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Beginner's Guide to Drum'n'Bass Vol. II

Albums
John Luther Adams
Monty Adkins
Celer
Eric Chenaux
Sarah Davachi
A. Die & Lorenzo Montana
Dikeman / Serries
DinahBird
Ricardo Donoso
Elian
Emika
Terence Fixmer
Hotel Neon
Islands Of Light
Fernando Lagreca
Lake People
K. Leimer
Daniel Lentz
Rudresh Mahanthappa
Tesla Manaf
Metcalf, Roach & Thomas
David Michael / Slavek Kwi
James Murray
Áine O'Dwyer
Fabio Orsi
Matana Roberts
Nadia Shpachenko
simakDialog
Subtle Lip Can
Robert Scott Thompson
Christian Wallumrød
Woven Entity
Yagull
Yodok III

Compilations / Mixes
Joseph Capriati
Nina Kraviz

EPs / Cassettes / DVDs / Mini-Albums / Singles
Anduin
CTRLS
Dexta
Digital, D. Phiz., Response
Igorrr & Ruby My Dear
Rima Kato
Klute
Mako, Villem & Mcleod
Seba
Second Moon Of Winter
Manfred Waffender

Christian Wallumrød: Pianokammer
Hubro

Christian Wallumrød's (b. 1971) appearance on Hubro might be regarded as somewhat of a coup for the label, given the Norwegian artist's long-standing relationship with ECM. Since 1996, he's issued a number of acclaimed recordings on Manfred Eicher's imprint in different group formats, primarily The Christian Wallumrød Ensemble but also The Christian Wallumrød Trio and the quartet Dans les arbres. On many of those recordings, he's credited with piano, harmonium, and toy piano, but on his first solo album, Pianokammer (“Piano chamber”), he limits himself exclusively to grand piano.

Pianokammer is not, however, your typical piano album. Rather than present a standard set of straightforward melodic compositions, Wallumrød brings a rather more experimental mindset to the project, one that sees him exploring the instrument's potential for unconventional sound-generation. That he would do so doesn't come as a complete surprise, given the boundary-collapsing character of his ECM recordings, which liberally range across jazz, gospel, folk, and chamber music genres.

Concise at thirty-seven minutes, Pianokammer registers as a collection of explorative sketches that document the artist's desire to experiment with different recording techniques, overdub treatments, and resonance. “Fahrkunst” makes that immediately clear when it opens the album with seven understated minutes of eerie, dark ambient-styled atmospherics that almost wholly conceal any recognizable trace of the piano. Having been transformed into something resembling a modified organ, the piano then appears in its customary garb for “Hoksang,” a breezy reverie of folk song-like character, before “Second Fahrkunst” re-establishes the project's experimental tone with a series of pointillistic accents and ambient reverberations (one even hears evidence of Wallumrød strumming the piano's inner strings).

February 2015