The Eivind Aarset 4-tet / Phantasmagoria, or A Different Kind of Journey (September 17, 2021 Jazzland recordings Norway)

"Phantasmagoria, or A Different Kind of Journey" is the latest album by the Eivind Aarset 4tet, to be released September 2021 at Punkt Festival, Kristiansand. Featuring Eivind Aarset, Wetle Holte, Erland Dahlen and Audun Erlien, the album is no departure in terms of the compositional quality contained therein, as it remains gold standard. But sonically and texturally? This album features more traditional guitar sounds and techniques than can be found on almost all of his previous albums taken together, while still incorporating his signature tonal manipulations that render the guitar sound into almost unrecognizable forms. The album traverses the full gamut of the instrument's tonal possibilities, from Joe Pass tones to ambient textural soundbeds, from blistering shredding to controlled noise and signal. The line-up is augmented by Jan Bang and John Derek Bishop on several tracks, and Arve Henriksen on one.

The compositions by turns can be straightforward instrumentals with a heavy groove, rhapsodic tone poems, quasi-ambient jazz, expressionistic campaigns of sonic annihilation, delicate variations and improvisational explorations built upon melody and harmony, and, not infrequently, a combination of any or all of the above.

The "Different Kind of Journey" of "Phantasmagoria" takes us through a preamble consisting of the hazy fuzz of "Intoxication" with its lazy backbeat and psychedelic tightrope walk of dreamscape over chaos, to "Pearl Hunter" with its bossanova groove filtered through ambient rock. From there we arrive at "Outbound or Stubb1" where the main leg of the journey begins and the beats kick in with greater intensity, and where post-punk guitar minimalism is given a 2021 makeover, before moving to "Duløc or The Cat's Eye" where 60s B-Movie score tropes blend with 70s avant garde and art rock, then stumble through a wormhole that takes them almost 50 years into the future. "Manta Ray or Soft Spot", with Arve Henriksen on trumpets, effortlessly glides into view, a sonic space where the marine vibes eddy and whirl with dreamy undertows and sun-kissed waves.

Next on the itinerary is "Didn't See This One Coming", an aptly titled track that is better listened to than described (suffice to say, this is NOT something anyone familiar with Aarset's work would have expected). From the utterly unexpected, we move to "Soft Grey Ghosts", a textural piece that feels familiar, yet is somehow disconnected, drifting and swaggering with an extra step. The second stage of the journey progresses to its close with “Inbound or Stubb2”, the more experienced sibling of “Outbound or Stubb1", one that quotes from the journey and introduces new vocabulary and dialects extrapolated from it. The third and final leg of the journey is encapsulated in "Light on Sanzu River", a piece loosely derived from "Waiting on a Boat" by Anneli Drecker: filled with deep nostalgia for the past that lies behind, it also looks forward to the oncoming future with a bright optimism, a certainty that this part of the journey will lead to a better time and place.

"Phantasmagoria, Or a Different Kind of Journey" is an album that delivers a multifaceted experience: it is a soundtrack to an inner journey of remembered or imaginary landscapes and spaces; a travelogue of musical styles, sounds and eras; a simulacrum of the live touring experience. This album, perhaps more than any of his previous releases, is one that proudly and confidently wears Aarset's influences on its sleeve - a bold move, but one that serves to underline how he is infinitely more than the sum of those influences. This latest chapter in his weaving of the unified tapestry of his career shows how Aarset is capable of finding new threads in unexpected colours, of innovation and reinvention. 

1. Intoxication

2. Pearl Hunter

3. Outbound, or Stubb1

4. Duløc, or The Cat's Eye

5. Manta Ray, or Soft Spot

6. Didn't See This One Coming

7. Soft Grey Ghosts, or Twilight Chamber

8. Inbound, or Stubb2

9. Light on Sanzu River, or Dreaming of a Boat

Wetle Holte —

Drums / Percussion / Metallophone.

Drum Programming / Mellotron on

Outbound (or) Stubb1 /

Organ on Manta Ray (or) Soft Spot.

Erland Dahlen —

Drums / Percussion / Logdrum /

Vibraphone. Drum Programming on

Soft Grey Ghosts (or)

Twilight Chamber.

Audun Erlien —

Bass. Casio Synth on Intoxication.

Eivind Aarset —

Guitar / Electronics / Edits.

Guests —

Arve Henriksen —

Trumpets on Manta Ray (or) Soft Spot.

Jan Bang —

Samples on Manta Ray (or) Soft Spot,

Didn’t See This One Coming & Soft

Grey Ghosts (or) Twilight Chamber.

John Derek Bishop —

Field Recordings & Treatments on

Manta Ray (or) Soft Spot & Light on Sanzu River (or) Dreaming of a Boat.

Music developed collectively by all participating

musicians. (0.9) is loosely based on

Anneli Drecker’s song ‘Waiting For a Boat’.

Recorded & mixed by Bjarne Stensli at Oslo Klang.

Additional recording at Punkt Studio / Skogen

Studio / Sus / Oslo Lydbruk & Eivind’s Home studio.

Mastered by Georg Tanderød.

PREORDER

Jan Bang, Erik Honoré, Eivind Aarset & Arve Henriksen - Towards Language Live at Künstlerhaus Mousonturm (May 2021)

Towards Language was originally released

on Rune Grammofon in 2017. Towards Language - Live at Punkt was released digitally on Arve Music in 2018, and later in 2019 presented by Rune Grammofon in the 4vinyl/LP box set The Timeless Nowhere.

