ARTICLES
Benoît Pioulard's Précis
Label: Dynamophone
Label: Hidden Shoal

ALBUMS
Aemae
A Lily
Arc Lab
Blotnik Brothers
Gui Boratto
Cagesan
Jeremy Caulfield
Loren Dent
Do Make Say Think
Eats Tapes
Enduser
Domink Eulberg
Explosions in the Sky
Michael Fahres
The Field
Frivolous
Maximilian Hecker
Hug
Hush Arbors
Jan-M. Iversen
Espen Jørgensen
Kattoo
O.Lamm
Bruce Levingston
Tobias Lilja
Lusine
Marcia Blaine School
The Missing Ensemble
Nebulo
Ölvis
Charlemagne Palestine
Palomar
Pornopop
The Postmarks
Propergol Y Colargol
The Retail Sectors
R/R Coseboom
Sankt Otten
Scratch Massive
Slow Dancing Society
Stars of the Lid
subtractiveLAD
Sunosis
Aoki Takamasa
Amon Tobin
Tokyo Mask
Kate Wax
Wes Willenbring
Windmill

COMPILATIONS/MIXES
Chaos.Lovers
Cryosphere
Hub: 2004-2005
Rufs
Satoshi Tomiie

3" /7" /10"/12"/EPs
Agnes
AM/PM
Arctic Sunrise
Audion
Characterize 1
Dartriix
Death is Nothing To Fear
Don't Be A Stranger
Einóma
Fusiphorm
Heartthrob
Human Nature
Infant Cycle / Antmanuv
Lilienweiss
Luci
Mauve
Paco Osuna
Ben Parris
Carola Pisaturo
Portable
Sutekh
System
Aoki Takamasa
Cortney Tidwell
Andy Vaz

Espen Jørgensen: On the Great Alkali Plains
Jester

The pristine pluck-and-strum of Norwegian artist Espen Jørgensen's acoustic steelstring and 11-string harp guitars is a thing of beauty and a marvel to behold. The one-time Green Cortinas member is certainly a virtuoso but On the Great Alkali Plains' focus is compositional first and foremost. Even so, there's ample opportunity to appreciate the quality of his playing, given that it's an entirely solo guitar affair but for two exceptions: Håkon Mørch Stene contributes subtle orchestral percussion enhancements to Jørgensen's ghostly shudder on “Barren,” and percussionist Terje Isungset, renowned for crafting instruments from Norwegian nature, adds an unusual array of natural percussions—blocks, rustlings, twanging Jew's Harp sounds—to the folk setting “The Woods”; Jørgensen himself adds an echo machine to “Himmelsangen” for extra ambiance. The album's eight, typically folk-styled pieces balance quieter passages of elegance and delicacy with aggressive episodes featuring rapid, multi-layered picking, and an occasional creak and inhalation lends the set (recorded straight to analogue tape at the Rainbow studio in Oslo) an intimate character. On the Great Alkali Plains provides a wonderful showcase for Jørgensen's artistry.

April 2007