<\/p>\n
Thrillingly vivid and allusive.<\/p>\n
Norway\u00a0meets Iceland in wildly inventive ambient-gothic improvisations\u00a0recorded in an abandoned Reykjavik warehouse \u00a0Jo Berger Myhre\u00a0and \u00d3lafur Bj\u00f6rn \u00d3lafsson have created a strikingly\u00a0original sound-world that, while it may have its antecedents,\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0really remind you of anyone else.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Despite a dodgy tendency\u00a0towards what might be called geographical or even metereological\u00a0determinism whereby we attempt to identify and define art according\u00a0to where in the world it comes from, and whether it was likely to be\u00a0sunny or rainy, warm or cold, it\u2019s impossible to ignore issues of\u00a0provenance. Perhaps because music is the most abstract of the arts,\u00a0it can\u2019t help but absorb and reflect aspects related to its\u00a0conception and production, which are then reflected once again by the\u00a0experiences and imagination of the listener. If the music is truly\u00a0open, these associations have room\u00a0to grow and deepen. So it is with\u00a0the thrillingly vivid and allusive contents of \u2018The Third Script\u2019,\u00a0made in a Reykjavik studio by a Norwegian, Jo Berger Myhre (double\u00a0bass, electronics), and an Icelander, \u00d3lafur Bj\u00f6rn\u00a0\u00d3lafsson (keyboards, drums).<\/p>\n
The sheer sound of the\u00a0album is a work of art in itself, too. Mastered by Deathprod (Helge\u00a0Sten), at Audio Virus lab in Oslo, with everything written,\u00a0performed, recorded and produced by the two principals, with\u00a0\u00d3lafsson also responsible for the album\u2019s final mix, it\u2019s a\u00a0record that demands to be\u00a0heard, preferably on vinyl in the old\u00a0style: Side A followed by Side B.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Norway meets Iceland in wildly inventive ambient-gothic improvisations recorded in an abandoned Reykjavik warehouse\u00a0 Jo Berger Myhre and\u00a0\u00d3lafur Bj\u00f6rn \u00d3lafsson\u00a0have created a strikingly original sound-world that, while it may have its antecedents, doesn\u2019t really remind you of anyone else.<\/p>\n
"My studio is at the outskirts of Reykjavik in an abandoned factory warehouse, by the dumpsters where they recycle\u201d,\u00a0says \u00d3lafsson\u00a0 who as well as working on his own projects for concert music, theatre and film has toured with Sigur Ros, Jonsi and recorded with J\u00f3hann J\u00f3hannsson.\u00a0\u201cI sometimes go out and gather stuff that has been thrown away and use it for percussion instruments. The studio is by the sea, and it has a very lively room with lots of instruments and weird old gadgets plus some obsolete tape machines. I\u00a0think we perhaps drew inspiration from these surroundings during our sessions for \u2019The Third Script’ in the spring of 2016. At one point during our lunchbreak we went for a walk down by the sea. We saw a flock of ravens sort of flying in circles around us, as they tend to come here a lot. So that\u00b4s where the title ‘Ravening’ comes from.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2019The\u00a0Third Script’ also appears to progress organically from one mood or\u00a0musical event to another, as if part of some natural process\u00a0suggesting the flow of water or play of tides (and, from there,\u00a0perhaps, to the context of ambient music identified by David Toop in\u00a0his book \u2018Ocean of Sound\u2019).\u00a0<\/p>\n
"With\u00a0the exception of the track ‘1000%’ which is composed, it\u00b4s an\u00a0improvised album with a few overdubs\u201d,\u00a0says Jo Berger Myhre, who has worked with Splashgirl, Nils Petter\u00a0Molvaer and Susanna, among others on the\u00a0Norwegian improv\/jazz scene\u00a0.\u00a0"We\u00a0spent a lot of time working on the sound of it, trying to achieve a\u00a0detailed graininess, if that makes any sense.\u201d\u00a0Although\u00a0the four pieces over two sides that go to make up the album are\u00a0varied and far from monotonous, the music is typically so sparsely\u00a0populated, and its sense of space and scale so immense, that it\u2019s\u00a0as if one is being deliberately invited to fill in the gaps to\u00a0provide both detail and motive.\u00a0There\u2019s a rough, fingerprinted\u00a0patina to the sounds themselves: the scrape of a stick across the\u00a0concentric metal-rings of a cymbal, or the hairs of a bow across the\u00a0coiled-wire strings of the bass, which once sampled can\u00a0make a drone\u00a0that might go on forever.\u00a0<\/p>\n
"Our\u00a0collaboration on the album was super spontaneous\u201d,\u00a0Olafsson continues.\u201dWe\u00a0did a track a day from scratch and tried to be as open as possible to\u00a0all ideas. The main thing was to come up with a nice set-up in the\u00a0room that we felt good playing in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Just as we are seemingly\u00a0invited to register associations with a sense of place or the natural\u00a0world, we can also make historical connections that begin to situate\u00a0the music within a particular tradition, as when a specific keyboard\u00a0voicing might suggest, say, the early ambient recordings of Brian\u00a0Eno. The timbre of the Farfisa organ can bring to mind the minimalist\u00a0experiments of Terry Riley, or Indian-sounding \u2018I Am the\u00a0Walrus’-strings the milieu around Pandit Pran Nath, LaMonte Young and\u00a0their disciples in the downtown New York City boho scene of the\u00a01960s. From Terry Riley we\u00a0can move to John Cale and from Cale to the\u00a0Velvet Underground and Nico, and from there to, well, everyone\u2026 But\u00a0whatever its influences and whatever the associations a listener\u00a0might bring to it, \u2018The Third Script\u2019 is very much its own text.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The sheer sound of the\u00a0album is a work of art in itself, too. Mastered by Deathprod (Helge\u00a0Sten), at Audio Virus lab in Oslo, with everything written,\u00a0performed, recorded and produced by the two principals, with\u00a0\u00d3lafsson also responsible for the album\u2019s final mix, it\u2019s a\u00a0record that demands to be\u00a0heard, preferably on vinyl in the old\u00a0style: Side A followed by Side B.<\/p>\n
<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Norway meets Iceland in wildly inventive ambient-gothic improvisations recorded in an abandoned Reykjavik warehouse\u00a0 Jo Berger Myhre and\u00a0\u00d3lafur Bj\u00f6rn \u00d3lafsson\u00a0have created a strikingly original sound-world that, while it may have its antecedents, doesn\u2019t really remind you of anyone else. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":33698,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":[],"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[36],"product_tag":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-33697","1":"product","2":"type-product","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"product_cat-hubro","7":"product_shipping_class-vinyl-shipping","8":"uni_artist_tag-jo-berger-myhre","9":"uni_artist_tag-olafur-bjorn-olafsson","10":"uni_main_artist_tag-jo-berger-myhre","11":"uni_artist_genre-contemporary-music","12":"uni_artist_genre-electronic","14":"first","15":"instock","16":"taxable","17":"shipping-taxable","18":"purchasable","19":"product-type-simple"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grappa.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/33697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grappa.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grappa.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grappa.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33697"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grappa.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grappa.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_brand","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grappa.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_brand?post=33697"},{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grappa.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat?post=33697"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grappa.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_tag?post=33697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}