For his first solo album in nine years, Erlend Apneseth has chosen to go back to basics, taking his love of the Hardanger fiddle, Norway’s 350-year-old national instrument, and produce a rather personal journey, scouting the wilds of his native land and depicting its solitude and wild beauty in a series of intuitive and evocative selections.
The sound comes drifting over the hill, washed in hazy light, its trills and groans moving swiftly over a windswept expanse. It is an expression of solitude that still Norway in its finest light. This it manages with great success as he picks, plucks and strokes at key moments, leaving space for the sensations to settle and for the echo to pass across the valley floor.
The resonance of the five understrings allied to the acoustics of the mausoleum in which it was recorded make for a unique and at occasionally ethereal atmosphere. At times, explosions reverberate across the space, the scraping and coaxing providing a spiky, almost percussive sound; and then a lullaby will appear, changing the mood dramatically and showing a whole other side to the instrument. Erlend really knows how to create a feeling as he moves across the room, utilising different areas for different purposes and becomes one with the instrument, foregoing the need for anything else to express his intentions. At times it drifts away, almost out of reach; while at others it is plaintive and desperate, resonating with great emotion, rhythms building to an almost uncomfortable peak, but always keeping the listener with him.Once this short cycle of songs draws to a close in a mysterious and sparse piece that is haunted by drifting phantoms, strange effects taking the sounds outside themselves, it is left inconclusive as if there is so much more to say. However, that seems to be lurking in some unexplored section still waiting to be called forward.
Nova demands a repeat listen, checking for the sweetness of a summer shower as well as the darker clusters of a winter storm. A trip to Norway never sounded so appealing.
