Jo David Meyer Lysne & Mats Eilertsen - Kroksjø

The ecstatic shimmer of acoustic guitar and pedal steel textures meld into electronic echoes of what might be sleigh bells or a glass harmonica, in treated sounds that recall the ambient recordings of Brian Eno, or the organ-drones of early Terry Riley. Sinuous glissando slides and steadfast plucked-bass notes provide the backdrop to airy inventions that can seem as close to the test tones of a vintage audio demonstration disc as they do to conventional synth-voicings or effects. And although Meyer Lysne is a guitar virtuoso, and Eilertsen one of Europe’s leading jazz bassists, there’s not a lot of conventional guitar or bass to be heard. Throughout, a broken-beat rhythmic pulse formed from what appears to be the clicks of vinyl run-off grooves or odd turntable glitches, comes and goes, creating a formidable contrast between what sounds like music, and what sounds like sound.

"Our first album was mostly written out before we went to studio”, says Meyer Lysne. "This time we had a much more intense focus on bringing the right sound quality for each texture when we were in the studio, and a lot of the composition also happened during the recording. Sometimes we would split, and I would record my sounds first and then Mats would do an overdub. Or I would have pre-recorded sounds that we worked on re-amping in a big nice room with great acoustics. Also, we worked much more on the compositional prosess with the amazing sound engineer Peder Simonsen in Studio Paradiso in Oslo, and also during the mix with Jørgen Træen in Bergen. We been focusing a lot on the sound on this album, so we hope people will appreciate listening to all the details in the textures.”

Jo David Meyer Lysne: Acoustic guitars, turntable, synth

Mats Eilertsen: Contrabass, efx

Peder Simonsen: Modular synth, recording engineer

Jørgen Træen: Modular Synth, mixing engineer