The Squid's Ear Magazine


Oker (Larsen / Myhr / Rasten / Gismervik): Susurrus [VINYL] (Shhpuma)

Existing between composition and free improvisation, this Norwegian quartet of Torstein Lavik Larsen on trumpet, Adrian Myhr on double bass, Fredrik Rasten on acoustic guitar, and Jan Martin Gismervik on drums & percussion are informed by minimal composed, folk and improvised musics, applying unusual technique and methodology to create beautiful textural and impressionistic sound.
 

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product information:

Personnel:



Torstein Lavik Larsen-trumpet

Adrian Myhr-double bass

Fredrik Rasten-acoustic guitar

Jan Martin Gismervik-drums, percussion


Click an artist name above to see in-stock items for that artist.




UPC: 5609063800630

Label: Shhpuma
Catalog ID: SHH063LP
Squidco Product Code: 30307

Format: LP
Condition: New
Released: 2021
Country: Portugal
Packaging: LP
Recorded at Flerbruket, in Hemnes, Norway, on June 6th and 7th, 2019, by Magnus Skavhaug Nergaard. Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"The instrumentation of this quartet from Oslo could suggest that this is an ensemble rooted in jazz - a rhythm section consisting of double bass and drums plus two "soloists" on guitar and trumpet. However, here you won't find any burning solos or rapid changing chords, and neither will you hear the gestures or outbursts associated with free form jazz or improv.

Even if these musicians have a clear connection to the aforementioned genres, Oker's project is a more egalitarian approach to acoustic music making, not only implicating equality between the members, but also between their different creative approaches, existing somewhere between composition and free improvisation. There are inspirations here from folk, minimal composed music, improvised music and maybe even post rock, all formed in a way that sounds like nothing but Oker.

Sussurus gives us a kind of concrete, acousmatic music where tapes or electronic devices are replaced by acoustic instruments. This involves a fair amount of what is normally labeled "extended techniques". But in Oker's hands these techniques never sound foreign - a trumpet mute used as a percussive extension of the trumpet, a guitar producing long stretched drones with electronic bows, the drumkit extended with coffee mugs and glockenspiel, the dampen strings of the double bass being rapidly plucked - all these things sound just as natural as any conventional rhythmic or toneproducing approach in the fabric of Oker's music."-Shhpuma

Also available on CD.

Artist Biographies

"Torstein Lavik Larsen is a trumpet player and composer based in Oslo, Norway, mostly working with experimental jazz and free improvised music. Born in 1989 and educated at NTNU Jazzlinja in Trondheim."

-Torstein Lavik Larsen Website (Torstein Lavik Larsen)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

Adrian Fiskum Myhr is a bassist (double bass and electric bass) from Trondheim, Norway, now living in Oslo.

Active in the improvised music scene in Norway, Adrian has performed across Europe as well as in Chile and Japan.

Adrian is focusing on the big sound repertoire of the bass and works continuously on extending this vocabulary with various strategies, through preperations and different bowing techniques.

-Adrian Myhr Website (http://www.adrianmyhr.com/#!about)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

Fredrik Rasten, guitarist / improviser / composer "I am a Norwegian guitarist (b. 1988) working in the field of experimental music, both improvised and composed. My main focuses are exploring and utilizing the acoustic possibilities of the steel string guitar, motivated by a fascination for the almost tactile experiences of acoustic phenomena. The last months I have been working extensively with intonation, with an extended concept of consonance as a point of departure, both in solo work and in duos with trumpeter Torstein Lavik Larsen and bass player Jonathan Heilbron. I have also had the lucky opportunity to take lessons in this field with composer and violist Catherine Lamb.

Other music that I am inspired by includes wandelweiser music, traditional british folk and early music."



"Fredrik Rasten works with acoustic guitar and in exploring the possibilities for putting this instrument in new musical contexts. With extensive use of preparations and different non-tempered tunings, he creates warm sounds in gradual development. He also includes subtle use of the voice to make interfering thick timbres and tonalities in combination with the guitar. A goal for the music is to open a room for details that invites the listener inside the musical material in an active and exploring way.

He is also playing composed music, especially related to quiet / Wandelweiser music and Just Intonation music, and has performed pieces by Johan Lindvall, Antoine Beuger and Catherine Lamb."

-Fredrik Rasten Website (http://fredrikrasten.com/)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Jan Martin Gismervik (born 1988 in Avaldsnes, Karmøy, Norway) is a Norwegian jazz musician (drums), known from bands like Monkey Plot, PGA, Wolfram Trio.[1

Gismervik was raised in Avaldsnes, where he played in local groups. He cooperated within the duo "PGA" on the debut album Corrections (2012). On Corrections the "PGA" duo is assisted by Henrik Munkeby Nørstebø (trombone) and Thorsten Lavik Larsen (trumpet) on two tracs."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Martin_Gismervik)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



SIDE A



1. Filament 10:27

2. Lichens 08:27

SIDE B



1. Learning to Float 07:47

2. Formation of Starlights 10:46

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Vinyl Recordings
Clean Feed
Improvised Music
Free Improvisation
European Improvisation, Composition and Experimental Forms
Quartet Recordings
lowercase, reductionist, micro-improv, sound improv, onkyo sound
Record Store Day 2023

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Shhpuma.


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