Product Description
2 Sinuous Path
3 Monochrome
4 Obscure Trail
5 Celsius
6 Aeris
7 Sirius
8 Aeris Suite (gapless album)
"While many of the parts explore the melodic, the changes are slow, measured, and dreamlike, with shimmering overtones and drifting shadows that pique the imagination, creating spellbinding harmonics and wandering introspective imagery that reaches from the heart and soul of your being into the furthest depths of outer space… Another positively engaging masterwork from Wøllo." -Peter Thelen, Exposé
Erik Wøllo’s 30-minute Aeris Suite is a meditative, long-form work delving into the ethereal and textural side of the Norwegian composer and guitarist’s sonic worlds. These emotionally evocative guitar-based compositions find Wøllo at his most introspective: creating a deeply resonant palette of hypnotic, suspended, slow-evolving tracks.
Aeris Suite flows naturally as seven seamless interconnected parts. The EP is performed almost entirely on Wøllo’s special custom electric sustainer guitar processed through an intricate array of pedals and effects. The addition of looping devices paired with harmonizers and advanced granular effects sometimes sounds like synthesizers, but actually it arises from the direct touch of the guitar strings. Through this setup, Wøllo sculpts subtle layers of tone and depth, creating electronic music at once weightless and vast; it’s a vivid and organic expression.
Reminiscent of his previous reflective works, this suite explores the abstract edges of his style with less emphasis on melody. Moving through drifting harmonics, radiant overtones, and slowly shifting timbres, it offers an aural experience timeless, contemplative and immersive.
Beginning with the threshold-like “Portal,” it then meanders along the most rhythmic track on the album, “Sinuous Path.” From there it drifts through tonal shifts (“Monochrome”) and shadowy terrain (“Obscure Trail”), into an enveloping venture (“Celsius”), eventually arriving at the title track “Aeris” and closing with the glowing “Sirius.”
The title Aeris — derived from Latin, meaning “air” or “of the air” — hints at the intangible qualities of this music. Light, open, and expansive, the suite evokes a floating presence, a sense of being held in an endless drift of sound. This is music untethered, stillness echoing in the domain between sound and silence.
Reviews Editor –
From Exposé
When we last caught up with the Norwegian composer and guitarist earlier this year, he had just released his panoramic epic Where the River Widens, something unexpected and quite beautiful. His latest, Aeris Suite, is a completely different animal, a long-form piece in seven parts, clocking in just shy of 31 minutes. Each of the sections crossfades beautifully into the next. The focus is on the floating ambient and textural aspect of his work, mostly using his custom electric sustain guitar, perhaps with some loopers and of course an arsenal of effect pedals and more, that often create a wall of sound that more resembles synthesizers and sequencers, but we know better having seen him create these kind of sounds live at Soundquest Fest a few years back — the guitar is his primary tool of expression.
Each of the seven parts introduces itself, elaborates majestically, and then fades until another section takes over, with some of the sections like “Obscure Trail,” “Sinuous Path,” “Celsius,” and “Aeris” seeming to have a special significance amid the piece’s entirety. While many of the parts explore the melodic, the changes are slow, measured, and dreamlike, with shimmering overtones and drifting shadows that pique the imagination, creating spellbinding harmonics and wandering introspective imagery that reaches from the heart and soul of your being into the furthest depths of outer space. My only reservation about it is that I wish it was a little longer — I know in the past I’ve complained about Wøllo going on too long at times (Solastalgia for example) but here I’m left wanting a bit more. Since this is a download, it comes with a complete ‘gapless’ version following the seven parts (which don’t have any gaps, at least for me), so you’ll get to hear the whole of Aeris Suite twice anyway. Another positively engaging masterwork from Wøllo. -Peter Thelen
Reviews Editor –
From Obskure
There’s no stopping him! After Where The River Widens released in March (on Projekt) and Transmissions (with Ian Boddy) in May (on DiN), here is now Aeris Suite, Erik Wøllo’s new EP. It was officially released on September 19th, the video for “Obscure Trail” is available on YouTube. Seven tracks still inhabited by the great outdoors, as evidenced by the desert that adorns the album cover. Indeed, the world’s landscapes have always been a point of support for the Norwegian. Last year, he released Solastalgia, a term that signifies the feeling of distress in the face of climate change and environmental disaster. The video for the aforementioned track is precisely both graphic and naturalistic. The guitarist explores this love for our planet by offering music that is always highly atmospheric.
The tracks were all composed using the guitar. Thus, Wøllo uses a single electric instrument, whose sound is modified by various effects and pedals. For a long time, the Scandinavian has definitively imposed his style, between drone, space ambient and Berlin school, where the distinguished sounds disconcert us. We think we hear synthesizer layers, a clear electronic line (especially on “Celsius”), when in fact it is a matter of treatments applied to the guitar, armed with a sustainer and harmonizers. The result is totally unheard-of harmonic impressions of incomparable depth. In addition, the musician embellishes his textural message with a system of loops, reinforcing the sweet trance with delightful dreamlike repetitions (“Obscure Trail”, “Celsius”).
Aeris Suite is remarkable from start to finish. This opus is intended as a tribute to the aerial element, and we enjoy floating while listening to these ambient swirls rise and fall, in an ethereal pas de deux that seems endless. Yes, because all the tracks follow one another, without interruption, creating the illusion of a united block where time and space are suspended. An immersive journey held by minimal, stretched notes, which blend judiciously to soothe the listener and make him dream. The drones cover the background with their warm depth (“Portal”), before relaxing sequences blossom, referring at times to the art of Brian Eno in the eighties (“Monochrome”). Wøllo also approaches a certain electronic esotericism à la Steve Roach, magnified at the time of Mystic Chords & Sacred Spaces.
Everything seems so simple, and yet what work on the textures! We feel that the Nordic is constantly searching for the perfect note. Without forcing, he distils atmospheres of an incredible luminous intensity. The sounds float, sometimes caught by a suitable rhythm which finally reinforces the general tranquility (“Sinuous Path”, “Aeris”). This inhabited guitar playing evokes the legendary heralds or tutelary figures of the genre, like Robert Fripp, David Gilmour (“Sinuous Path”) and of course Jeff Pearce (“Monochrome”). Wøllo has created a coherent, limpid sonic universe, without apparent defect. The overall unity gives a resolutely warm and enveloping color to his music. This warmth is thus particularly perceptible on “Obscure Trail” and “Celsius”. Another (short) work of immense quality! -Oliviër Bernard