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Zarko · 05-05-2009, 05:16 AM

Électronique Noire - Eivind Aarset (1998)

GENRES – Electronic, Experimental, Nujazz

Dark Moisture - 7:50
Entrance / U-Bahn - 8:33
Lost And Found - 7:32
Superstrings - 8:26
Électronique Noire - 3:53
Wake-Up Call - 6:36
Namib - 3:00
Spooky Danish Waltz - 7:06
Porcupine Night Walk - 6:40

Yet another name you may be familiar with based on my random MB musings, Aarset is another top notch Norwegian jazzist, who’s most famous work came with Nils Petter Molvær. Electronique Noire was his first solo project, and to this day is still his best in my opinion, though ‘Light Extracts’ is a great album in itself. Released a year after Khmer, Noire isn’t really jazz in the classical sense of the word. If anything it would be quite close to nujazz, but it really is just electronic music with a basis on electric guitar. Some may have downloaded the March Compilation, on which I submitted Entrance/U-Bahn. Either way, this album is another testament to the European modern jazz community.

The album kicks off with ‘Dark Moisture’, beginning with an almost trip hop base before fleshing itself out a bit. As the name of the track suggests, it is a bit dark, with haunting, elongated guitar sounds and light scratching before Nils entering the scene with his bustling trumpet, and from there it is a little more upbeat. The guitar effects are a treat, and the relatively simple aspects come together extremely nicely. Nothing really stands out, but it is great in its entirety. The track is book ended with the sounds that were heard at the start, however now Nils plays over them a bit as well in a good touch. It gives the feeling that the song isn’t really at its end, but its influence is everlasting.

‘Entrance/U-Bahn’ is a live recording transferred onto the studio album, but at no point would you suggest it’s of worse or even different quality. It is one of the best live electronic/jazz mixtures I have ever heard live. The tracks beginning is made up primarily of electronics based around some light drumming, as well as the trumpet and guitar work still present. After around 2 and a half minutes, the bass and electronics become muffled, before the volume is turned up a notch. With the drumming becoming more apparent, as well as Nils offering his voice in a distorted hybrid moment of brilliance, before Aarset pulls out some groaning guitar riffs. From here on, the guitar is the centrepiece, as it should be. The track is definitely a stand out on the album, and totally blows me away at times.

‘Lost And Found’ starts out a bit gloomy, with slow and draining guitar lines extending out. The repetitive and deep drumming keeps the listener waiting in anticipation, wondering what Aarset will do. The result is quite surprising, as he introduces an almost oriental nature to the album, with high pitched and shortish twangs. I don’t know if it’s only me that thinks of Asian based classical music and instrumentation, but the song feels like it has more depth when I look at it that way. The electronic base keeps it firmly cemented to the ground. It retains that cold and poignant tone throughout, but it always looks like there are better things upon the horizon waiting for us, and it is probably my favourite from the album.

‘Superstrings’ has a more intense electronic nature, probably because it added the talents of Bugge Wesseltoft especially for this song. It is definitely more buoyant that anything else so far on the album, with Nils once again offering himself on trumpet, at a pace much slower than the actual electronics. It still carries that ambient feeling that is elsewhere on the album, but at the same time, this is disturbed by its cacophonic nature. ‘Électronique Noire’ is a dramatic change simply for its length. Clocking in at less than 4 minutes, it is almost more than half the length of any of the preceding tracks. It is a quiet, morose track that doesn’t get too forceful, instead rumbling along at its own pace. Everything sounds as if it were some distance away, rather than directly in your face, which is a pleasant characteristic.

