With his first album, Hei (2000), Kim Hiorthøy,
who had until then made his name mostly through his
graphic work, defined a strange and beautiful sonic
world, based around field recordings, lo-fi electronic
ambiences and acoustic instrumentation, and firmly rooted
in contemporary electronica. This was developed further
on Melke, a compilation of odds and sods published
two years later. Although this was never meant as a
proper album and featured a couple of remixes, Melke
gave an additional insight into Hiorthøy’s
off-beat musical world. Nothing could have however prepared
fans for Hiorthøy’s triple sonic assault
this year. Started with the gentle Hopeness
EP, Hiorthøy then introduced the enigmatic For
The Ladies, a record entirely made up of field
recordings and featuring no music at all, before concluding
with this collection of recordings of live favourites
captured over the last couple of years.
Far from the atmospheric nature of For
The Ladies, Live Shet showcases Hiorthøy’s
live work. As the email printed at the back of the Hiorthøy-designed
sleeve suggests, the content of this record very much
differs from the man’s earlier studio recordings.
Sent to the Smalltown Supersound offices by a disappointed
fan following a live performance, this email captures
the essence of Hiorthøy’s music imprint
over the last four years: totally unpredictable and
utterly original.
Contrasting greatly with the subdued ambiences and poetic
touches found on For
The Ladies, the six tracks on Live Shet
are far more upfront. Although these tracks have all
been performed at one point or another within the last
two years, none of them were actually recorded live.
Instead, Hiorthøy recreated them in the studio
for the purpose of this record. Ranging from the relatively
chilled hip-hop-infused beat and melancholic melody
of the opening track to the old school techno on tracks
3 and 6 and the fast-paced breaks on tracks 4 and 5,
Hiorthøy draws here an intriguing picture which
appears to have very little in common with any of his
previous releases. Yet, all the elements are, in one
way or another, present here. Articulating his tracks
around acoustic elements and found sounds, Hiorthøy
remains, after closer inspection, interestingly close
to the original sonic template defined with Hey.
The ambience is far more unsettling than before though.
Whereas all his releases up to now remained rather delicate
and carefully constructed, Live Shet is bulkier,
with very few moments left for complex sonic constructions
to truly flourish, clearly reflecting on the need for
immediacy prompted by the live environment. Some of
the harder tracks also seem slightly dated, but this
doesn’t in any way affect the general spirit of
this mini album. In fact, despite the variety of styles
found here, Live Shet remains rather consistent
all the way through. It remains however difficult for
anyone who hasn’t had the chance to see the man
in action to judge whether this works as well on a full
set as it does here.
At just forty minutes, Live Shet only offers
an insight into Kim Hiorthøy’s live persona,
yet it confirms that the man is willing to confuse his
audience a little more with each release. After the
delicate constructions of his first album, the acoustic
tendencies of his Hopeness EP and the environmental
atmospherics of For
The Ladies, this new mini album takes the listener
deeper into Hiorthøy’s sonic world and
demonstrates once again the considerable extend of the
man’s talent.
3.8/5 |
