Spektralmaskin, a collaborative album by the Norwegian musicians Jo David Meyer Lysne and Peder Simonsen, owes its name to a sort of prospecting: the process of sliding e-bows—small magnetic motors of adjustable speeds used to sustain sounds, here of Lysne’s own design—along guitar strings to produce harmonics. As these harmonics can occur erratically, the technique rewards the musician patient enough to scoot the e-bow about the string, waiting for the delicate sounds to crest.

The duo’s fascination with this technique, which pervades the album’s three tracks, dates to the beginning of 2020. At the time, Lysne was amidst a shift from jazz performance to composition, pursuing a burgeoning interest in space, timbre, and tuning, as well as building e-bows—the latter from repurposed magnetic hard drives—and novel instruments. Simonsen, a composer, producer, and member of the microtonal tuba trio Microtub, was meanwhile steeped in experiments involving just intonation. During a visit to Lysne’s studio, Simonsen proposed using Lysne’s e-bows to play guitars that had been harmonically tuned, resulting in striking possibilities for chords and timbres. (The word spektralmaskin, Norwegian for “spectral machine,” is Lysne and Simonsen’s attempt to encapsulate the e...  more

credits

releases May 31, 2024

Peder Simonsen - microtonal tuba, modular synthesizer, sine waves, pyrex bowls
Jo David Meyer Lysne - acoustic guitars, electric guitars
Ingar Zach - percussion, vibrating speakers on membranes (II, III)
Vilde & Inga - violin, contrabass (I, II)
Espen Reinertsen - bass clarinet (I)
James Patterson - french horn (I)

All music composed by Peder Simonsen & Jo David Meyer Lysne

Produced by Peder Simonsen
Co-production by Jo David Meyer Lysne (I, II, III) & Jørgen Træen (II)

Recorded by Knærten Simonsen at Studio Paradiso [March 2020]. Additional recording by Peder Simonsen & Jo David Meyer Lysne at Palazzo Stabile, Oslo and Gvarv [2020-2022].

Mixed by Peder Simonsen (I, III)
Mixed by Jørgen Træen (II)
Mastered by Espen Høydalsvik

Cover artwork: Pia Weide
Photos: Letizia Cigliutti
Art direction: Stephen O’Malley
Liner notes: Jennifer Gersten

Thanks to Pia, Kim, Ingar, Martin, Knærten, Marcus, Jennifer.

All rights reserved (TONO/N©B)
℗+©2024 SOFA MUSIC

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