Gracias a Projekt nos llega el nuevo trabajo del guitarrista / sintetista noruego Erik Wollo. Airborne es el título que el compositor ha escogido para este, su decimosexto trabajo, un disco en el que el compositor nos muestra con la música, la visión que uno puede tener cuando viaja en un avión, desde el cual puedes contemplar el paisaje que te rodea, pero también puedes ver tu vida, tú existencia, donde puedes sentir lo insignificante que es el ser humano ante la grandeza de nuestro planeta.

Erik Wollo es un fantástico compositor, de esos que siempre estás esperando que salga un nuevo trabajo para disfrutar de sus composiciones, un hombre, que en sus últimos trabajos está apostando por sumergirnos en unos ambientes musicales profundos, en los que el mundo que nos rodea es una parte fundamental, llegando en ocasiones al estilo que popularizó Steve Roach de música subterránea. En este disco, el compositor apuesta por crear composiciones con ambientes profundos, pero al mismo tiempo con algunos momentos de potentes beats electrónicos, que nos hacen pensar en los momentos más intensos de ese paseo por los cielos, para sumergirnos en otros en las melodías suaves y relajantes de los momentos de ensoñación.

Erik ha creado un disco con grandes paisajes ambientales, pero que al mismo tiempo también aporta grandes momentos rítmicos, donde en ocasiones parece que se vuelve dramático pero que resurge con estados explosivos, un disco de esos que te esperas de un gran compositor como es el músico noruego. Su música se puede disfrutar en un avión mirando por la ventanilla y sintiendo lo que el compositor nos comenta o que podemos disfrutar en el salón de casa cerrando los ojos y dejando volar la imaginación. -Roberto Vales

Ci eravamo occupati dell'arte strumentale di questo compositore norvegese - attivo dal 1980 - sul finire del 2010, quando egli approdava alla Projekt con l'eccellente Gateway, ed evidentemente questo sodalizio si è rivelato proficuo, visto che ritroviamo Wøllo ancora sotto l'ala protettrice della storica label americana per il suo sedicesimo album solista, dopo un doppio live e la seconda collaborazione col nume tutelare Steve Roach (più un altro paio di uscite per etichette differenti). Proprio questa collaborazione, stando sia alle note ufficiali che a quanto abbiamo modo di ascoltare con le nostre orecchie, sembra aver lasciato traccia di sé nel songwriting di Erik, oggi naturalmente più vicino ai dilatati afflati ambientali di Roach rispetto al succitato Gateway, ma sostanzialmente sempre affine alla materia new age. Armato come di consueto di chitarre (elettrica, synth, slide, fretless, Ebow), basso, tastiere, percussioni, sequencer e campionatori vari, il 51enne scandinavo dice chiaramente nelle note di aver immaginato un viaggio aereo e di averlo raccontato coi suoni, ma più dal punto di vista squisitamente psichico che non a livello di congiunzione fra un punto di partenza ed uno di arrivo.

Nasce così un lavoro più tenue e sottile, dove gli echi di chitarra pinkfloydiani si limitano a sparute apparizioni (il preludio "Spring Equinox" e l'avvolgente "Time River"), col ritmo che sa farsi suadente e pulsante (la misteriosa "Red Earth", la melodiosa "Airborne 1", le percussioni invitanti di "Lost And Found" ed "Airborne 2"), senza mai sconfinare oltre la pacatezza dell'incedere dei pensieri che accompagnano il viaggio aerotrasportato di cui sopra. Momenti di lieve malinconia emergono con "Circle Lake" e la sfuggente "The Longest Day", mentre il trittico finale formato da "North Of The Mountains", "The Magic Spot" ed "Airborne 3" va a lambire lidi maggiormente elettronici, sempre con la sottile ed educata grazia ritmico/melodica che contraddistingue l'intera opera, al solito prodotta in maniera esemplare e capace di porre in evidenza tutti i gustosi dettagli che sono nelle corde di un artista così esperto e capace. Senza dubbio un lavoro più riflessivo rispetto a svariate altre opere del passato più o meno recente, ma non meno affascinante e ricco di spunti analitici: buon viaggio, e godetevi la splendida vista dall'alto. Rating: 7.5 -Roberto Alessandro Filippozzi

