Erik Wollo: Infinite Moments (CD)

Reviews

1. 

   padmin – May 27, 2020

   From Ello

   Euphoniously soaring layers weightlessly ride atop, masterfully reinforced my distantly piquant glimpses, while forefront narrative reflections soulfully interact with contemplatively immersing meridians. Warmly sonorous movements persistently commingle with serenely arising lachrymose vistas. Immensely monochromatic horizons are luminously counterpointed by lithely traversing introspective vertexes. Stunningly evocative solitary sceneries exquisitely juxtapose with delightfully meandering and poignantly vibrating shimmers. Perpetually gliding, stalwartly harmonizing and languidly nuancing, yet intensely glistening, intriguingly flickering and eternally enveloping.

   Acquiring this beauty shortly after the first personal meeting with Erik prior to his performance at B-Wave Festival 2018 in Belgian Heusden-Zolder, this always will be a very special one. The 4-panel digipak, featuring cover images by SimpleOunce, Aleksei Burakov and Vallejojophoto, and designed by Michael Rodriguez Pletz and Sam Rosenthal, is out since December 27th, 2018 on Projekt. Divided into 6 parts, nearly 59-minute Infinite Moments album is a pure aural monument by this iconic Norwegian ambient guitar virtuoso, this time deeply focusing on thrillingly expansive, gracefully weeping and emotively intimate sonic insignias. The gates to an inner sanctum are unlocked. -Richard Gürtler

2. 

   padmin – March 11, 2019

   From Chuck van Zyl/Stars End

   Often, music will reflect the state of the times in which it is being made. Fortunately for us, Erik Wøllo is making music not for our now, but for our future. The album Infinite Moments (57’32”) is a journey into Wøllo’s beliefs and perception of the world, and is powerful in ways that words cannot capture. Playing his electric guitar with an e-bow through a substantial amount of digital processing, he approaches these six sonic flights with a stable sense of serenity. In a masterful, tightly controlled performance his thick, spare, sometimes ominous approach conveys the joy of living, but also a few shades of solitude and isolation. Gone is the familiarity of the six-string tones. Bearing the drama of Wøllo’s slow melodies and embracing harmonies are his rounded, flexing sounds – which arrange themselves comfortably throughout the listening space. Breathing chords, friendly rather than foreboding, emerge, sustain and recede – drawn out in echoing waves of gentle tones. The explored realms pass between pastel cloud sunsets and the velvet cloak of night, to a place of private understandings. Charged with electrical nuance and the questioning nature of proper Ambient Music, Infinite Moments delivers the expected shivers. A completely meditative work, it is as if we are hearing the sound of the cosmos being filtered through 21st century technology. Wøllo observes the granular texture of reality, the severity of its miracles, and the range of its grace. For fans and novices of Spacemusic… Infinite Moments is a must.

   – Chuck van Zyl/STAR’S END 7 March 2019

3. 

   padmin – February 6, 2019

   From Darkroom

   Un viaggio meditativo interiore per immobilità e riflessione. Un satellite che fluttua senza peso nello spazio. Queste le parole che campeggiano nelle poche note interne dell’essenziale digipack che racchiude il nuovo album del veterano Erik Wøllo, e che ci introducono ai suoi contenuti. Il longevo compositore norvegese, ormai vicino ai 40 anni di onora carriera, prosegue nel suo viaggio musicale assieme all’americana Projekt con un nuovo capitolo, realizzato stavolta con un approccio differente che si disfa completamente dei synth, poggiando unicamente sul lavoro di una chitarra elettrica abilmente processata con EBow ed armonizzatori. Una modalità che, liberandosi anche di qualsivoglia ritmo, spinge con forza verso quel minimalismo ben evocato dalle parole di cui sopra, avvicinando l’artista scandinavo all’altrettanto illustre collega e compagno d’etichetta Steve Roach.

   Il risultato si traduce in sei parti (tutte senza un titolo) che lambiscono l’ora di durata, in cui le dilatate, soffici, eteree, luminose e perfettamente cesellate linee armoniche prodotte dalla sei corde si dipanano e si rincorrono con tratti squisitamente ambientali, in special modo nei frangenti dove il suono si fa più rarefatto (parti 2 e 3). Chiudendo gli occhi, si ha l’impressione che queste suadenti geometrie sonore vengano disegnate su di una enorme tela con un aerografo, tanta è la ‘morbidezza del tratto’ che trasuda da ogni momento, e solo nella sesta e conclusiva parte si intravedono i lineamenti di una melodia più compiuta e quasi fiabesca. Un tenue soffio sonoro che si distacca nella forma da quelle strutture più ricche di elementi e sfaccettature che hanno reso appassionanti gli album più compositi ed elaborati del mastermind scandinavo (si pensi a Gateway o al più recente Threshold Point), ma che riesce comunque ad emozionare nel suo forte minimalismo, tenendo fede alla maestria del suo creatore. -Roberto Alessandro Filippozzi

4. 

   padmin – February 6, 2019

   From Textura

   The ambient genre has never been more alive, it seems, than today. Decades after its birth (to the degree that a date of origin can be fixed), recordings continue to pour forth at an amazing rate. Recent releases by long-standing practitioners Erik Wollo and Steve Roach provide a good representation of how things currently stand and show how artists associated with the genre individuate themselves while staying true to the fundamental principles of the form. Philosophical themes relating to time, space, and infinity are common to both, and though indexed tracks are present, each assumes the character of a long-form meditation. Wollo’s distances itself from the others, however, in excluding synthesizers; everything on his outing was created using electric guitars, EBow, and harmonizers.

