Norwegian guitarist Trond Kallevåg‘s latest release Amerikabåten translates as The American Boat and is a reflection on migration from Norway to the USA, most of which took place up to the end of the first half of the twentieth century.
The opener to the album, “Forste Amerikabrev”, is a classic little scene setter, a gentle circular folk strum which immediately joins the two cultures. The assorted players, a bevy of the top young Norwegian musicians, appear to revel in the opportunity to merge these two cultures and to attempt to evoke the sense of travel and adventure. The violins of Selma French and Håkon Aase are perfect for this and, along with Ola Øverby‘s rustling drums, give “Amerikalinjen” a buoyant positive sense of anticipation, while Trond’s pedal steel has more of a sense of poignancy. The space in “Fargo” gives a reminiscence of Ry Cooder or Calexico and really manages to inhabit that vast space, the players pulling together to provide a broad tapestry of sound.
Although this is Trond’s album, his guitars do not overwhelm. There is some subtle picking on the perky “Høvding”, which is the sweetest of tunes with just enough Nordic melancholy provided by the gruff Hardanger lurking in the background to offset. The tunes are at home on both sides of the ocean, although the American primitive vibe of “Ørkenen Sur” is melancholic in a different way. It gains strength from the fiddle and the brushed drums, but finds it difficult to quell the despair of the homeless and dispossessed; as for every positive tale, there will always be one where the gamble didn’t work. The variety here is impressive, and considering the album rolls in at a smidge over half an hour, it manages to cast a spell. There is something oddly cinematic in the loping rhythm of “Québec”. The distance of the sound is stretched even further by a Hawai’ian inflection in the pedal steel which vanishes for the tranquillity of “Kvekerne”. There is a quiet strength here that leeches into the intriguingly modern “Enveisbillett”, its sashaying jazz rhythm with strings singing into the unknown even heads a little off-piste, turning into a tour de force of disjointed harmonium, conjuring distant wonder and pioneer spirit in equal measure.The album ends with a reprise of the opener, and this carefully and lovingly curated collection is over but leaves a the listener with a real sense of a journey. Trond has clearly done some research into this story and has left us with a tasteful, poignant and above all harmonious selection which bears repeated plays — and might even find the listener heading to the library for a little research. Amerikabåten is a real success.
-Mr Olivetti-