Attention, luxury car makers. Please start including a copy of Erik Wøllo’s new release, Airborne, with every purchase. Because this disc is the musical equivalent of a fast, smooth and comfortable ride through lush vistas, motion bordering on flying, images bordering on dreamscapes. It’s got high velocity and it’s got cruise control in equal proportions. While tonally it is very much a signature Wøllo disc, replete with familiar phrase, tones and structures, nothing can detract from the upbeat, pleasant cruise of Airborne. As always, the artist finds a sweet spot that blends cinematic New Age with classic electronic-music elements. Straight out of the gate, however, you might also pick up a hint of Pink Floyd. The first track, “Spring Prelude (Equinox),” carries a little echo of  “Shine On You Crazy Diamond,” between its long-held pad and David-Gilmour-style guitar wails. Wøllo’s own guitar style takes over soon enough, a rich sound that’s somewhere between sighing and signing as he floats out his chords. This is a wonderfully varied disc; a thoughtful, guitar-based track like “Circle Lake” is balanced by a bouncing, lounge-tempo sequencer-driven ride like “North of the Mountain” or “Time River,” at the end of which Wøllo works in some quiet but effective guitar wails like a distant call, and everything’s offset by the occasional easy drift–”The Longest Day,” for example, where Wøllo builds a drone-like base of plucked guitar phrases and accents them with soaring, hawk-circle synthesizer pads. “Airborne1″ is one of the best moments here thanks to the round tones of a fretless bass trading the lead with piano. Hand percussion taps along underneath, and the whole piece is infused with a laid-back certainty. Throughout Airborne, Wøllo maintains the feel of watching the landscape pass beneath you and around you, a constant and comforting sense of motion, lulling you into an easy mindset while giving you plenty to see. This is a flight to take more than once.

Erik Wøllo è uno dei nomi più originali e meno noti della scena ambientale "classica". Dopo diciassette anni di attività fra colonne sonore, teatro, musica da camera e carriera solista da studio-artist, il norvegese può vantare una miriade di lavori in studio di qualità elevatissima e collaborazioni con nomi quali Ian Boddy e Steve Roach, ma non certo la notorietà del californiano o di un Dirk Serries - spesso costretto a vivere nell'oblio di una proposta ibrida e mai abbastanza "canonica" per scendere sotto la definizione di pura ambient. Elettronica, impianti rock, soundscape languidi, melodia e riff di chitarra elettrica: ecco descritta la ricetta del musicista, riuscito a conquistarsi una posizione di rilievo solo due anni orsono, grazie all'approdo presso la Projekt e alla pubblicazione del capolavoro "Gateway", uno dei più ispirati manifesti di modernità nel mondo dell'ambient odierna.

Airborne è il seguito di quell'exploit, intermezzato l'anno scorso dall'interlocutorio "Silent Currents", e si caratterizza per la sua natura di vero e proprio trait d'union fra i due predecessori. Seguendo la struttura a variazioni e temi portanti introdotta da Steve Roach nel suo "The Magnificent Void", l'album svaria tra relax e ipnosi, passando indistintamente in mezzo a ritmi esotici, venature rock e radici eteree. Si viaggia così tra solidi soundwork ambientali - memorie di Kevin Braheny nel preludio di "Spring Equinox", di Mychael Danna in "Lost And Found" e del maestro Roach in "North Of The Mountains" - a duetti chitarra-tastiere limpidi e pacati ("Red Earth"), intrisi in acque dark (le tre parti della title track) o intimi e melancolici ("Circle Lake"), senza farsi mancare passaggi acustici (la sonata piano-chitarra "The Longest Day"), avvicinamenti neanche troppo nascosti alla new age ("Time River") o ammiccamenti a una trance-drone intrisa di rock e di sicura presa ("The Drift", "The Magic Spot"). Il comun denominatore del tutto è il già emerso talento nel musicare paesaggi diversi e originali, parti integranti di uno stesso affresco, conditi da melodie fresche e seducenti.

