|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
2LP+CD
|
|
HUBRO 3549LP
|
Gatefold double LP version. Pressed on 140-gram vinyl. Includes CD.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
CD
|
|
HUBRO 2549CD
|
Since Huntsville was established in 2006, the trio has cut its own distinctive musical diamond with impressive integrity. Each new release from the trio is an event. Now, after over a hundred concerts and with a substantial number of releases behind them, they are more distinctive than ever. Huntsville's music is the result of collective improvisation, and lies at the musical interface between rock, electronic music, free improvisation, and a long list of other genres. Reviewers have described the music as "Morricone-esque dreamscapes" and "Americosmische," and as an "amalgam of Miles Davis, Steve Reich, and early Tortoise." Huntsville has previously collaborated on concerts and projects with Hanne Hukkelberg, Sidsel Endresen, Nels Cline, Glenn Kotche, and Thurston Moore. The trio's previous release, Past Increasing, Future Receding (HUBRO 2521CD/3521LP, 2013), was recorded in Tomba Emanuelle, a room with exceptional acoustics and a long-lasting echo. The dramatic setting led the band into a darker and more heart-stopping musical landscape than on previous albums. There are still traces of this darker landscape on their fifth album, Pond, although this album also showcases new sides of the band. Pond is the result of a successful session in the Oslo studio AmperTone with sound engineer Johnny Skalleberg. The album was recorded and mixed in the course of a week, and the band describes the process as very inspiring. Ivar Grydeland plays electric guitar, pedal steel, and electronics this time. Ingar Zach has expanded his percussion set-up with timpani, and Tonny Kluften's distinctive bass playing is given more freedom to stretch out than on the band's previous albums. Perhaps most striking this time is how clearly the musical personalities of the three different musicians are able to emerge. Through four long tracks we encounter a band that is true to its own sound and idiom, but never stands still.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
CD
|
|
HUBRO 2521CD
|
The distinctive trio Huntsville continues to impress on their fourth album, Past Increasing, Future Receding. This is clearly the group's most atmospheric and monumental release so far. The excursion into an ever-darker landscape that began with the critically-acclaimed LP For Flowers, Cars and Merry Wars (HUBRO 2505LP) continues here. Past Increasing, Future Receding was recorded in Emanuel Vigeland's Mausoleum at Slemdal in Oslo, a dimly-lit, almost entirely dark barrel-vaulted room completely covered with frescos painted by Emanuel Vigeland (1875-1948). The artist himself erected the building in 1926, with a view to housing his sculptures and paintings there in the future. He later decided that the museum would also serve as his burial chamber. All the windows were bricked up, and his ashes were meant to rest in an urn above the door. Inspired by Italian influences, he named his building Tomba Emmanuelle. The impression made by the dimly-lit frescos, portraying hundreds of naked figures, is heightened by exceptional acoustic properties and a long-lasting echo. This unique room has gradually become a popular concert and recording venue for artists such as Stian Westerhus, Susanne Sundfør, Diamanda Galas and Nils Økland. Even the most tentative sound evokes an enormous acoustic response in the Mausoleum. For the members of Huntsville, the overwhelming acoustics of the room became a sort of fourth member of the band while they were recording this new album. The music feels more hypnotic and visually evocative than on earlier albums, and demands the full attention of the listener. The album was the result of three intense working days with sound technician Thomas Hukkelberg. This time, too, the band mixed the album at Propeller Studio together with Kåre Chr Vestrheim (Motorpsycho, Jaga Jazzist).
