Lys/Mørke (Elvesang)
Sigurd Hole
Released February 14, 2020
DownBeat Four-and-a-Half-Star Review
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nBznASg3OhVqxApvuYZ8-HoK5xs8y6Cb8
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/album/0KIvfGVzQLvKOdyl7arkcg?si=2zABMAokToG2i0Qu9RjIQw
About:
Immediately upon arrival I could feel the profoundstillness of the island welcoming me back. Nearly twoyears had passed since my week-long visit in October 2017. The Arctic Hideaway is a remarkable place sit-uated on a small island of the Fleinvær archipelagooutside Bodø in Northern Norway. Built in a way that makes it feel almost like part of the natural surround-ings on the island, The Arctic Hideaway erases thephysical boundaries between outside and inside. Beinghere offers a unique kind of quiet isolation in combi-nation the raw force, and the beauty, of nature.
Winds of the Northern Atlantic Ocean sweep restless-ly across the island all year round, getting stronger inearly autumn as can be clearly heard throughout thealbum. In addition to the rapidly transforming weatherconditions, the changes of natural light on the island—both in short term cycles during the day and long termcycles during the year—adds both colour and depth tothe experience of living with nature. As with my first solo double bass album Elvesang—which was recorded in an old wooden church closeto where I grew up—the location of the recordinghas been of great importance to the musical outputalso on Lys / Mørke. During my stay on Fleinvær in 2017 I spent countless hours walking around the is-land, photographing and filming different both natu-ral and human made phenomena. I recorded severalfree improvisations while watching these photos andvideos, making a kind of improvised music videos. These audiovisual sketches served as an importantinspiration for the music onLys / Mørke. The music, even though inspired by many of these ideas, is to alarge extent freely improvised. The two title tracks forexample, both of them three piece cycles, are all freeimprovisations recorded in succession as they appearon the album.
Whereas Elvesang included occasional natural soundsthat happened to leak in from outside, Lys / Mørke intentionally explores the interaction between thenatural sounds of Fleinvær and the sound of the bass. Sometimes, weather permitting, we recorded com-pletely outside. When recording inside we often keptthe door open. Either way, we always had mics placedoutside to be able to add more depth to the interplaybetween the natural sounds and the double bass in themixing process. Recording like this is quite differentfrom recording in a traditional recording studio, wherecomplete silence is the ultimate starting point andoutside sounds cannot be heard at all. Even thoughthis is in many cases a preferred sonic environment forrecording, I find great inspiration in embracing a different kind of approach to recording in my solo work.This is in part because it gives me something to inter-act with, and I enjoy playing with this rather uncon-trollable factor that I may choose to respond to or not.I also like this approach because of the timbral qualityof the different natural sounds: birds, wind, rain andso on. I feel that the sounds correspond well with thesound of the double bass and the music I try to make.
Another aspect of embracing the interaction with ournatural surroundings as both a musician and compos-er, is my interest in how nature in general is reflectedin us as human beings. How it shapes us, and howwe in our turn shape nature. Throughout history thisinteraction has been of critical importance to the de-velopment of both human kind and the natural world. I sometimes find the phrase “humankind and nature”to be somewhat misleading. Humans are also nature. Why not say human kind and the rest of nature? Inrhetorically dividing human kind and nature we areactually defining humans to be something besides, or outside of, nature. Even though we carry a brainthat has lead us to imagine we have complete domin-ion over the rest of nature, we are still part of nature. Words shape our perception of reality, both conscious-ly and sub-consciously. The climate crisis and thecollapse of ecosystems worldwide poses the greatestthreat ever to have been faced by humanity, making our moment in time perhaps the most defining mo-ment in the history of our species. Maybe it is time torephrase some common terms about how we relate tothe rest of nature?
If we look at the history of planet earth, whose scientif-ically determined age is 4.54 billion years, our momentin time passes by in the blink of an eye. The conse-quences of our actions will affect our common homeforever. In the worst case scenario, how we choose tomove forward might very well mean the beginningof the end to most life on earth as we know it. Eventhough I still have hope we will manage to turn thetide in time, the lack of a truly united global leadershipdealing with the situation head on makes it hard to be-lieve change will happen soon enough. I often feel de-pressed and frightened about it all. At the same time, being in nature as a spectator and listener to all itscolours and sounds, focusing my artistic work aroundnature, I feel a strong sense of love and belonging thathas a therapeutic effect on my own well-being. It ismy hope that I might be able to express some of thesefeelings in what I create, both as a means of escapefrom the turmoils of everyday life and as an aspirationto search for a sustainable relationship with nature, based on a strong emotional bond with everything thatis our magnificent world.
Sigurd Hole
Track Listing:
Lys
1. Lys 09:32
2. Yngeldans 04:26
3. Duggdråper 02:53
4. Trestein 01:40
5. Vaktsom 03:04
6. Speilbilde 02:33
7. Vindu 04:30
8. Skygge 05:12
9. Havsang 04:43
Morke
10. Bølge 05:20
11. Himmelrik 05:36
12. Årringer 02:29
13. Varde 05:16
14. Horisont 02:21
15. Ritual 05:16
16. Refleksjon 03:25
17. Mørke 08:32
18. Epilog 02:57
Personnel:
Sigurd Hole: double bass & music
Recorded September 2019, at The Arctic Hideaway, Fleinvær, Norway
Recording, mix & mastering by Audun Strype
Produced by Sigurd Hole & Audun Strype
All photos by IJ. Biermann,
Coverdesign & artwork by Jonas Sjøvaag / supremeconnection.no
Review:
Sigurd Hole, an acclaimed accompanist for Tord Gustavsen and others, ventured to the Norwegian island Fleinvær to record his latest album. There, he tapped the area’s atmospheric inspirations, allowing ambient sounds to make cameo appearances on the solo bass recording, emphasizing the importance of nature and ecology in his conceptual mix. An especially rich spectrum of harmonics, overtones, percussive effects and arco colorations make up the essential vocabulary on the contemplative double-disc Lys/Mørke, a follow-up to 2018’s solo Elvesang. But what pushes Hole’s bass work into the realm of the sublime are his refined sense of improvisation and painterly subtlety. From the Lys disc, a folkish pulse graces “Yngeldans,” while “Havsang” suggests a low, loamy elegy. The Mørke disc opens with the timbral wash of arco sweeps on “Bølge” and closes with a resolving sigh of the introspective, melodic “Epilog.” In between come “Mørke,” with its pizzicato gravitas and the primal rhythmic vigor of “Refleksjon.” As an integrated whole, deserving a listen from beginning to end, the recording transports listeners to the realms of Norwegian wilderness and the wilderness of double bass, no additives necessary.
Josef Woodard (DownBeat)