‘Wake-Up Call’ opens with random levels of synth that eventually freak out, and introduce a cool drum and bass sound to the album. The guitar effects used early on just make some great screeching and squealing sounds before Aarset hits out on a rocking guitar solo. In fact, the effects throughout offer up another few quality levels of interest. The whole song overall is a bit too ‘rock’ for me, but at least it changes things up from the pre-existing formula. It still more than adequately shows off the skill of the performers. However, in the end I just found it boring for the most part, with the most interest being gained in the DnB sections. ‘Namib’ is the shortest track on the album, reaching only 3 minutes in length. Another track heavy on the ambient side, the sounds are crisper than in the title track, and although it never gets a chance to really take off like some tracks do, it is another good track. It carries an ethereal nature, rather than a dark or depressing one.

‘Spooky Danish Waltz’ is otherworldly in its temperament. Full of stifled drumming, with layers slowly added, the start is eventually phased out as if a vinyl record is slowing down with the needle still down. This opens up the more melancholic but still powerful drumming and guitar work. It is a good song with some great guitar work, but nothing special compared to other songs on the album for the first half. When the volume is pumped up in the second half it becomes a new beast entirely. It is almost neoclassical guitar work, the modern equivalent to the waltz, with just the right level of spookiness to be interesting. It is a grand second half, and it is probably one of the most extreme cases personally where the first half held little interest only for it to explode.

The final track, ‘Porcupine Night Walk’ sends the album off on a good note, with a slow beat that actually sounds like a send off. The listener is isolated, on a barren highway, with only their thoughts, and yet content at the same time. Although it isn’t terribly deep or groundbreaking in the scheme of the album, it doesn’t need to be.

Nils Petter was one of the better discoveries in my music life purely because it opened doors to a lot of European modern jazz, when previously I was disconnected from the whole scene. Eivind delivers a quality album for his debut, and was able to continue such form with his future endeavours. However, they just don’t match up to his original solo effort that displayed his skills at production as well as ingenuity as a guitarist, offspring of the Hendrix style. There isn’t much more to say about the album.

