Friday, 16 January 2015 17:48

RECORD REVIEW: Øystein Wingaard Wolf - Flammer

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KVV has released THE CD Flammer by Øystein Wingaard Wolf. I have listened to it.

 

Øystein Wingaard Wolf is a poet who has a formidable amount of poetry on his conscience. Sometimes he makes music to the poetry, and the first time this was released on CD was debut album Møt meg på halvveien (Meet me half way) , also at KKV. This album has an insane strong title track, who also attended the 4-CD box 40 Years` Credibility , which I reviewed this spring. I launched ths tune  as a candidate for this box`s strongest tune. After the debut album there is is also released two other albums on Tine Records.

Øystein Wingaard Wolf has a very strong musical personal profile, which oozes rustic style and a personal life lived. It is tempting to say that he occasionally has a fairly high TomWaits factor, and the uncut voice is one of the parameters in his music.

In "Flames" he  brings along a vast number of musicians, and crew varies from song to song. The total crew of musicians consists of:

Bendik Hofseth: Sax
Daffi: guitar
Elvira Nikolaisen: Choir
Eva Maria Degerfors: Fiddle
Frode Barth: Guitar 

Geir Sundstøl: electric guitar, Tubular bells, steel guitar, xylophone, harmonica, bass harmonica, guitar banjo marxophone, bass drum, national tricone, optigan, pianochordia
Hasse Bjørnstad: Bass, guitar
Ivor Krgo: Acoustic guitar
January Ellevsen: Mandolin
Janne Korneliussen: Bass, mandolin, synth, samples
Jørgen Smådal Larsen: Drums, guitar
Karin Destainville Dammen: tekkspill, choir
Lillebjørn Nilsen: Fiddle
Louis Landa Schreitt: Cajon
Maria Bovin De Labe: Perc 
Michael Lindquist: Organ, Rhodes, Piano, Synth
Otto Brattberg: Bass
Per Willy Aaserud: Trumpet
Rolf Erik Nystrom: Sax
Solfrid Molland: Piano
Terje Berg-Hansen: Guitar
Torbjørn Økland: Guitar
Torbjorn Holte Drums
Trond Helge Bårdsen Piano

 

The opening track on the album  Flammer (Flames) is called Tiden Vi Lever I , and is one of the very strongest tunes. And while it is one of the songs that stand out as the most musical, being rocked by a terrific rhythmic drive. In combination with an extremely strong text becomes quite masterful.

The subsequent groove Song for Denmark is full of classic Danish icons. It appears for me as be somewhat unclear whether there is a large amount of irony involved here, but the reunion with our Danish dreams are nice anyway.

A couple of tracks in the middle part of the album is in my ears below par. It concerns 1oo kg blues and My Psychiatrist . Some other tunes in the middle of the album is on the smooth - good, but fail to trigger my enthusasm.

But ithen t happens. The song All My Longing is a sore song in all its simplicity is lifted to the skies by the chorus of Elvira Nikolaisen. The synergies with Ø.W.W.`s performance becomes formidable. And Geir Sundstøl`s steel guitar is icing on the cake. This is the lifting this album need after a long transport leg in the middle part.

And thankfully the rest of the album is clearly above average. Something strange this is three songs from the vault, demo songs from the early 80s with Øystein Wingaard Wiik. And there is a common denominator in all three songs, an atmosphere which for me gives associations to even more yesteryear. This applies not least the great song World Loves A Twin , pointing back to WW2. The musical expression gives me very strong associations to Lotte Lenya`s stunning interpretation of Kurt Weill's musical setting of Bertolt Brecht.

Also the final two bonus tracks from the 80s have some of the same rustic phrase, but with other denominations.

 

The sound of Flames.

The sound on Flames are not among KKV`s very best. But it is good enough that it does not pull anything down. The review is based on waw files in 24bit / 48kHz, and the report from MusicScope confirms a low degree of dynamic compression, true 24-bit resolution and a frequncy range that barely extends across firewall border of CDs 22.1 kHz.

 

Flames?

As a whole, Flammer is an album with quite large span. It comes to my ears both horizontally but also vertically, in that it is a rather large perceived quality difference in the musical material.

This time I used a spreadsheet to calculate the average grade for all the songs, giving a total value that barely flipped over on the 5-side. It is thanks to several unique songs that stand out as musical beacon and overpower the relationship that not everything excites as much of the album Flammer.

 

 

  

 
Read 3899 times Last modified on Friday, 16 January 2015 18:31
Karl Erik Sylthe

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