Eivind Aarset

Eivind Aarset – Last Two Inches Of Sky (2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · November 16, 2023 · Comments off

«Last Two Inches of Sky», released by Punkt Editions on 23 September, is an ambitious and engaging mixture of sonic painting and art-pop; a new high point in Eivind Aarset and Jan Bang’s collective output.

Aarset and Bang have collaborated since the early 1990s in constellations with, among others, Nils Petter Molvær, Bugge Wesseltoft, Sly & Robbie and Jon Hassell. «Snow Catches on her Eyelashes» (2020) was their first recording as a duo, an album that was widely praised, inspiring John Eyles of All About Jazz to write: «Aarset, Bang and company go from strength to strength, as does the Norwegian scene. Onward and upward.»

«Last Two Inches of Sky» further expands this sonic universe – onward and upward. Like its predecessor, the new recording is an amalgam of styles, linked together by Jan Bang’s hallmark sampling technique and Eivind Aarset’s continuous exploration of the guitar. Now, the rhythm section of Audun Erlien (bass) and Anders Engen (drums) are prominent on most tracks, and the arrangements are enhanced by guests like Gianluca Petrella (trombone), Adam Rudolph (percussion), Emanuel Birkeland-Bang (drum programming) and Erik Honoré (samples, lyrics on «Legion»).

Both conceptually and sonically, «Last Two Inches of Sky» is a multi-dimensional experience of dreams within dreams, layers upon layers of colours, light and shade. While the seamlessness and warmth of the duo’s earlier work is still present, the new album is thoroughly grounded in a bass/beat foundation owing much to the Jamaican sound systems of the 1970s, but placed within a decidedly 2020s context.

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Tigran Hamasyan, Arve Henriksen, Eivind Aarset, Jan Bang – Atmosphères (2016) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · November 16, 2023 · Comments off

This far-reaching double album, recorded and mixed in three days in Lugano, introduces a new group with Tigran Hamasyan, Arve Henriksen, Eivind Aarset and Jan Bang. The Norwegians had played in diverse configurations on ECM – Jan Bang on Eivind Aarset’s Dream Logic, for instance, and Bang and Aarset on Arve Henriksen’s Cartography – but with Hamasyan at the centre of the sound, bringing with him ancient folk melodies transfigured in the compositions of Komitas, other inspirations come into play. All four players are at a creative peak here, whether freely reflecting upon Armenian themes or spontaneously shaping atmospheric soundscapes together.

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Tore Brunborg with Eivind Aarset, Steinar Raknes, Per Oddvar Johansen – Slow Snow (2015) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · October 13, 2023 · Comments off

On a per-capita basis, no other country in the world spawns more top-class jazz musicians than Norway. Jan Garbarek is the guiding star, but it was also the second generation born in the 60s that helped ‘Nordic Jazz’ to global notoriety: Nils Petter Molvær, Bugge Wesseltoft, Geir Lysne, Eivind Aarset and saxophonist Tore Brunborg. Although highly respected in the Norwegian jazz scene, Brunborg has until now been known internationally as a sideman, however this year, the 54 year-old brings out his own international release, his ACT debut ‘Slow Snow’.

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Eivind Aarset – Snow Catches on Her Eyelashes (2020) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · September 3, 2023 · Comments off

Eivind Aarset - Snow Catches on Her Eyelashes (2020) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz] Download

Jazzland is proud to present the brand new opus from two of the brightest luminaries on the Norwegian scene. “Snow Catches on her Eyelashes” emanates musical authority, a hyperconscious layering of textures and musicality, at once evocative of some otherworldly space, yet familiar at a deep human level that resonates with each sonic flourish.
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Michele Rabbia, Gianluca Petrella & Eivind Aarset – Lost River (2019) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · July 5, 2023 · Comments off

Lost River is an evocative post-ambient, richly textured sonic event, and one of the outstanding beyond-category recordings of recent ECM history. Drummer Michele Rabbia and guitarist Eivind Aarset had played many duo concerts, and Rabbia had also worked with trombonist Gianluca Petrella in other contexts, but this recording marks a premiere for the trio. Spontaneously improvised for the most part, and with mysterious detail flowering inside its soundscapes, Lost River keeps revealing new forms. Rabbia’s drumming is freely creative and propulsive, and enhanced through his use of electronics. Aarset’s flowing playing will delight listeners who have enjoyed his Dream Logic project and his contribution to recordings with Nils Petter Molvӕr, Tigran Hamasyan, Andy Sheppard and others. Petrella’s role as a principal instrumental voice will surprise those who know him only as a great “jazz” soloist with Enrico Rava and Giovanni Guidi; his broad range is very well deployed in Manfred Eicher’s widescreen production on this recording, made in Udine in January 2018.

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Eivind Aarset – Phantasmagoria or a Different Kind of Journey (2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · January 4, 2023 · Comments off

“Phantasmagoria, or A Different Kind of Journey” is the latest album by the Eivind Aarset 4tet, to be released September 2021 at Punkt Festival, Kristiansand. Featuring Eivind Aarset, Wetle Holte, Erland Dahlen and Audun Erlien, the album is no departure in terms of the compositional quality contained therein, as it remains gold standard. But sonically and texturally? This album features more traditional guitar sounds and techniques than can be found on almost all of his previous albums taken together, while still incorporating his signature tonal manipulations that render the guitar sound into almost unrecognizable forms. The album traverses the full gamut of the instrument’s tonal possibilities, from Joe Pass tones to ambient textural soundbeds, from blistering shredding to controlled noise and signal. The line-up is augmented by Jan Bang and John Derek Bishop on several tracks, and Arve Henriksen on one.

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Eivind Aarset – Dream Logic (2012) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · January 4, 2023 · Comments off

The renowned Norwegian guitarist – who has previously contributed to ECM recordings with Nils Petter Molvær, Marilyn Mazur, Arve Henriksen, Andy Sheppard, Arild Andersen and Jon Hassell – with a first ‘leader’ disc for the label, recorded in Kristiansand and Oslo. “Dream Logic” is aptly named, its slowly developing drifting pieces, built up from layers of guitars, have an almost hallucinatory quality, an otherworldly ambience. Jan Bang, who is co-composer of a number of the pieces, also contributes sounds and samples, and co-produced the disc.

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Vladislav Delay & Eivind Aarset – Singles (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · November 10, 2022 · Comments off

Artists releasing multiple volumes of work over a short period of time has become more of a thing in recent years, and even when the output is consistently of the highest quality, it can be frustrating for the listener trying to gauge how a release fits within a single oeuvre, or how that oeuvre fits in within the greater artistic landscape. For sure many artists won’t really care – but the fact remains that in all but the rarest of cases (and there are defo exceptions) a creative braindump makes a single body of work less memorable, more throwaway.

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