1. Preface 08:11

2. Groundswell II 04:58

3. Liquid language 03:25

4. Literaturm 03:22

5. Word factory 03:42

6. Demarcations 04:35

7. Patient One 01:51

8. Conversations 03:00

9. Hibernal hybrid 05:06

10. Traces of words II 08:21

11. Postscript 06:09

Arve Henriksen trumpets, vocal & electronics

Eivind Aarset guitars & electronics

Jan Bang live electronics & samples

Erik Honoré live electronics & synthesizer

Recorded at Künstlerhaus Mousonturm

in Frankfurt 18th of October 2019

Sound FOH & recording engineer Christian Ulbrich

Composed & performed by Bang, Honoré, Aarset & Henriksen

Mastering Helge Sten at Audio Virus Lab

Pre-order

Arve Henriksen - The Height Of Reeds (RUNE GRAMMOFON 2018)

"The Height Of The Reeds" started as a commissioned work to the city of Hull, Great Britain´s cultural capital 2017. Composed by Arve Henriksen, Eivind Aarset and Jan Bang, the work celebrates the longstanding seafaring relationship between Hull and Scandinavia. It was originally the musical companion to a sound walk that took place in April, May and June 2017. Those who took part could listen to the music on headphones while crossing the Humber Bridge. Initially intended for April only, the arrangement proved so popular it ended up with selling out three months, a total of 15.000 tickets.

Whether it will be repeated in the future remains to be seen, but at least the evocative music can now be experienced on this release. Only minor adjustments have been done to justify the transition from sound walk to album.

Other than Henriksen, Aarset and Bang, the work includes important contributions from Hull sound artist Jez Riley French, providing field recordings from the bridge itself: the river below, the noise of engines, the creaking of steel wires, wheels against asphalt and the song of the reeds in the wind. Opera North´s choir and orchestra provides the necessary musical space for the soloists, and two actors and a child are reading from translated poems by Norwegian poet Nils Christian Moe-Repstad.

This is a beautiful addition to Arve Henriksen´s large and fast growing discography, and sits well with his very popular Jan Bang collaborations "Chiaroscuro" (2004) and "Places Of Worship" (2013).

RUNE GRAMMOFON

Sly & Robbie + Nils Petter Molvær + Eivind Aarset + Vladislav Delay - Nordub (OKEH RECORDS 2018)

On “Nordub”, Grammy-winning Reggae legends Sly & Robbie team up with Norwegian Jazz innovator Nils Petter Molvaer to create a unique sound panorama, spanning the colorful atmospheres of Norwegian Jazz and the energetic grooves of Jamaica. Together with Eivind Aarset on guitars and Vladislav Delay on electronics, this is a band of musical soulmates, beyond all boundaries of genre. During a first tour in 2016 they received worldwide attention for their new project. Yet, the successful as innovative project just came together by sheer good fortune: Even though they had liked each other’s music for years, it was a coincidence that Mark van den Bergh – a friend of Sly & Robbie – ran into Nils Petter Molvaer at Java Jazz Festival.

“I got to know Mark at Java Jazz Festival in 2014,” says Nils Petter Molvaer. I told him that I’d been a fan of Sly & Robbie since the 80s, when they were releasing music with their Reggae band Black Uhuru. I like them for their creative unrest. They are innovators in so many ways, combining Dancehall, Soul, Hip Hop, Reggae and many other influences, and collaborating with such great musicians as Sting, No Doubt, Ben Harper and Carlos Santana. Mark told me that Sly & Robbie were great fans of my music as well, and the idea to work together was born. A few months later, in July 2015, we met at a festival in a little village in France, where we were supposed to play a concert together, though we’d never played together before.”

Robbie Shakespeare remembers: “It was totally crazy. Ever since I first heard Nils’ music in the late 90s, I’ve been fascinated by his atmospheric fusion of styles and his unparalleled trumpet playing. Now we were supposed to play together, though we’d never met before. But when I met Nils for the first time in this little village in France, I immediately liked him. He was cracking jokes and had back pain from the long trip there, just like me, so that created something. It was a great concert, in the end, that enabled us to go far beyond our comfort zones and to discover new ways of creating music.”

After the success of the initial concert in France, the new “band” decided to continue its collaboration and to go on tour in 2016. During the tour several new songs were created and Sly & Robbie, Nils Petter Molvaer, Eivind Aarset and Vladislav Delay were ready to record their first album together in Oslo: “Nordub”.

1 If I Gave You My Love

2 How Long

3 White Scarf in the Mist

4 Strange Bright Crowd

5 Norwegian Sword Fish

6 Was in the Blues

7 European Express

8 Dream Drifter

9 Rock-Stone Noah Bingie

10 Politically KKKorrrekkkttt

11 Neil Five

Sly Dunbar (dr)

Robert Shakespeare (b,p)

Nils Petter Molvaer (t)

Eivind Aarset (g)

Vladislav Delay (elec)

Andy Sheppard Quartet - Romaria (ECM February 16, 2018)

Andy Sheppard's quartet extends the musical explorations begun on the 2015 release Surrounded By Sea, an album praised by Télérama for its poignant serenity. In this new program of compositions by Sheppard (plus the title track by Brazilian singer-songwriter Renato Teixeira), the drones and washes of Eivind Aarsets guitar and electronics aided by the generous acoustics of Luganos Auditorio Stelio Molo RSI help to establish a climate in which improvisation can take place.

Theres a highly atmospheric, ambient drift to the music which Sheppard clearly finds liberating, as do Michel Benita and Seb Rochford, free to move in and out of conventional rhythm section roles and to make impassioned statements of their own. Romaria was recorded in April 2017 and produced by Manfred Eicher.

1. And A Day...

2. Thirteen

3. Romaria

4. They Came Rrom The North

5. Pop

6. With Every Flower That Falls

7. All Becomes Again

8. Forever...

Andy Sheppard – saxophones

Eivind Aarset – guitar and electronics

Michel Benita – double bass

Sebastian Rochford – drums

andysheppard.co.uk