This body of musicians perform together under various labels and guises, producing sounds for the most part belonging to a whole genre of their own, technology being the catalyst for their mainly laidback soundscapes.
Front man and producer Jan Bang supplies deadpan vocals over the wash of electronica, where it becomes difficult to ascertain which instruments are producing the individual strands of sound we are experiencing. For instance, guitarist Aarset is famous for the distortion and delays he uses on his main instrument, the guitar.
As already suggested, this music belongs in a land yet to be investigated by the majority of ears – it can hardly be classified as jazz, does not belong in the prog-rock area and even those who enjoy an ambient offering might shy away from this Nordic phenomenon.
Having arrived at the conclusion this is not jazz, this is a difficult disc to rate in these pages, hence it receives three stars for its unique merits.
Discography
Patria; Life Stand Still; Portraits Of You; Measured Response; Father’s Day; Invocation; Murmuration; Passover; Disembodied; Walk Through Lightly (40.19)
Jan Bang (v, samples, p, syn); Erik Honore (syn, samples, synth bass); Eivind Aarset (g, elec, elb); John Derek Bishop (syn, samples, elb); Samuel Rohrer (d, syn, pc, elec). October 2019.
