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Binkelman's Corner by Bill Binkelman |
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Bill Binkelman is a long-time icon in the industry. |
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| Elevations |
| By Erik Wøllo |
| Label: Spotted Peccary Music |
| Released 2/5/2007 |
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| Elevations tracks |
1. Elevation
2. Blue Odyssey
3. The Wanderer
4. Evolution
5. Sphere - Into the dream
6. Red Odyssey
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7. Novalis
8. A Sea of Steps
9. Skyskape
10. Green Odyssey
11. Arrow of Time
12. The Land of Birds
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Elevations |
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Norwegian Erik Wollo is one of the most consistent artists recording today. Elevations is the seventh album of his that I've reviewed and he continues to impress me with his composing and performing talent. One of the things I like most about his work is how he has a trademark "sound" which is recognizable, but yet he never overtly repeats himself. Only the best artists can accomplish this over time and he does it with apparent ease. His music always comes across as being both stimulating from an intellectual standpoint yet emotionally satisfying as well.
Elevations features Wøllo blending his guitars with assorted electronics, keyboards and percussion. It's difficult to place his music into any one genre. Is it ambient? New age? Progressive fusion? EM? (electronic music)? In this regard, he resembles Patrick O'Hearn whose music also resists normal classification. The title track, for instance, features washes of melancholic tones and textures, delicate sequenced notes imparting a subtle sensation of rhythm, and muted pealing guitar. Blue Odyssey sparkles with reverberating high-pitched bell-like tones, moves along with an undercurrent of chugging bass beats, and blends a feeling of drama with a beautiful yet frigid feeling of loneliness and isolation. This latter comment is one of Wollo’s characteristics, i.e. an evocation of the brutal harshness of Norway's natural beauty: a fjord's sheer rock walls, a glacier's icy-blue light, or the winter's long nights when the sun hardly rises. Darker (yet never menacing) emotions tend to flow through Elevations, but the CD never veers over into the morose or moribund. Instead, songs such as Evolution and A Sea Of Steps have an emotional resonance crafted from a melodic sense of reflection and somberness with kinetic rhythms combined in unique and unexpected ways. Sphere - Into The Dream blends a minimal and gentle guitar refrain with ambient soundsculpting, creating a soothing sonic backdrop while Red Odyssey, after a serene drifting prologue, morphs into swirling synth and guitar and pulsing/pounding percussion laced with a feeling of power and passion, and Skyscape floats effortlessly on billowy textural spacemusic-like melodic melancholic waves.
I hesitate to call Wollo's music "complex" because the emotional undercurrent of even the most ambient-like tracks is so innately human and rife with emotion. Also, this music is just flat-out gorgeous (I'll resist the urge to label it "pretty"). The CD"s instrumentation, rhythms, engineering and production dictate that I categorize Elevations as a "thinking-person's" ambient release. While it would be make for a pleasant background listening experience, sitting quietly and drinking in these twelve tracks would, I imagine, prove much more satisfying. Music this rich with creativity deserves more than your casual attention. As with past Wollo releases, I highly recommend Elevations.
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Rating: Excellent  |
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- reviewed by Bill Binkelman on 5/19/2007 |
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