Airborne non bissa sicuramente il miracolo di suggestione che fu proprio di "Gateway", ma conferma con forza il nome di Wøllo all'interno di un genere apparentemente sempre più privo di significativi sviluppi, ma spesso in grado di trovare - per mano di artigiani abilissimi e ispirati - una via per guardare al "nuovo". La formula del norvegese è ormai assodata, ma ha dalla sua l'intrinseca caratteristica di interpretare i cliché tipici del genere mantenendosi lontana da definizioni e luoghi comuni, oltre che forte di un'immediatezza e una freschezza tali da rendere la sua musica accessibile anche ai non-appassionati. Da godersi lasciando da parte i luoghi comuni.

The music of Norwegian musician Erik Wollo is normally characterized as ambient music. Indeed, he is a leading ambient music performer. However, what distinguishes Wollo’s music from other ambient artists is his gift for developing beautiful meditative melodies along with his atmospheric abilities.

You can identify Wollo’s music easily because of his combination of spacey guitars, keyboard melodies and layers, samplers and percussion. On his 16th album, titled Airborne, Wollo’s develops instrumental pieces that are shorter in length, but rich in content.

“Imagine you are sitting on an airplane,” describes Wollo. “The power of the engine moves you forward over the landscape and everything you know passes below. You have the perfect overview; you see your life and your existence more clearly, with a continuous flow of thoughts. The journey becomes more of a travel in psychic time, rather than just taking you from place A to B, using hours and minutes. I explored this sense of an Airborne feeling while working on these tracks. It’s music that is both adventurous and uplifting.”

Airborne presents the highly creative music of Erik Wollo, one of the European masters of electronic ambient music with a melodic edge. -Angel Romero

Uno de los genios de los sintetizadores y la composición electrónica nos presenta su decimosexto álbum en solitario, Airborne. Erik Wøllo nos muestra un CD sutilmente cadencioso, donde se mezclan los sintetizadores y la guitarra eléctrica, lo que crea contextos amables e intrigantes en los que la música fluye con dificultad. Airborne lo componen doce temas que se unen unos a otros sin alterar el ambiente para el oyente, mientras este se mantiene sumergido en una relajante burbuja de sonidos espaciales e hipnóticos, algo realmente placentero. De alguna manera, Wøllo nos invita a imaginar nuestra vida vista desde el aire, siendo Airborne la banda sonora que acompaña a las imágenes o escenas que pasan por delante de nuestros ojos.

La primera de las composiciones es “Spring Equinox (Prelude)”, un preámbulo de más de cuatro minutos que sumerge al oyente en el escenario perfecto, la atmósfera en el que Erik quiere ver al espectador. Inmerso en sus sueños, este entra en el trance necesario para poder vislumbrar su vida desde lo más alto. La paz de los sonidos y la lánguida melodía invitan a cerrar los ojos.
Le sigue “The Drift”, que con encanto va tornando la melodía y el ritmo de la pieza anterior, creando un tempo amable y repetido, narcótico, que durante más de cinco minutos, se recrea en nuestros oídos. Mientras las percusiones y los synth no varian, en la lejanía se puede distinguir el llanto de la guitarra, un sonido que eleva el sentimiento de la composición.

El misterio y la grandiosidad de “Red Earth”. En comparación con los dos temas anteriores, esta es magnífica en cuanto a sorpresas, no se sabe que nos puede deparar tras la última nota. “Red Earth” es lenta y ladina, surgiendo los nuevos sonidos cuando menos lo espera el oyente, eso sí, sin alterar el estado de tensión creada. Es interesante la cantidad de sonidos que ven surgiendo al paso del tiempo, guitarras, sintetizadores, ritmos… La primera de las Airborne hace aparición, “Airborne 1”. En esta composición predomina la guitarra eléctrica como instrumento estrella, sonando por encima de unos sintetizadores apagados, a la espera. Junto a la guitarra, un piano, ambos se tornan la melodía principal, una de las mejores que podemos escuchar en Airborne. Esta pieza es cautivadora!. Con “Circle Lake” regresamos al misterio que esconden las notas de Wøllo. En esta ocasión, el compositor acude a una guitarra sintetizada para interpretar la reservada melodía, una música que consigue atrapar al oyente. Una música que mantiene una tensión constante y que al final, se convierte en una interesante y apacible melodía que hay que volver a escuchar!.

