Huntsville - Eco, Arches &; Eras

This is the second album from Huntsville, the Norwegian trio of Ivar Grydeland, Tonny Kluften and Ingar Zach. Grydeland and Zach founded the Sofa label for improvised music in 2000 and appear together and in various projects on several of the label´s releases. They have worked with Kluften since 1998, as the core of improvising ensemble No Spaghetti Edition.  Here they are joined by by the mother of all young Norwegian female jazz singers for a short and beautiful vocal contribution. The second cd is a recording from the concert they did with Nels Cline and Glenn Kotche from  Wilco at the Kongsberg Jazz Festival in 2007. In general the Huntsville project contrasts sharply with their other work, and reveals a quite different, more groove-based approach with strong elements of composition. "In Huntsville, improvisation is just one of the tools we use," Zach comments. "It still is a very important factor in the way we make music, but during the last few years, our interest in country music and electronic music has developed into a sound we really wanted to investigate - also Feldman and Cage, dronemusic, folk music. Hence, their music has been described in such terms as abstract drone americana and hypnotic country yoga. The group's multi-instrumentalism means that this is no conventional guitar-bass-drums trio. On acoustic and electric guitar as well as banjo, Grydeland mixes finger-picking technique with various types of bow, as well as acoustic and electronic devices. Tonny Kluften on double-bass uses various bows, sticks and rubber bands, while Zach produces a wide range of sounds on drum kit - but with all players indulging in idiosyncratic devices, it's almost impossible to know who's producing what hauntingly unusual or strangely beautiful sound.  ”Given the cv of the participants, the quality of this music shouldn't have been too surprising. What is remarkable, though, is how much further Huntsville have been able to develop their striking and original soundworld - a genuinely musical use of unexpected sounds and textures, allied with echoes of traditional genres in a radical new conceptual language. Those who associate these players with improv are in for a pleasant surprise”.  

Be the first to review this record. Best reviewer each month gets £10 off their next order!