Ah to move the fingertips slightly over the keys to build a palace in the sky.
Ah to scratch the skins with the sticks and break the ice of the river, crackling and rushing to devour and destroy.
Ah to break through the monotony of silent space with a billowing boom from the bellows of the bass and swoon.
Ah to ride the noise that has no name and call it a guitar that clouds the crispness of the Arctic autumn air.
Ah to tell these stories of elements that rule and swallow our lives – so enviously cyclical, indestructible, constant.
Fire
Water
Air
Earth
The burning, flowing, bright and constant.
Ah to break and build and crash through space of sound.
Ah the silence. The value of a comma in a story. The value of the breath in the telling. The golden thread itself that stitches with an invisible hand.
Ah to relish in the darkness and the levity – caressing nature itself without reproach, without demands, within oneself.
Ah to give this sound to nature – an offering, a sacrifice, a breathless short story told with bold rhythm and a soft touch.
Transformation is the core of Sverre Gjørvad´s compositions. The nature that is transformed through sound, sound that is transformed by reconstruction of time and melody, melody that transforms into stories.
There is a highly cinematic approach to compositions all through the three elemental albums that Gjørvad has created in the past three years. With him a constant trio: Herborg Rundberg, piano; Kristian Svalestad Olstad, guitar; and Dag Okstad, bass. All engaged in this work with nature and storytelling in their own unique, and boundary breaking way.
On this particular album there is also a contribution from Embrik Snerte, bassoon on two of the songs. The woodwind brings both an eeriness and a lightness to the stories that are told.
And maybe somewhat of a slavic sentimentality. But then again, that is in the ear of this listener.
As is much of the experience with Sverre Gjørvad´s compositions – what you bring along as a listener matters profoundly.
It inspires the power of your own imagination.
Maja Sojtaric, music critic
Tromsø, Norway.
1 All of a Sudden
2 Skårjage
3 The Neighbourhood Pond
4 Never Ever
5 Dismantle
6 Massively Uncomfortable Rock (c´est la vie)
7 Jordi Roca y Laia Costa
8 Swedish Braids
9 Searching Hometowns
Sverre Gjørvad drums
Herborg Rundberg piano
Kristian Svalestad Olstad guitar
Dag Okstad bass
Embrik Snerte bassoon on tracks 1 and 9
All compositions by Sverre Gjørvad, except track 1 by Andy Partridge.
Recorded July 26-29, 2021 by Kristian Svalestad Olstad at
Kysten Studio, Tromsø, Norway
Mixed September 2021 by Kristian Svalestad Olstad at
Room 225, Tromsø.
Mastered September 13, 2021 by Morten Lund at
Lund´s Lyd, Oslo, Norway
Produced by Sverre Gjørvad
Executive producer Odd Gjelsnes
All photos by Knut Åserud
Cover design by design holtmann
