Ambiguity opens with Kleive’s heavy rock drumming, and when Rypdal rips in with some overdriven guitar, sounding like a cross between Jeff Beck and Hank Marvin on a country and western gig, we can begin to suspect that this Rypdal session is a little out of the ordinary – for him at least. Subsequently, the trio play tight, unadulterated Led Zeppelin style heavy metal chord riffs, apparently without irony, and adopt a similar strategy in parts of Chaser.
It’s not only rock ’n’ roll though. Once Upon A Time and Omen are fairly subdued, and A Closer Look confirms our expectations: we encounter that familiar sound, immortalised in an earlier review by Barry McRae as ‘Nordic nonsense’. Imagi fades in more dreamy texturalism.
Kjellemyr plays electric bass in the rock passages, but he’s also skilled on the acoustic variety, as evidenced by his arco work on Geysir (or is that Rypdal doing a Jimmy Page with a violin bow?) and his Weberish contribution to Once. Kleive also proves his eclecticism. He’s not just a rocker, and on Imagi is heard to be much more expansive.
So, an album that covers a fair bit of ground, from the lyrical to the simply sonic, preset to free, metal to ballad. Unfortunately, it doesn’t tell us much we don’t already know. The trouble is, what’s unusual in this context is mostly commonplace elsewhere.
Discography
Ambiguity; Once Upon A Time; Geysir; A Closer Look (25.53) – Ornen; Chaser; Transition; Imagi (Theme) (18.38)
Rypdal (g); Audun Kleive (d/pc); Bjorn Kjellemyr (b). Recorded May 1985, Oslo.
(ECM 1303)
