Steamdome

Fjordheim, Børge; Eilertsen, Nikolai Hængsle; Nylander, Erik; Formo, Daniel Buner; Kvernberg, Ola; Hulbækmo, Hans; Blomstrøm, Øyvind

Three years after releasing the masterpiece The Mechanical Fair, Ola Kvernberg returns with a new magnificent, imaginative, rhythmic deluge of an album: Steamdome. The title of Kvernberg’s latest project was not chosen at random. Steamdome presents thoroughly percussive music. It lunges brutally ahead like a runaway train. As enthusiastic, surrealistic and swelling as Sergio Leone’s spaghetti westerns. Fiddle ace Ola Kvernberg has held a prominent place in the Norwegian music community since his early teens. His family is full of folk musicians, but Ola has carved his own distinctive path. So far he has composed the music for seven films, has been remixed by Todd Terje, and has collaborated with saxophonist Joshua Redman, crime writer Jo Nesbø, Stian Carstensen, Mathias Eick, Motorpsycho, Pat Metheny and Jimmy Carl Black from the Mothers of Invention – to name just a few. “Steamdome is both more limitless and more brazen than my previous projects. The time was ripe to wield the broadest paintbrush and stir up the biggest emotions with this band,” says Ola. “Maybe a lot of what I have done before appealed to a dedicated audience of listeners, but Steamdome is to a much greater degree a physical experience.” Steamdome changes track, and barrels along into a landscape where rhythmical patterns, beat and groove are the dominant elements. The Mechanical Fair was described as belonging to a “mutton western” genre, and this description is, if anything, even more appropriate now. With three of the country’s most innovative drummers on board, the bows, strings and resin have been replaced by sticks, metal and a variety of drums. Steamdome is seething with visual energy. The music winds its way through steep cliffs, far-ranging vistas, sharp curves, sheer drops and nocturnal landscapes where the only anchoring point is the suggestive rhythm of a train that never stops.

Price: $27.98

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