Eivind Aarset - 3 Albums (1998-2007)

Eivind Aarset (born 23 March 1961 in Kolbotn, Oppegård, Norway) is a Norwegian guitarist who has worked with Ray Charles, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Ute Lemper, Ketil Bjørnstad, Mike Mainieri, Arild Andersen, Abraham Laboriel, Dhafer Youssef, Django Bates, and Nils Petter Molvaer. Aarset is married to Norwegian singer Anne-Marie Giørtz.

Aarset's debut solo album as a band leader was described by New York Times as "one of the best post-Miles Davis electric jazz albums". As one of the most requested guitarists Aarset has worked with Nils Petter Molvær, Bill Laswell, Jon Hassell, Jan Garbarek, David Sylvian and Marilyn Mazur among many others.

After several releases on the Bugge Wesseltoft label Jazzland, he released the album Dream Logic (2012) on the label ECM, where he collaborated closely with Jan Bang and Erik Honoré on the production and timbral design of melodies, sound sculptures and soundscapes. Aarset is a pioneering guitarist with a great sense of electronics sound and expressiveness, and often the guitar plays a role as manipulable sound source and tool for layer-by-layer routing more than a traditional melody. His style is often associated with that of nu jazz, and his performance, improvising and albums feature, a strong 21'st century electronic influence. He is considered to be one of the unique re-interpretations of what the role and sound of the electric guitarist can be.

Aarset performs regularly at the "Punkt Festival" in Kristiansand, Norway. At the 2013 festival he accompanied Arve Henriksen, Jan Bang, Erik Honoré and Ingar Zach, celebrating the release of two new albums Narrative From The Subtropics by Jan Bang and Places Of Worship by Arve Henriksens, in addition to performing a special "Dream Logic" concert including the lineup Jan Bang, Audun Erlien, Wetle Holte and Erland Dahlen.

John Kellman of the All About Jazz magazine recognized Eivind Aarset Dream Logic appearance at The Punkt Festival, Kristiansand, Norway, September 2013, as one of his 25 "Best Live Shows of 2013"



Scandinavia is definitely a place which sends new impulses in jazz. After trumpeter Nils Petter Molvaer's Khmer in 1997, which presented a fresh combination of ECM jazz, ambient, and electronica, here's Electronique Noire by guitarist Eivind Aarset, who was on of the musicians on Khmer. Again, we're exposed to such a mixture, but this time, the stew is spiced up by more different ingredients: programmed beats combine with the live drumming of Anders Engen and Kim Ofstad, creating a whole new drum'n'bass experience; there are hints of techno and rock, and the styles of jazz and ambient are to a large extent covered in several shades by Aarset's guitars, alternately – according to the liner notes – straight, treated, e-bowed, looped, ugly and pretty, and many of his guitar tracks are heavily processed or "pretty dissonant" to start with. Guests include Molvaer and Bugge Wesseltoft, another important figure in this new jazz movement. As the title of the album suggests, most of the tracks delve into an eerie, haunting mood and are quite dark, particularly the creepy "Dark Moisture" and "Spooky Danish Waltz," which is just that – invoking pictures of ghosts dancing a waltz. "Wake-Up Call" is very rockish, with some killer guitar soloing, while "Entrance/U-Bahn" (which is based on a live recording) presents the most successful mix of underground electronica and jazz. The more ambient pieces on the CD, like the title track or "Namib," are less captivating and, surprisingly, more ethereal and less sinister than the high-energy tracks, but they're still interesting enough and add a nice peaceful feel to a disc which shows up more new directions for jazz to follow. While Electronique Noire is not as accessible as Khmer, it certainly is just as recommendable, and it makes one curious about what Aarset's future recordings will sound like. ~ AllMusic Review by Christian Genzel

Eivind Aarset guitars
Anders Engen drums
Ingebrit Flaten bass
Nils Petter Molvær trumpet
Bugge Wesseltoft rhodes
Kim Ofstad drums
Jonny Sjo bass
Kjetil Bjerkestrand synth
Vidar Johansen bass clarinet, soprano sax
Kjetil Saunes synth
Bjørn Kjellemyr bass

Track List:
1. Dark Moisture 7:50
2. Entrance/U-Bahn 8:33
3. Lost and Found 7:33
4. Superstrings 8:26
5. Électronique Noire 3:53
6. Wake-Up Call 6:38
7. Namib 3:00
8. Spooky Danish Waltz 7:06
9. Porcupine Night Walk 6:40