Contendiente contra el silencio, así es “Lost and Found”, otra de las piezas que cabe destacar en Airborne. “Lost and Found” es una música formada por diferentes sonidos y pocos sintetizadores, a un nivel tan bajo que compite con el silencio, de hecho, su efecto es muy similar. La pieza va creciendo en producción, añadiéndose diferentes cajas rítmicas que suben ligeramente el carácter de la pieza. Me gusta. La segunda parte de Airborne, “Airborne 2”, es apacible, soñadora, con un estéreo muy conseguido y un tempo encantador. La música es seductora, donde surgen desde interesantísimos teclados, a una guitarra que cierra el track con un lamento sobrecogedor, otro de los dones que este noruego posee como instrumentista. “Airborne 2” es otra gran pieza que podemos encontrar en este CD. La más desconcertante de las composiciones es “The Longest Day”, más de seis minutos de intensa rigidez, donde las guitarras y los sintetizadores no varían sus notas, o si lo hacen, son inapreciables. La tensión que dibujan sus notas puede ser cortada. “Time River” es sorprendente, no por su complejidad en la producción o en la composición, sino por lo que es capaz de conseguir con su melodía. “Time River” es espectacular, pues es capaz de poner música a escenarios naturales que van naciendo en el subconsciente del oyente. Otra maravilla de Airborne, genial!.

Al igual que los dos temas escuchados anteriormente, “North of the Mountains” es una caricia para nuestros sentidos, nada de rápidos ritmos, nada de sonidos estridentes. El Don de Wøllo es despertar las emociones con los teclados más etéreos y sedantes que puedan existir, y una vez más, lo consigue. “North of the Mountains” da protagonismo a su guitarra, que suena en momentos puntuales, creando una breve y pegadiza melodía; una belleza al igual que los teclados que la acompañan. Sorprendente!. Para sonidos interesantes, el continuo repique sintetizado que custodia la música de principio a fin en “The Magic Spot”. Como un canto similar al de las ballenas, los teclados van entonando una melodía sutil que nace en ocasiones entre otros teclados. Nuevamente, hipnótica. Como pieza final, el cierre de la trilogía de Airborne, “Airborne 3”. A diferencia de las dos Airborne anteriores, Erik apuesta por un final abierto y cuidado, donde los sintetizadores hablan por sí solos, carentes de ritmo y otros sonidos que puedan alterar el estado de quietud creado, el compositor sí da vida a una melodía interesante y sentimental, lo que se convierte en una sorpresa al finalizar el álbum. Perfecto!.

Airborne es el decimosexto CD del premiado y reconocido compositor, sintetista y guitarrista noruego, Erik Wøllo. Compartiendo los sonidos más amables y usando una compleja producción, Wøllo da vida a un trabajo completísimo, donde todos los sonidos que surgen son interesantes para los sentidos y los contextos que se pretenden crear, son creados, objetivo conseguido!. Hacía tiempo que no escuchaba una producción tan cuidada (hasta el último detalle), lo que hace que Airborne sea uno de los trabajos a destacar para este año. Muy recomendable!. Rating: 5/5

Wie schafft es Erik Wollo bloß, auf so kurzen Stücken eine derartige, intensive Stimmung zu erzeugen?? Das längste Stück auf seiner neuen CD -Airborne- weist man gerade eine Länge von 7 Minuten auf ... länger braucht Erik nicht, innerhalb von kurzer Zeit taucht man in die tiefen Soundlandschaften ein, die er mit seinen Synthies und Gitarren schafft.

Einfach toll seine Musik. Selbst wenn man es nicht lesen würde....nur hören, man kommt sofort auf den "typischen Erik-Wollo-Sound". Die Wärme und auch gleich wieder das kühle in seiner Musik, die scheinbar weit aus der Ferne zu uns rüberkommt, übt eben die ungeheure Faszination aus. Musik, der man sich wohl kaum entziehen kann :-) Für mich gehört -Airborne-, mittlerweile das 16. Soloalbum von Erik Wollo, zu den schönsten und intensivsten.

