release date: 26.08.2022 on Hubro Records
Recorded between August 2020 and April 2021 Nova, is Apneseth’s fith album till date and it brings us even deeper into his sublime and intimate music vocabulary. It differs in this regard from 2020’s Fragmentarium, the six musicians consort, which included Erlend’s regular trio members and close collaborators. Here we are left alone, face to face and soul to soul with his solo voce only.
Erlend Apneseth is one of Norway’s leading fiddle players and folk musicians. After making a name for himself with four, Norwegian Grammy nominated, albums with the Erlend Apneseth Trio, he returns here to the solo format, with the unique acoustics of Emmanuel Vigeland’s Mausoleum as a starting point for his improvisations and compositions.
“The Hardanger fiddle is traditionally a solo instrument, and the fact that it has the ability to fill a room on its own is one of the most fascinating things about the instrument. Although in recent years I have mostly moved in an electro-acoustic landscape, I have never abandoned the acoustic approach of the Hardanger fiddle, and I now felt it was time to do something by myself again. “
In addition to folk music, Apneseth has immersed himself in improvisation and stands out as a performer with a completely distinctive expression. After doing a lot of research into different ways of using the instrument, this record can almost be seen as a kind of personal catalog of the Hardanger fiddles sonic possibilities:
“I experience it now, after a fairly long process and not least a very decisive mixing and production round together with Øyvind Hegg-Lunde and Stephan Meidell – as perhaps my most personal album to date. Most titles therefore refer to different parts of my own life. “
The album title «Nova» emphasizes Apneseth’s multifaceted approach to music:
“It was a title that I think covered the various aspects of the release. The sound in the room gives everything an almost cosmic feel, a feeling of being floating, or in another sphere. To me, it perhaps became first and foremost a symbol of man. In China, they were called guest stars: small newly formed lights in the night sky, which are allowed to be visible to us for a while, before fading to their original shape. But where I come from is nova is also the name of a small mountain top, or the corners that connect the log house I live in. “
Info:
Erlend Apneseth – Nova
HUBROCD2651/HUBROLP3651
Line up:
Erlend Apneseth: Hardanger fiddle
Tracks:
1. Ly (05:36)
2. Fall (02:08)
3. Skuggespel (02:56)
4. Framand (01:22)
5. Speglingar (03:09)
6. Bestemor Bremen (01:05)
7. Palmyra (02:16)
8. Til eit Astrup-bilete (02:31)
9. Gravsong (02:49)
10. Ettertid (03:48)
note: #1 is a traditional listening tune after Sigurd Eldergard (1893-1963)