Freejazz blog

Rating
4 of 5

Norwegian guitarist Kim Myhr is one of this reviewer's favorite artists, as is testified by the number of reviews we've dedicated to his music in the last few years, with a good intro here. Typically, his approach is minimal, using sparse sounds, often in intense ensemble-playing, yet keeping a lightness of instruments that is often in stark contrast to the darkness of the music.

What he does here, is almost the exact opposite. On the long opening track, "Weaving Into Choirs", his guitars are overdubbed in several layers, creating an almost orchestral feel, with an intense repetitiveness that reminds us of Reich or Glass, and that is often the backbone of his compositions, creating an overall mood that is much lighter, more optimistic, as the album's title and cover art would suggest.

His twelve-string acoustic guitar resonates, and creates space, for new sounds to enter. "Decent", the second track is more intimate, built around an arpeggiated eery chord. On "Blinky", he plays only one chord, but then in hundreds of different ways, with changing resonance, and power and speed. "Leaping Into Periphery" sounds like champagne bubbles rising up in a glass, small and intimate and fresh and tasteful. "Sleep Nothing, Eat Nothing" is again more symphonic, and the last track, "Harbor Me", is an achingly beautiful slow folksy composition, with again layers of minimal and repetitive sounds weaving a texture that evolves with minor shifts and changes.

Myhr manages to create a genre-less style, that applies techniques from jazz and folk and classical music, both on the instrument and his compositions, as the foundation for his own unique creative vision, one of subtle moods and shades of feelings.