TOTAL SCORE

8.4/10

– Dark Moisture
– Entrance/U-Bahn
– Porcupine Night Walk

Will save ‘Lost And Found’ for the compilation…

05-05-2009, 05:16 AM	#82 (permalink)
Zarko Barely Disheveled Zombie Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Australia Posts: 1,196	Électronique Noire - Eivind Aarset (1998) GENRES – Electronic, Experimental, Nujazz Dark Moisture - 7:50 Entrance / U-Bahn - 8:33 Lost And Found - 7:32 Superstrings - 8:26 Électronique Noire - 3:53 Wake-Up Call - 6:36 Namib - 3:00 Spooky Danish Waltz - 7:06 Porcupine Night Walk - 6:40 Yet another name you may be familiar with based on my random MB musings, Aarset is another top notch Norwegian jazzist, who’s most famous work came with Nils Petter Molvær. Electronique Noire was his first solo project, and to this day is still his best in my opinion, though ‘Light Extracts’ is a great album in itself. Released a year after Khmer, Noire isn’t really jazz in the classical sense of the word. If anything it would be quite close to nujazz, but it really is just electronic music with a basis on electric guitar. Some may have downloaded the March Compilation, on which I submitted Entrance/U-Bahn. Either way, this album is another testament to the European modern jazz community. The album kicks off with ‘Dark Moisture’, beginning with an almost trip hop base before fleshing itself out a bit. As the name of the track suggests, it is a bit dark, with haunting, elongated guitar sounds and light scratching before Nils entering the scene with his bustling trumpet, and from there it is a little more upbeat. The guitar effects are a treat, and the relatively simple aspects come together extremely nicely. Nothing really stands out, but it is great in its entirety. The track is book ended with the sounds that were heard at the start, however now Nils plays over them a bit as well in a good touch. It gives the feeling that the song isn’t really at its end, but its influence is everlasting. ‘Entrance/U-Bahn’ is a live recording transferred onto the studio album, but at no point would you suggest it’s of worse or even different quality. It is one of the best live electronic/jazz mixtures I have ever heard live. The tracks beginning is made up primarily of electronics based around some light drumming, as well as the trumpet and guitar work still present. After around 2 and a half minutes, the bass and electronics become muffled, before the volume is turned up a notch. With the drumming becoming more apparent, as well as Nils offering his voice in a distorted hybrid moment of brilliance, before Aarset pulls out some groaning guitar riffs. From here on, the guitar is the centrepiece, as it should be. The track is definitely a stand out on the album, and totally blows me away at times. ‘Lost And Found’ starts out a bit gloomy, with slow and draining guitar lines extending out. The repetitive and deep drumming keeps the listener waiting in anticipation, wondering what Aarset will do. The result is quite surprising, as he introduces an almost oriental nature to the album, with high pitched and shortish twangs. I don’t know if it’s only me that thinks of Asian based classical music and instrumentation, but the song feels like it has more depth when I look at it that way. The electronic base keeps it firmly cemented to the ground. It retains that cold and poignant tone throughout, but it always looks like there are better things upon the horizon waiting for us, and it is probably my favourite from the album. ‘Superstrings’ has a more intense electronic nature, probably because it added the talents of Bugge Wesseltoft especially for this song. It is definitely more buoyant that anything else so far on the album, with Nils once again offering himself on trumpet, at a pace much slower than the actual electronics. It still carries that ambient feeling that is elsewhere on the album, but at the same time, this is disturbed by its cacophonic nature. ‘Électronique Noire’ is a dramatic change simply for its length. Clocking in at less than 4 minutes, it is almost more than half the length of any of the preceding tracks. It is a quiet, morose track that doesn’t get too forceful, instead rumbling along at its own pace. Everything sounds as if it were some distance away, rather than directly in your face, which is a pleasant characteristic. ‘Wake-Up Call’ opens with random levels of synth that eventually freak out, and introduce a cool drum and bass sound to the album. The guitar effects used early on just make some great screeching and squealing sounds before Aarset hits out on a rocking guitar solo. In fact, the effects throughout offer up another few quality levels of interest. The whole song overall is a bit too ‘rock’ for me, but at least it changes things up from the pre-existing formula. It still more than adequately shows off the skill of the performers. However, in the end I just found it boring for the most part, with the most interest being gained in the DnB sections. ‘Namib’ is the shortest track on the album, reaching only 3 minutes in length. Another track heavy on the ambient side, the sounds are crisper than in the title track, and although it never gets a chance to really take off like some tracks do, it is another good track. It carries an ethereal nature, rather than a dark or depressing one. ‘Spooky Danish Waltz’ is otherworldly in its temperament. Full of stifled drumming, with layers slowly added, the start is eventually phased out as if a vinyl record is slowing down with the needle still down. This opens up the more melancholic but still powerful drumming and guitar work. It is a good song with some great guitar work, but nothing special compared to other songs on the album for the first half. When the volume is pumped up in the second half it becomes a new beast entirely. It is almost neoclassical guitar work, the modern equivalent to the waltz, with just the right level of spookiness to be interesting. It is a grand second half, and it is probably one of the most extreme cases personally where the first half held little interest only for it to explode. The final track, ‘Porcupine Night Walk’ sends the album off on a good note, with a slow beat that actually sounds like a send off. The listener is isolated, on a barren highway, with only their thoughts, and yet content at the same time. Although it isn’t terribly deep or groundbreaking in the scheme of the album, it doesn’t need to be. Nils Petter was one of the better discoveries in my music life purely because it opened doors to a lot of European modern jazz, when previously I was disconnected from the whole scene. Eivind delivers a quality album for his debut, and was able to continue such form with his future endeavours. However, they just don’t match up to his original solo effort that displayed his skills at production as well as ingenuity as a guitarist, offspring of the Hendrix style. There isn’t much more to say about the album. TOTAL SCORE 8.4/10 – Dark Moisture – Entrance/U-Bahn – Porcupine Night Walk Will save ‘Lost And Found’ for the compilation… Last edited by Zarko; 05-06-2009 at 01:52 AM.