   Wollo layered and blended loops of varying lengths to generate Infinite Moments, each loop recorded live in the studio using a different type of guitar. That difference adds subtle degrees of contrast to its six parts, even if all slowly drift and exude a general sense of calm. Narrative development is downplayed, Wollo instead opting for prolonged suspension over crescendos and denouements, and consequently his likening of the material to a “satellite floating free and weightless in space” proves apt. On pure sonic terms, the recording sounds magnificent; the elongated guitar-generated strands both merge to form lustrous masses and delicately separate when their differentiating timbres come into play. Some possess a sleek, metallic edge; others are silky soft, whereas those treated with EBow exude a scalpel-sharp resonance reminiscent of Robert Fripp’s playing; that a moment or two on the recording calls Evening Star to mind is hardly a knock against it. The peaceful second part is distinguished by steel guitar-like timbres, while the third is as hushed as a sustained sigh. The graceful arc of the EBow’s swoop pervades the fourth and sixth movements, whereas a bright, three-note motif brings uplift to the fifth, the guitar in this case treated to sound uncannily like synthesizer and organ. It’s a wholly inviting, even seductive presentation that makes it easy indeed for the listener to surrender to the recording for its hour-long duration.

5. 

   padmin – January 29, 2019

   From Synth & Sequences

   Morose and resounding thoughts on a cold Scandinavian night! Infinite Moments is a very intimate album that Erik Wollo offers to his fans. More ambient and even more intimate than the Silent Currents series, this latest opus of the Norwegian bard offers 6 sonic odes without any sources of rhythms and especially without any sonic delights which come from a synthesizer. Everything turns around drones. Buzzing laying down and sculpted on the horizontal which float like those sound waves usual to the EM of ambiances. Except that here, the source comes from electric guitars which pile up vibrating strata which get intertwine in a sonic sky torn by the variances and the translucent tones of these layers often without harmonies. Like dreams forgotten in the bites of coldness. These oblong electric paths are like sound lovers whose intertwining in the mysterious mists are supervised by an E-Bow which acts as the splitter of a more harmonic vision.

   The harmonies! We must listen quite a few times in order to discern them. Those familiar with the Wollo universe recognize these isolated strands which get melted into a more compact sound mass. The drones float like souls wandering aimless. Like in a sibylline dance, they waltz with the oblivion swallowing here and there harmonious little lines that we recognize by this clarity which emerges from this landscape of moods placarded of solitude. “Part 1” introduces us into this universe where everything is similar, even those subtleties which stand out to melt again in anonymity. The opaque sound waves are like those whales which undulate in a black ocean spotted by the furrows of jellyfish. The sound mass varies from one title to another with fine subtleties in the landscapes of ambiances found in “Part 5” and “Part 6”. The spectral side finds an interstellar door to flirt with a more seraphic vision in “Part 2”. The intensity distinguishes the titles! Although less intense at the abyssal level, this “Part 2” has a melancholic approach that is more conducive for a night sleep. Same thing for “Part 3” and its very melodious blooming which precedes its conquest of drones. The tonal vision here is close to a scarlet passion. “Part 4” is the first title where the guitar breathes such as, thus modifying the textural context of “Infinite Moments” which offers us its most beautiful moments since the end of “Part 1”. Moreover, “Part 5” follows with a vision just as sharp as in the introductory title. Lyrical and sibylline, the music shines a little less at night, especially when we are two to read the book of Morpheus.

   All things considered, I would not recommend Infinite Moments to someone who wants to discover Berlin School universe of Erik Wollo. This album is a monument of meditative music that can help sink into Morpheus’s arms, even if some of the buzzing movements are intense and lugubrious. In this vast universe of ambient music or meditative ambiences, few artists reinvent the genre. But there are always artists who can bring a very personal touch to a genre which has a huge legion of followers. Erik Wollo is one of those artists! Available on manufactory pressed CD from Projekt Records or in a downloadable format on Projekt’s Bandcamp. -Sylvain Lupari

6. 

   padmin – January 2, 2019

   From Sequenzerwelten

   Man mag es kaum glauben, aber hier gibt es keine Syntheziser, keine Sequenzer zu hören – nur E-Gitarre!
   Anfangs war ich schon ein wenig enttäuscht über die Infinite Moments …… ganz ehrlich! Aber je öfter ich diese Musik gehört habe, umso mehr kann ich mich mit den meditativen Klängen aus Erik´s Gitarre anfreunden. Hier hat Erik Wollo ganz bewußt die Einsamkeit und das Einsetzen von minimalistischen Elementen gesucht und auch genutzt. Somit bekommt die Infinite Moments einen seht meditativen Charakter, der zwar etwas ungewohnt erscheint, aber mit zunehmender Dauer seine ganze Schönheit offenbart. Auch wenn es einigen Wollo-Fans im ersten Moment schwerfällt, sich auf die Klänge einzulassen – bitte bleibt dran! Es lohnt sich – auch wenn´s ein wenig känger dauert 🙂 -Uwe Sasse