Ellen Arkbro and Johan Graden – I Get Along Without You Very Well

Thrill Jockey

The recent collaboration I Get Along Without You Very Well between Ellen Arkbro and Johan Graden is something of a misnomer, as this selection of slow and dreamy minimalist masterpieces brings the strongest elements out of two vibrant and eclectic performers.

The secret to the success of this album is the use of woodwind alongside Johan’s keyboard work and Ellen’s voice. Any group that chooses to use two bass clarinets instead of one clearly has some unique ideas about how to build an atmosphere; and with the sort of sweet, loose voice that contains a touch of melancholy and brings to mind Lisa Germano, they have found something that touches the heartstrings after slowing them right down.

The songs feel as though they are barely moving: that hint of woodwind, a subtle pluck of bass with tones that drift and curl around the voice like so much wraith-like mist. Cymbals sigh and the melancholic warmth that is produced is faintly reminiscent of the likes of Low and Codeine, but without the straightahead guitar / bass / drums intensity. There is something so satisfying about a group that is willing pedal back and allow the tracks to dictate their own pace, and although opener “Close” has seven players involved, its bones are visible through the ghostly skin.

The snail’s pace and the lack of conventional instrumentation makes for fascinating constructions, and instrumental breaks that appear at will find unlikely pairings, like the tuba and clarinet on “All In Bloom” or the lachrymose piano and drums on “Out Of Luck”. This track in particular really compels the way it is structured to climb from a place of refuge into a forceful, momentum-filled charge. The changes in personnel as the album progresses give a sense of a journey and also humanity. “Never Near” moves in and out like a respirator while the soft, low accompaniment ebbs and flows, with the voice, when it appears, a spark of light.

“Temple” is just Ellen and Hilary Jeffrey on trombone and tuba, and the irresistible use of those deep tones which never seem to waver allows the voice to cut shapes through the air, hovering around the lingering notes like so many memories. The album is short, clocking in at a little over thirty minutes, and one piece is barely two minutes long; but it is all so eminently satisfying that you don’t notice. The addition of some sort of distortion towards the end of the album really adds some unexpected weight to the already flourishing rhythm, but it is just one more twist albeit a slow moving swish like a whale’s tail.

It is lovely when you have no expectations for an album and it comes up trumps: the tempo, the instrumentation, that voice, the knowledge of exactly what each track needs — and if it needs very little, then that is what it receives. I Get Along Without You Very Well is something I will be happy to go back to again and again and suggest you do the same.

-Mr Olivetti-