An dieser Stelle möchte ich mich bei Sam Rosenthal, dem Inhaber des Label´s www.projekt.com bedanken. Sam, many thanks! -Uwe Saße

This release from 2012 features 68 minutes of ethereal electronic music. Wollo plays: electric guitars, guitar synthesizers, slide/fretless/Ebow guitars, bass, keyboards, samplers, percussion, and programming.

Bewitching tuneage that transports the listener into a realm of vaporous definition seasoned by exciting electronic and rhythmic embellishment. Texturals abound, generated by both electronics and processed guitars. These atmospheric tapestries seethe with delicate beauty, ethereal yet glistening with latent potency.

Other electronics are present, but generally well hidden. Much of what you hear and would identify as the offspring of synthesizers actually comes from exotic guitars. Keyboards, though, contribute winsome riffs of crystalline grace.

Guitars of all sorts are employed in the creation of this music. Lovely sustains, chugging patterns, evocative strumming, celestial drones--all produced by strings under Wollo's skillful direction, resulting in a vividly unearthly character that is wonderfully grounded.

Rhythms play a vital role here, infusing the melodies with a restrained puissance of alluring elegance. The tempos alternate between chugging beats and lush beats, all tempered with a soothing quality that rendered the rhythms vital but unintrusive.

These compositions manage to fuse ambience with an energized posture that can only be described as wondrous. The tunes waft like stratospheric breezes, yet are often punctuated by a zesty vitality that, despite their animation, retain a delightful gentility. Wollo possesses a superb ability to create melodies of endearing appeal. -Matt Howarth

Norwegian multi-instrumentalist Erik Wøllo already has a beautiful, extensive list of solo and collaborative releases under his belt, to which Airborne makes a great addition.

Known for his highly emotive and sensitive approach, Erik again has incorporated minimal, contemporary and symphonic styles in his music that lend the melodic, highly cinematic outcome an uplifting, journey-like and overall positive feel.

The 67 minutes of nicely floating, slightly forward-driven music spread out over twelve tracks, is a beautiful alchemy of electronic pads, groovy-oriented sequencer patterns, along various e-guitars and percussive elements. Being reflective, adventurous and passionate in nature, the lush sonic painting spreads an impeccable grandeur with exciting and sparkling undercurrents that make it a happy and unhurried flight over unexplored, imaginary landscapes with broad vistas.

All in all, besides the introspective, smoothly drifting aerial passages, Airborne achieves a great dreamy flow with its continuous ambient voyage of expansive, warm soundscapes and the right dose of tasty guitar licks and rhythm. As usual, the spacious sound design and mastering by Mr. Wøllo are superb. -Bert Strolenberg

To those among us who are not yet fans of Erik Wøllo, whatever are you waiting for? His exceptionally well-crafted music has been setting trends and stirring thoughts for many years. But it is not too late to engage with Norway's most interesting multi-instrumentalist as his starry career seems in constant ascension. Airborne (67'52") is his 16th solo release and a great place to begin collecting! Bringing to this project a diverse musical background Erik Wøllo delivers 12 tracks of contemporary instrumental music informed but not ruled by his experiences in orchestral composition, world music, electronica, ambient and spacemusic. Sparks fly as Wøllo follows the beat's story with pristine piano notes, lush synthesizer arrangements and the soft distortion of his blessed guitar tone.

When the mood turns more contemplative we encounter minor key chords rolling outward through cavernous reverb - quiet expressions of deep emotions. As with all of Wøllo's albums, Airborne seems to possess a musical variety on the surface, but there is a cohesion underneath. The structure of each piece holds a uniformity of proportion, balance, symmetry, pacing and overall sonics - which helps make Airborne seem like one work unfolding over many parts. We know that there is no one right way to make an album, but lots of wrong ways - the whole process is very personal. Erik Wøllo knows this too, playing completely from that place that he feels in his heart. -Chuck van Zyl/STAR'S END

Always subjected we shall be by this guitar with rangy spectral curves and with meditative night-lamentations which get lost in absent synth breaths. Welcome to the unique musical universe of Erik Wollo. After a detour in the more atmospheric and more experimental musical territories of Silent Currents: Live at Stars' End, the poetic nomad of the Scandinavians lands returns to us with an album where the rhythms and ambiences torture fine melodies sometimes cheerful, contemplative or lunar on short minimalist escapades.

