The plangent atmosphere of Neil Young’s theme for the 1990s film Philadelphia springs to mind instantly but a little distractingly on ‘Dark Sea’, the opening track of this unusual Sonic Youth and Velvet Underground-inspired Hardanger fiddle, guitar, and drums trio. The band met on a session for The Low Frequency in Stereo, a post-punk and Krautrock outfit Økland’s trio-mates here, guitarist Per Steinar Lie and drummer Ørjan Haaland, are in.
A real tonic, if a largely pensive earful, crank this one up particularly early on, the droney unearthly wail of the band pretty compelling throughout, the slacker looseness to guitar and drums appealing. It must, however, be frustrating for any band on ECM to wait so long for release, and it’s taken three long years for this studio album recorded in Etne, south of Bergen, to come out. Økland cast adrift from his usually pristine deeply serious chamber and folk settings sounds as if he’s enjoying the new freedom breaking clear to marvellous effect on ‘Echo Plexus’, folky and bright with that wonderful tone and attack of his, the insistent tribal drumming from Haaland contributing to a powerful spell cast from the trio’s inventive imagination. An album haunting in its simplicity wigging out only at the end on the tongue-twisting Led Zep-recalling ‘Svartaskjær’. For all you husky-lovers out there there is a Siberian one on the cover by the way, and a tender vignette of a piece named in the dog’s honour tucked in near the end. An album you might as well concede that has plenty of bite. SG
Released on Monday 3 November. Ørjan Haaland, above left, Per Steinar Lie, and Nils Økland.
Photo: Edgar G. Bachel / ECM