Stein Urheim

Dec 23 2019

Now up: August’s Best Jazz on Bandcamp recommendations

 

And here we go. Gonna do some catch-up on notifications about my latest Best Jazz on Bandcamp recommendations posting on The Bandcamp Daily.  This monthly installment covers albums for August 2019.  There’s ten primary recommendations in total, plus some bonus recommendations, to boot.  There’s been no let-up on the deluge of new music in 2019, so if you were thinking about maybe settling into a prior month’s purchases, forget about it… you’ve got more excellent new music to discover.  I have been saying this same thing nearly every month, and every month it is true.  On that note, let’s begin.

Follow this LINK to read those recommendations and listen to music from each album.

Check out past recommendations by running through my contributor archives.

Have fun going through the list!

Cheers.

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May 27 2019

A rundown of what Hubro Music has been up to lately (Pt.1)

 

We need to have a talk about the Hubro Music label.

 

Frode Haltli – Avant Folk

I’ll admit it right now:  Initially, I didn’t spend enough time with this recording.  But these last months, I’ve been revisiting a bunch of Hubro Music releases from 2017 & 2018, and this April 2018 release from Frode Haltli is floating my boat even more than it did when first I gave it a listen one year ago.  The accordionist fashions a most intriguing fusion of Nordic folk, modern jazz and chamber music, and the final image ranges anywhere between jaw dropping beauty and object of fascination.  There’s a whimsy to this music that builds humor with a serious intent… a combination that has driven the avant-garde expressionism of musicians like Frank Zappa, Kamikaze Ground Crew and the Flaming Lips.  Avant Folk received some year-end Best Of list consideration at the time, but as I find myself hopelessly addicted to this recording on my second go-around, I realize, had I had more time, Avant Folk would certainly have been given a slot on this site’s Best of 2018 list.  It’s that good.  Music from Svartskog, Norway.

Your album personnel:  Frode Haltli (accordion), Erlend Apneseth (Hardanger fiddles), Hans P. Kjorstad (violin), Rolf-Erik Nystrøm (saxophones), Hildegunn Øiseth (trumpet, goat horn, vocals), Ståle Storløkken (harmonium, synthesizers), Juhani Silvola (guitars, electronics), Oddrun Lilja Jonsdottir (guitar, vocals), Fredrik Luhr Dietrichson (double bass) and Siv Øyunn Kjenstad (drums, vocals).

Read more on the Hubro Music site.

Artist site | Listen | Buy:  Amazon

 

Splashgirl – Sixth Sense

The tag doom jazz gets tossed about when describing Splashgirl, and it’s not without cause.  The trio’s cinematic atmospherics exhibit a dramatic flair that borders on ominous, and its tendency toward ambient drones more often than not ramps up the intensity to higher and higher levels.  Their latest release Sixth Sense embraces these tendencies with even greater zeal, and the result is an immersive experience that almost forbids the act of daydreaming… even as the music displays those qualities that make conditions ripe for drifting away into deep, fanciful thoughts.

Your album personnel:  Andreas Stensland Lowe (keyboards), Jo Berger Myhre (bass, guitar, electronics) and Andreas Lonmo Knudsrod (drums, percussion)

Read more on the Hubro Music site.

Read more about Splashgirl on Bird is the Worm.

Artist site | Listen | Buy:  Amazon

 

Stein Urheim – Utopian Tales

There’s no end to the fascinating patterns that emerge from a Stein Urheim project.  The guitarist unleashes a kaleidoscopic array of sounds and textures and imagery.  Perhaps most impressive is how distinct one project is from the next, so that even though the approach and motives may be the same, the visceral experience of the music is as different one from the next as the sound manifesting from its beating heart.  On Utopian Tales, there’s a space age electronic pulse and haze that drives the affair, light years distant from the rustic folk and psychedelic ambient of previous recordings.  But differences aside, it is no less riveting or lovely than its counterparts.  Music from Bergen, Norway.

Your album personnel:  Stein Urheim (slide guitar, guitar, vocals, tambura, lute, bass, sampler, sound collages, electronics), Kjetil Møster (saxophones, bass clarinet, electronics), Mari Kvien Brunvoll (vocals, sampler, electronics), Per Jørgensen (trumpet, vocals), Ole Morten Vågan (double bass), Jørgen Træen (synths, effects), Kåre Opheim (drums, percussion) and contribution from the Cosmolodic Orchestra.

Read more on the Hubro Music site.

Read more about Stein Urheim on Bird is the Worm.

