JO DAVID MEYER LYSNE & MATS EILERTSEN - Meander
Ora Fonogram: OF128
Jo David Meyer Lysne: guitar, effects; Mats Eilertsen: double bass
Recorded October 28th 2016 and June 1st 2017 by Jo David Meyer Lysne at Rainbow Studio, Oslo
The idea of a guitar and bass duo recording might feel a bit limiting, but here is creates a pleasingly rich atmosphere. The pieces were composed by Meyer-Lysne is response to the landscape around Sluten, Norway, and carry with them a calm, meditative, tranquil mood. Many of the pieces have a strongly folk-inflected melody, both in terms of the way that the piece is structured and the way that Meyer-Lysne plays acoustic guitar. The bass playing gives the pieces a sense of dynamism, and in places it feels as if the composed guitar lines are accompanied by an improvised double bass line.
The mix of the composed and improvised is nicely illustrated by the opening track, ‘Intro’, in which a tremulous arco bass line is combined with a swirl of electronic effects and the theme gradually emerges from this background. The whole effect is rather like an aural equivalent of a sunrise over the fjord. Following this, ‘Sluten’, has a tentative acoustic guitar line (complete with the scrape of fingers on strings) and a sonorous bass line. This movement between the lower and higher register of the bass, and the different ways in which the guitar (and effects) creates a broad tonal palette, sometimes making each instrument sound like something completely different.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
Ora Fonogram: OF128
Jo David Meyer Lysne: guitar, effects; Mats Eilertsen: double bass
Recorded October 28th 2016 and June 1st 2017 by Jo David Meyer Lysne at Rainbow Studio, Oslo
The idea of a guitar and bass duo recording might feel a bit limiting, but here is creates a pleasingly rich atmosphere. The pieces were composed by Meyer-Lysne is response to the landscape around Sluten, Norway, and carry with them a calm, meditative, tranquil mood. Many of the pieces have a strongly folk-inflected melody, both in terms of the way that the piece is structured and the way that Meyer-Lysne plays acoustic guitar. The bass playing gives the pieces a sense of dynamism, and in places it feels as if the composed guitar lines are accompanied by an improvised double bass line.
The mix of the composed and improvised is nicely illustrated by the opening track, ‘Intro’, in which a tremulous arco bass line is combined with a swirl of electronic effects and the theme gradually emerges from this background. The whole effect is rather like an aural equivalent of a sunrise over the fjord. Following this, ‘Sluten’, has a tentative acoustic guitar line (complete with the scrape of fingers on strings) and a sonorous bass line. This movement between the lower and higher register of the bass, and the different ways in which the guitar (and effects) creates a broad tonal palette, sometimes making each instrument sound like something completely different.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