A fine brook of twinkling arpeggios awakens the sleepy breaths of "Spring Equinox (Prelude)" which displays the floating and contemplative portions of Airborne. Slow and oblong synth/guitars layers spread their somber melancholic breezes which wave such as floating spectres, lifting prismic particles which glitter under some intense strata filled of heavy vaporous modulations. A guitar rises. We would believe being at the crossroad of Pink Floyd (Shine one You Crazy Diamond) and Steve Roach (Desert Solitaire) with this guitar which embraces morphic phases with suave solos torn by stillness, guiding the first breaths of Airborne towards the delicate rhythm of "The Drift". This soft vampiric rhythm leans on nervous riffs which quiver in a beautiful linear movement on aboriginal percussions and beneath the layers of a dark synth which mixes its hollow breaths with the fine distortions of a guitar which remains rather angelic. With its guitar riffs rolling in loops on a flat structure that sounds like U2, "Red Earth" plunges in a clanic rhythmic which exudes the legends of the American West. Fine tears of guitar obstruct this red sky which reflects its beams of clay on a rhythm became more compressed by percussions of which the knocks as much slamming as felted oversize a rhythmic approach always maintained in its pacificator role by this fusion of synth and guitars to layers and laments which are crisscrossing in an eerie pattern of morphic psychotronic rock. "Airborne I" wakes up to the sinuous and sensual bites of a bass line which smells so much like Patrick O'Hearn's to finally succumbed to the dark charms of a piano of which the melodic pattern is sliding towards a charming and exhilarating electronic ballad. This melodic structure will be the spearhead of "Airborne II" which offers a more fluid rhythmic melody. Softness and meditative poetry in a murky ambience, "Circle Lake" is another pearl with its acoustic guitar which plays its melancholic notes over a cloud of ethereal mist. That's very beautiful and so solitary, as "The Longest Day".

"Lost and Found" starts with an atmospheric intro tortured by lamentations a forsaken guitar that synth layers are wrapping with a soporific veil. Fine percussions drum remotely, bringing a feverish rhythmic structure which pounds with a tribal aura which is similar to the nervous rhythm of "Red Earth"."Time River" is a very nice electronic ballad which flies on fine table percussions and soft synth layers with breaths of ether. Discreet, the guitar draws beautiful morphic lines and shapes delicate solos which waltz in the forgetting on a melodic theme that Wollo developed on works such as Between Worlds and Gateway . Intros molded in ambiences of lost horizons are legion on Airborne. They serve to fragile rhythms which surround some sweet melodies sometimes innocent, as "North of the Mountains" which also leans on a delicate hybrid rhythm to the bewitchment as much tribal than morphic, especially with piano notes which whisper a soft nostalgia to our sleepy ears. "The Magic Spot" explores these clanic rhythms in a darker ambience with guitar strata which tear the darkness, throwing sieved veils on balanced palpitations and the murky blows of an absent Didge. The mood is of a tight blackness and settles a climate of discomfort with this thick cloud of palpitations forged in various sonic forms which draw the arid rhythms of Airborne. A guitar with crying and metallic tears waters "The Magic Spot" with a veil of bitterness, an element as sombre than melodic which surrounds the rhythms and ambiences of Erik Wollo's last present that "Airborne III" concludes in the same way as it begun, except that sighs of fanciful violins replace the writer odes of a guitar that we would want still so present.

Airborne is what we call a very beautiful album. Drawing from the rhythms and ambiences which made the bouquets of Arcadia Borealis,  Frontiers and the wonderful The Road Eternal, Erik Wollo offers an inspired and inspiring work where his tears of heart-rending and floating guitars are embracing a fine incursion in a universe as much clanic as Between Worlds and desertic than Stream of Thought. An ideal mixture which enchants and demonstrates all the Erik Wollo's propensity to work in a mysticism filled by enchantress glimmers. It’s a nice and musical album for the souls who look for the peace of mind in a universe of contrasts where the beauty is often insidious. Rating: 4/5 -Sylvain Lupari