KIM HIORTHØY
Hopeness
STS070
CD
Smalltown Supersound 2004 

The unprompted arrival of this EP from the record label’s UK distributor provided my first opportunity to listen to Kim Hiorthøy’s music. Because of the familiarity of his graphic design for so many Rune Grammofon and Smalltown Supersound releases, and because his name had been hovering in the upper reaches of my ‘must give a listen’ list for quite some time, I welcomed the opportunity. I had wondered what sound worlds, tonal colours and rhythms Hiorthøy might proffer. His artwork led me to imagine that his music might be gently ambient, soft-edged and warm-hued, idiosyncratic and intuitive. In much of this I was right, but with one significant exception: Hopeness forges some fairly driving, noisy rhythms around which the guessed-at gentle melodies ebb and flow. This is particularly true of the eleven-minute You Know The Score. It’s these determined rhythmic exoskeletons that initially demand attention and remain in memory the first few times after the music has died away. On further listening the tippytoeing of wheezy keyboards and the gentle patter of electric piano gradually encroach upon the awareness. Around and about these elements are arranged occasional samples of singsong Scandinavian speech. Perhaps primarily because of this, but also because of its overall sonic palette, Hopeness recalls Hans Appelqvist’s CD Tonefilm (2002).

Hiorthøy is one of a lineage of artists turned music-makers which includes any number of art-school graduates who turned from sculpture and painting to music, but more accurately he can be placed alongside people like Russell Mills, designer of CD covers for the likes of David Sylvian, and Bill Laswell and Brian Eno, who continue to practice in both worlds. The temptation to experience Hiorthøy’s music in synaesthetic association with his artwork is difficult to avoid. Perhaps this is why Hiorthøy’s designs for his own releases are rather different from the rest of his work, displaying people’s faces apparently caught off-guard. Hopeness is less structurally ambitious than expected, though any disappointment implied by this observation probably reflects more upon me than it should upon the music. Warm-hearted, low-key and really rather lovely, this EP has a naïve charm which is communicated by its makeshift English, but entirely appropriate name.

Colin Buttimer

LARS HORNTVETH
The Joker
STS075CD/12
12" / CD
Smalltown Supersound 2004 

The Joker is Jaga Jazzist leader Lars Horntveth’s first taster of his forthcoming solo album Pooka, due out later this summer. With his ten-piece outfit, that he formed when he was just fourteen in 1994, Horntveth has relentlessly explored the frontier between jazz, hip-hop and electronica. For this first outing on his own, Horntveth takes the Jaga envelop and crafts a slightly poppier sound. Although there are hints of electronic soundscapes throughout, The Joker was recorded entirely live and features Horntveth on bass, clarinet, soprano sax, acoustic and electric guitar and keyboards, supported by a string octet.

The original piece kicks off with a slide guitar line before the melody and beat structure, led by Horntveth’s sax, settle over a background of plucked strings, surprisingly evocative of African music. Past the half-mark, The Joker morphs into a more ambitious and complex construction as the strings are given more scope and amplitude, but as they soon retract to the background, the original airy structure returns. The radio edit offers a more compact version of the same track, while Mental Overdrive mastermind Per Martinsen builds on the original, enhancing it with a glitchy groove and contagious bass line. Making good use of the original soundscapes, with an emphasis on the steel guitar section, his remix gives Horntveth’s composition a whole new range of textures and colours.

The ubiquitous Four Tet also contributes a remix to album track Tics 5. Kahlua Blues, renamed Tics here. If the original is a lush, string-laden piece, Hebden offers a stripped-down version that reflects his own typical musical universe. Building his intricate rhythmic structure over a treated sax drone, this is Four Tet in curiously reflective mood.

Produced by Jørgen Træen, who has worked with Magnet, Jaga Jazzist or Ralph Meyers & The Jack Herren Band in the past, this first extract of Lars Horntveth’s solo album is an extremely enjoyable and superbly crafted piece of work.