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In a Mayan mood, yes that’s ‘doom’ backwards, I’ll return to the endless search for even more genres-within-genres touched on in an earlier piece and what’s been dubbed ‘doom piano’. Why not?, even if it is a fairly meaningless term especially in terms of Norwegian band Splashgirl whose Field Day Rituals is released in February by Hubro, a label that just this week has announced its intention to withdraw from streaming sites. The label, on Twitter, said it took the decision “together with our great artists" to pull the plug on streaming from 2013. Maybe more indie jazz labels will follow Hubro’s lead if sites such as Spotify prove to turn out not to be the promo paradise that many judged them to be. The royalties are certainly tiny for niche or even not so niche music, and a listen or two might actually be all listeners opt for, and they won’t then get to know the band by buying the CD or vinyl. I’ve only heard a track so far from the unreleased album (‘Dulcimer’) and it’s not what you’d think, the track floats like Nordic alt.folk tinged with the New Melodicism a band like Danes Girls in Airports tend to conjour up in terms of atmosphere, but here there’s also an almost Celtic feel in the humanising gracenotes of the track’s lilt. Splashgirl, Andreas Stensland Løwe (piano/electronics), Jo Berger Myhre (double bass/tone generator), and Andreas Lønmo Knudsrød (drums, percussion), have been around for a while, and some jazz purists broke out in a rash when they heard their earlier album Pressure. ‘Dulcimer’ is the balm to their fever. SG

The cover of Field Day Rituals pictured above

Listen to ‘Dulcimer’ via http://marlbank.tumblr.com/post/36590925946/46666