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
LP
|
|
HUBRO 3521LP
|
180 gram vinyl version. The distinctive trio Huntsville continues to impress on their fourth album, Past Increasing, Future Receding. This is clearly the group's most atmospheric and monumental release so far. The excursion into an ever-darker landscape that began with the critically-acclaimed LP For Flowers, Cars and Merry Wars (HUBRO 2505LP) continues here. Past Increasing, Future Receding was recorded in Emanuel Vigeland's Mausoleum at Slemdal in Oslo, a dimly-lit, almost entirely dark barrel-vaulted room completely covered with frescos painted by Emanuel Vigeland (1875-1948). The artist himself erected the building in 1926, with a view to housing his sculptures and paintings there in the future. He later decided that the museum would also serve as his burial chamber. All the windows were bricked up, and his ashes were meant to rest in an urn above the door. Inspired by Italian influences, he named his building Tomba Emmanuelle. The impression made by the dimly-lit frescos, portraying hundreds of naked figures, is heightened by exceptional acoustic properties and a long-lasting echo. This unique room has gradually become a popular concert and recording venue for artists such as Stian Westerhus, Susanne Sundfør, Diamanda Galas and Nils Økland. Even the most tentative sound evokes an enormous acoustic response in the Mausoleum. For the members of Huntsville, the overwhelming acoustics of the room became a sort of fourth member of the band while they were recording this new album. The music feels more hypnotic and visually evocative than on earlier albums, and demands the full attention of the listener. The album was the result of three intense working days with sound technician Thomas Hukkelberg. This time, too, the band mixed the album at Propeller Studio together with Kåre Chr Vestrheim (Motorpsycho, Jaga Jazzist).
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
LP+CD
|
|
HUBRO 2505LP
|
On Huntsville's very first release on vinyl, the group is heading in a heavier, darker, more rock-flavored and electric direction. Huntsville, an improvisational trio with a distinctive sound, has already released two unique, critically-acclaimed albums on the Norwegian label Rune Grammofon. The group has toured in Europe and the USA several times, has collaborated with Sidsel Endresen, Wilco's Nels Cline and Glenn Kotche, and held a concert in Spain with Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth. Like so much other good music, Huntsville's music is difficult to categorize. Music journalists have tried calling it "yoga country" and "abstract drone Americana," and this time around it is not improbable that there will be comparisons with both "Krautrock" and bands such as Black Dice. But this is primarily Huntsville music. Nobody sounds like them. On the monumental track that fills the entire A-side, they are joined by the superb alternative pop vocalist Hanne Hukkelberg. The album was mixed at Propeller Studios with Kåre Chr. Vestrheim (Motorpsycho, Jaga Jazzist) at the board. This is clearly the most cohesive album the trio has made so far. Hypnotic and energetic music that deserves to be played at a high volume. Members include: Ivar Grydeland, Tonny Kluften and Ingar Zach. Limited edition LP in white vinyl with a printed inner sleeve. Free CD version included.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
2CD
|
|
RCD 2079CD
|
This is the second album from Huntsville, the Norwegian trio of Ivar Grydeland, Tonny Kluften and Ingar Zach. Eros, Arches & Eras is the follow-up to their highly-acclaimed 2006 release, For The Middle Class, also on Rune Grammofon. 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 the mother of all young Norwegian female jazz singers, Sidsel Endresen, 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, drone music, 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 the 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. Huntsville are Ivar Grydeland, (guitars, banjo, pedal steel guitar, etc.) Tonny Kluften (double bass, etc.) and Ingar Zach (percussion, tabla machine, sarangi box, shruti box, etc.).
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
CD
|
|
RCD 2058CD
|
This is the debut release for Norwegian trio Huntsville. Huntville are Ivar Grydeland, (guitars, banjo, pedal steel guitar, etc.) Tonny Kluften (double bass, etc.) and Ingar Zach (percussion, tabla machine, sarangi box, shruti box, etc.) Grydeland and Zach founded the Sofa label for improvised music in 2000 and appear together 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 and in the quartet HISS with British keyboardist Pat Thomas. The HISS CD from 2003, Zahir, shows the group's intense application of so-called free improvisation. The Huntsville project contrasts sharply with their earlier work, and this release reveals a quite different, more groove-based approach with strong elements of composition. Zach comments, "... during the last two or three years, our interest in country music and electronic music has developed into a sound we really wanted to investigate -- also Feldman and Cage, drone music, folk music..." 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 techniques 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. They make striking use of a marvelous polyrhythmic approach pioneered by Ornette Coleman on "Lonely Woman," and Zach's locomotive groove is contrasted by the free tempo of plangent, folk-like acoustic guitar, in a kind of fractured descendent of the railroad blues. Alternately, the drums set up a tight and furious high-tempo, with the other instruments either at a slower tempo, or out of tempo completely. When the group lowers the energy levels, soft arpeggios on acoustic guitar are heard against percussive objects and a lone, rather erratic bass drum -- these effects are spare, haunting and quite beautiful. For The Middle Class displays a genuinely musical use of unexpected sounds and textures, allied with echoes of traditional genres in a radical new conceptual language.
|
|
|
|