Artist site | Listen | Buy:  Amazon

 

By • Jazz Recommendations - 2018, Jazz Recommendations - 2019 • 0 • Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Jul 18 2016

Recommended: Stein Urheim – “Strandebarm”

 

Stein Urheim - "Strandebarm"A Stein Urheim recording is like staring into the soul of a kaleidoscope or the dream imagery of the Aurora Borealis while it sleeps away the day.  A one-man band of stringed instruments and harmonic devices, Urheim’s sonic manipulations are awash in striking, gorgeous details, and none of those details get lost in the shuffle or obscured from view as he lays it on thick.  Strandebarm, his newest, might be the most beautiful thing he’s created yet.

Album opener “Water Part 1” immediately shows that the folk music influence will be prominent, but that’s just one element of songs that seem to be perpetually undergoing a dramatic transformation.  At times, the wobbling melody of title-track “Strandebarm” is reminiscent of both mid-period Nordic Jazz and the drug-rock drone of the Spacemen 3-Spiritualized crossover projects.  “Fjellbekken” goes from a thick ambient wash that dazzles like a sky full of stars to something more stark and pronounced before ending with a drone that swerves and dives and comes crashing down.  Even the (relatively) straight-forward blues of “Berlin Blues” occasionally breaks into the hyperactive transformations one gets from turning the dial quickly across an expanse of radio stations.

A nice surprise is the addition of vocals on a couple tracks.  “Water Part 2” and “Oh So Nice” utilize voice to add to the harmonic texture, and Urheim’s round sound brings some nifty contrast.

This album is about as beautiful as it gets.

Your album personnel:  Stein Urheim (guitars, vocals, flutes, harmonica, slide tamboura, fretless bouzouki, turkish tanbur, mandolin, langeleik, banjo, loops and delay, pocket-cornet, percussion) and Jørgen Træen (modular synth, effects).

Released on Hubro Music.

Music from the Bergen, Norway scene.

Available at:  Amazon | eMusic

By • Beyond Jazz Reviews, Featured, Jazz Recommendations - 2016 releases • 0 • Tags: ,

Apr 8 2014

Something Different: Stein Urheim – “Stein Urheim”

 

Stein Urheim - "Stein Urheim"Aside from excellent musicianship, the eminent quality of the music of folk guitarists Leo Kottke and John Fahey that draws in so many fans is the storytelling nature of their music.  Whether accompanied by a band or, even better, in a solo setting, Kottke and Fahey were able to create entire worlds in their music, populate them with a variety of characters, and then lay down a little bit of plot into the foundation of a tune.  Live, it’s common for Kottke to tell anecdotes from his own life, and show how they inspired the next song to be performed… additional exposition adding more texture, more color to the story of the song.  And the music had so much to say, even in its simplest forms.

Stein Urheim has that quality.  Building on the territory covered on his excellent 2012 release Kosmolodi, his new recording, the self-titled Stein Urheim, creates entire universes from scratch, then presents a microcosm of each one song at a time.  A kaleidoscopic array of influences of regional folk musics, of blues, of jazz, of classical, of avant-garde, of whatever unique expressions reside in his head, Urheim presents them all with the heart of the storyteller.

Your album personnel: Stein Urheim (guitars, flutes, harmonica, slide tamboura, fretless bouzouki, gu qin, mandolin, langeleik, charango, banjo, analog synths and effects) and Jørgen Træen (modular synth and effects).

These are stories told patiently and thick with details, but at its heart is some universal truth, untranslatable, but represented by its melody.  Second track “After the Festival” reveals a diverse parade of expressions so typical of this inventive recording, and at the very end of the tune, Urheim reveals the simple, yet poignant melody that had existed all along, hidden until the last moment, and illuminating the meaning of it all… like watching a reverse time lapse of the life of a magnificent flower, and at its conclusion, witnessing the tiny seed that led up to the majestic bloom.

Urheim uses a vast array of instruments for his purposes, with Jørgen Træen adding some synths and effects.  The looping effects on album opener “Kosmoloda” provides the ethereal magic reminiscent of Bill Frisell solo folk-jazz recordings like Ghost Town and The Willies… an alien warmth that is both comforting and spooky.

The harmonica on “Beiing Blues” spreads all kinds of sunlight over the languorous tune, and the blues of “Great Distances” adds an appealing grey-skies quality to the affair, whereas “Watch the View” rustles up tension between those opposing forces… an unsettling ambiance from knowing that the world can turn on a dime with a downpour of rain or blanket of sunlight.

Perhaps most compelling about this album is that the presentation of this myriad of sounds and influences is done with a casual ease, a lazy Sunday atmosphere that is supremely compelling… intricacies and complexities delivered with an easy grace.

Just a beautiful album, where there is no end to the details and their magic never fades.

Released on Hubro Music.

Music from the Bergen, Norway scene.

Available at:  eMusic | Amazon CD – MP3 – Vinyl

By • Beyond Jazz Reviews, Jazz Recommendations, Jazz Recommendations - 2014 Releases • 0 • Tags: , ,