Norse progressive jazz guitarist Eivind Aarset's Electronique Noire set a new standard for fusion music. For starters, it's because his sound – while fully electronic – had all the feel of an organic ensemble playing in the heat of the moment. Like the Miles Davis bands of the early '70s, this was music as invention and articulation, not merely concept and flash. On Light Extracts, his sophomore effort, Aarset furthers himself and his Electronique Noire band's mission by creating a body of composition that delves further into the electro underground as a way of capturing the flash of the "new" at the heart of jazz. Here, Aarset's guitar creeps along moodily, articulating itself inside a swirl of noise, ambience, subtly shifting harmonics, and barely nuanced rhythms. Sound is the effect, both desired and realized, and the nu-jazz underground is probably less ready for it than most American jazz audiences. Take the shimmering Afro-delic, subatomic funk at the center of "Dust Kittens," articulated with a standup bass and a host of walled-off tonal statements made by the guitarist. Here harmony becomes rhythm, which becomes the ground for harmonics to shimmer and shake and ultimately become some seamless warm ooze for new rhythmic ideas to take hold. "Wolf Extract" is a roiling series of spare yet heavily layered vocal samples pushed through the staccato bass runs that engage the guitar on the level of a dominant minor chord and then fragment around a creaking, fractured jungle rhythmic figure. When Hans Ulrik's bass clarinet enters the fray, there are atmospheres falling in and out of the mix at an alarming rate, yet they never fluctuate – they are either in or out. Likewise, the Hendrixian chord pattern that commences the maelstrom of "The String Thing" is pure pulse and energy as it undulates through phrase, sequence, and segment. Basses rattle in the underpinned rhythmic center as Aarset's guitar plies a textural schema trying to get to and undo the fixed center of the track. He loose-hands his way around the fretboard, playing against the rhythm and on top of it until everything gives way to some new form of musically crystalline darkness. Light Extracts is light years ahead of everybody in this game and a few notches above his first effort. This is the cat to watch. ~ AllMusic Review by Thom Jurek

Eivind Aarset guitar, fretless guitar, bass (4)
Wetle Holte drums, drum machine
Marius Reksjø electric and acoustic basses

Guests:
Hans Ulrik bass clarinet
Arve Furset rhodes, prophet
Nils Petter Molvær trumpet

Track List:
1. Empathic Guitar 4:27
2. Wolf Extract 8:20
3. Dust Kittens 5:26
4. The StringThing 7:40
5. Between Signal and Noise 8:32
6. FFwd/Slow Motion 6:24
7. Self Defence 4:34
8. Tunnel Church 6:44





While there are still plenty of the signposts that make this an Eivind Aarset album, Sonic Codex represents some significant changes for a Norwegian artist who has become the most important (and in demand) guitarist to emerge from Scandinavia since Terje Rypdal in the early 1970s.

While Aarset's almost pathological avoidance of conventional guitar tones—and familiar rhythmic and harmonic approaches—remains intact from earlier albums including Connected (Jazzland, 2004), Sonic Codex does have some of his most identifiable guitar playing on record. Aarset is usually such a vivid colorist that, without the benefit of seeing him, it's often difficult to discern exactly what sounds are coming from his complex array of effects, samplers and looping devices. Still, he's begun to emerge with a more quantifiable guitar aesthetic as part of the 2007 Jazzland Community tour and Punkt 07 festival.

Aarset's work has never been shy on energy but, at least in some places, Sonic Codex rocks harder than on previous discs. It's a continuation of Connected's overriding narrative approach but feels, in many ways, more informed by progressive rock than it does the post-Miles electricity of ?lectronique Noire (Jazzland, 1998). The slow-tempo'd but powerful "Still Changing" sounds where Pink Floyd might have gone had they continued in the vein of Meddle (Capitol, 1971), but with greater instrumental facility and technological savvy. "Sign of Seven" may begin with kalimba and logdrum, but when Aarset's driving riff enters, with a layered overdriven melody, there's a filtered King Crimson dynamic at play.

Despite a stronger allegiance to the sound of the guitar, there are still plenty of imaginative textures, near-ambient vibes and "how does he get those sounds" scratching of the head moments. Still, even the sonically expansive "Cameo" has multiple layers of definitive guitar tones as part of its overall soundscape. "Family Pictures III," a continuation of two earlier pieces on Connected, reunites Aarset with longtime friends and Punkt Artistic Directors Jan Bang (sampler) and Erik Honor? (field recordings) for three minutes of gentle warmth and subtle atmospherics.

By contrast, "Black Noise/White Silence" begins as an up-tempo piece of near free play, all jagged edges and harsh sonics before dissolving into the ethereal, while "The Return of Black Noise & Murky Lambada" acts as both a reprise of Aarset's own Hendrixian aesthetic and a move towards a more rhythmically propulsive finale that, with lyrical melodies and the reintroduction of kalimba and logdrum, brings things full circle.

Aarset's core group continues to be his Electronique Noire trio—bassist Marius Reksjø and drummer Wetle Holte—but also introduces Audun Erlien on electric bass and a variety of other instruments. Still, it's Aarset's unique approach to sound sculpting and his increasingly strong narrative sense that draws the remarkable Sonic Codex together as a unified whole—reflecting an artist for whom each new release represents significant evolution, unequivocal growth, and nary a misstep. ~ By JOHN KELMAN

Eivind Aarset guitar, electronics, kalimba, logdrum, programming, glockenspiel, electric bass on 7
Wetle Holte drums, percussion, programming, synth on 3 & 5, piano on 5, celeste on 4
Audun Erlien electric bass on 3,4 & 5, baryton guitar, celeste on 1, synth on 3, wurlitzer, vocal samples on 5
Marius Reksjø acoustic bass on 1,2 & 8, electric bass on 6 & 9
Anders Engen drums on 2
Hans Ulrik bass clarinet on 1 & 2, clarinet on 1 & 5
Tor Egil Kreken banjo on 5
Jan Bang sampler on 7
Erik Honore field recording on 7

Track List:
1. Sign of Seven
2. Quicksilver Dream
3. Dröbak Saray
4. Cameo
5. Still Changing
6. Black Noise / White Silence
7. Family Pictures III
8. Sleeps With Fishes
9. The Return of Black Noise & Murky Lambada



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