Articles
Spotlight 17
Anneli Drecker

Albums
Aegri Somnia
Susan Alcorn
Damián Anache
A Sides and Makoto
Heather Woods Broderick
Atrium Carceri
Robert Crouch
Anneli Drecker
David Evans
Finland
Anne Garner
Tania Giannouli
Peter Gregson
Grönnert and Mondfish
Emily Hall
Hidden Orchestra
Hior Chronik
Hilde Marie Holsen
Inner8
Joyfultalk
Deborah Martin
Scott Miller
Monkey Plot
Kate Moore
Mr. Jones
Nicolay
NOW Ensemble
Numina + Zero Ohms
Oiseaux-Tempête
Kristoffer Oustad
Pete Oxley & Nicolas Meier
Peptalk
Qluster
Bruno Sanfilippo
Maria Schneider
Dirk Serries
Stratosphere
Robert Scott Thompson
Skydive Trio
Time Being
toy.bizarre / EMERGE
T_st & Dronelock
Kamasi Washington
Andrew Weathers
XaDu
Yen Pox
Young & Martin
ZOFO

EPs / Cassettes / DVDs / Mini-Albums / Singles
Alex Agore
Bird People / Waterflower
Kaison
Lullatone
Donna McKevitt
M. Mucci
Nattavaara Rocks
Zenwan

Nattavaara Rocks: Ox Choral
Seismic Waves

Had I not known otherwise, I would have guessed that I was listening to unreleased Talvihorros material whilst listening to Nattavaara Rocks' Ox Choral. The eight pieces Andreas Norberg has included on this impressive twenty-six-minute EP are indeed reminiscent of the guitarcentric music Ben Chatwin has issued under his own alias, and, needless to say, that's a good thing. Though the Umeå, Sweden-based Norberg cites Grouper, The National, Emeralds, Richard Skelton, and Birchville Cat Motel as influences, any project that involves the creation of “texturized and layered pieces of guitar based folk/drone/ambient through the use of effect pedals, loopers, e-bow, and arpeggiated chords” is probably going to have as much in common with Talvihorros as any other artist.

Having been preceded by 2007's Linger Through a Winter, 2009's File Under Debris, and 2012's Ghosts Move Through, Ox Choral certainly suggests that Norberg's music has undergone extensive refinement in the eight years since his first release. While guitar is a central element, other instruments play equally important roles, and one comes away from the recording impressed by the breadth of its sonic palette. Organ, piano, vibraphone, and strings add considerably to the richness of the soundworld presented, but all such sounds are utilized in the service of the composition in question. During “Blind Kites Circling,” Norberg augments the swoop of an e-bow guitar with portentous rumblings and ethereal mellotron washes in a manner that invites comparison to Popol Vuh. Similarly buoyed by e-bow guitars, “Monoliths” achieves a kind of spectral grandeur in its emotional outpouring, while “As Their Bodies Slowly Sank,” in keeping with its title, is as plaintive in spirit as one might expect and not a little unlike a prototypical Grouper instrumental.

July-August 2015