, and, as such, it very much feels like a biography, swansong, and epitaph to a period of my life that has now passed” – explains Ruby – “It is designed to tell a story, take the listener on a journey, and hopefully, propel them beyond themselves in some ineffable way. Besides being a rock musician, I have a love of opera and musical theatre, which I think is also evident in the theatrical nature of the music”.
Ruby uses music and narrative epic poems to highlight a perilous road to self realisation of the trans population in the UK, a country overrun by neo nazi ideology – gender critical or what we now know by modern term “terfism”.
There is very little space in this article to detail how Nazi officials targeted the trans population but Wikipedia has a good article that can be found HERE, if you need a source. But in a nutshell, gender critical was a project started by Heinrich Himmler himself – known for hatred towards trans women – after Nazi realized that Jewish medical doctors such as Magnus Hirschfeld or Ludwig Levy-Lenz and publishers such as Friedrich Radszuweit started helping oppressed minority though research, medical advances and institutions such as Institut für Sexualwissenschaft. Because of Himmler, in just a few years trans people were barred from public life, not allowed to use public baths and restrooms, de-transitioned and not allowed to take up employment. After that, they were jailed and sent to Dachau concentration camp to be killed. In 2023 trans people were officially recognized as victims of Holocaust.
Everyone reading this article must understand one thing – any person that claims to be a terf or gender critical is following Nazi persecutions to the letter. Some may not realize it, but most frankly speaking, they do and are quite open about it. Just look at the UK. Only one in three employers want to employ a trans person, medial and social persecution is so high that National Library of Medicine called it public health crisis, violence rates rise 11% every year while Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention (international body that studies crimes against humanity) proclaimed in 2022 that gender critical movement had genocide intentions towards trans and non binary people. In 2025 they had to follow up with red flag for UK indicating that gender critical movement moved to stage EIGHT of genocide – out of ten stages.
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The UK has fallen to 22nd position out of 49 countries for LGBTQ+ rights and stories of murdered trans people hitting the news on a regular basis. When you read the Odyssey, you can find whole passages describing how Odysseus lost his men in horrible details. But that is a myth, a poem for entertainment. It hits quite differently if you start thinking of trans people who navigate oppression and hostile environments, legal harassment and radicalized billionaires as heroes of their own dangerous odyssey. And sometimes those heroes don’t get to come home to Ithaca. Amy Griffiths and Brianna Ghey murdered for transitioning, Alice Litman who committed suicide while being barred from health care, Christina Rowe killed and dismembered because her ex partner though she was transgender – that doesn’t fit the “it is just a myth” point of view.
That is because trans lives are not myths, they are real human beings with dreams and aspirations lost because the British government is playing Scylla and Charybdis, the sea monsters, the evil incarnate against its own citizens. And yet despite odds, powerful adversaries with god-like powers, despite losing many along the way – trans people continue, they preserve and they follow their destiny.
Trans lives are epic, maybe more epic than all Homeric hymns, stories and poems.
Only a trans woman like Ruby Ravelle could create such a humane, multidisciplinary record like “The Dream of Odysseus” as a platform to reach out and find a connection with others. Let me come back to the main motif laid out in “Contact”. This is the entire trans community trying to establish relations with other parts of society. The only question is – will society want to listen.
You can follow Ruby Ravelle on socials:
Music:
https://open.spotify.com/artist/4H5RJb2g53yvNLW93WDIiq
Astrology and tarot:
https://www.instagram.com/astrologyandunderwear
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100041817585048
https://www.youtube.com/@thestarsunravelled
https://www.patreon.com/thestarsunravelled
Poetry:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063594487612
Our coverage of Ruby Ravelle on our blog: https://vanadianavenue.co.uk/tag/ruby-ravelle/
Ruby Is also a contributor to our blog. You can see her video for 2024 here:
https://vanadianavenue.co.uk/2023/01/02/alternative-new-year-with-ruby-ravelle
Malicia Dabrowicz
Indieterria 