Jo Berger Myhre & Olafur Bjorn Olafsson - Lanzarote - [Vinyl]

Following on from the Norway/Iceland duo's startlingly assured debut, 'The Third Script' (Hubro, 2017), Jo Berger Myhre and Olafur Bjorn Olafsson's new album, 'Lanzarote', represents a quantum leap forward. By the end of the relatively modest but incident-packed 32-minute running time, the listener may require substantial time for reflection.Recorded between Reykjavik and Oslo, 'Lanzarote' builds upon the experimental, super-saturated sound and grainy resolution of the ambiently-inclined debut with fully-formed yet fragile ear-worm melodies played on piano and double bass, augmented on three tracks by melancholy brass fanfares from trumpeter Erikur Orri Olafsson with Ingi Gardar Gardarsson on trombone and tuba. Otherwise, the two principals do everything themselves, with all seven tracks credited as "written, performed and produced by Jo Berger Myhre and Olafur Bjorn Olafsson." Myhre covers double bass and electronics/keyboards; Olafsson, piano/organ/Moog and drums/percussion. "You don't have to try very hard to hear imagined echoes of Lanzarote in 'Lanzarote'. It's easy to detect extreme contrasts and a dialectic between sound and silence, place and non-place, figure and ground, in the simultaneously sparse yet monumental music. Each piece also seems to draw the listener in very gradually, exerting a slight but irresistible gravitational pull. Suddenly, one finds oneself deep within an interior landscape, as if listening to a soundtrack for a film that's as yet unmade. It's powerful stuff, confirming Jo Berger Myhre and Olafur Bjorn Olafsson as among the most outstanding sound-producers at work today.

Jo Berger Myhre & Olafur Bjorn Olafsson - Lanzarote - [Vinyl]

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