Post Description

Pianist/composer Ketil Bjornstad is primarily known for his new age, chamber jazz type outings on the ECM record label. This superbly recorded production is framed upon an imaginary soundtrack – composed for a film story, concerning love and so forth, as described within the liners. Bjornstad composed all these works and performs with guitarist Eivind Aarset, violaist Nora Taksdal and synth ace Kjetil Bjerkestrand.

And as those familiar with Bjornstad’s music would surmise, many of these pieces are based upon quaintly rendered themes and wistful melodies. However, textural synths, percussion grooves and Aarset’s often soaring electric guitar lines counterbalance the leader’s predominately ethereal arrangements. Some of the harmonies and melodies are revisited or reworked throughout the program, amid hearty doses of calming passages and airy treatments. Bjornstad and Taksdal render somber lines during their sobering duet work on “Cookie’s Face No.1.” Yet Bjornstad and Bjerkestrand also integrate low-key, scratch turntable fare and expansive synth swashes into “Underground” and other pieces. Overall, a truly amiable affair consisting of contrasting tone poems and delicately constructed fabrics of sound.

01. before the light no.1
02. gentle
03. intimacy
04. taipei nights no.1
05. before the light no.2
06. the face no.1
07. taxi dreams
08. seeing things
09. behind the mask
10. taipei nights no.2
11. before the light no.3
12. the face no.2
13. underground
14. neon
15. taipei nights no.3
16. shimmering
17. before the light no.4