Erlend Viken, Jo Berger Myhre & Thomas Pohlitz Strønen - Djupet

2022 CD release.

"Djupet" began as a commissioned work co-composed by Jo Berger Myhre and Erlend Viken for the Ultima Festival and Riksscenen in 2020. Together, with dancers Ida Wigdel, Ådne Kolbjørnhus and Katja Schia, they explored the common ecstatic potential of, and the links between, folk, improvisational and electronic dance music. Thomas Pohlitz Strønen was producer, and when they recorded the music the week after the premiere, the duo became a trio.

On the album, the electronic elements have receded in favour of foregrounding a dense and closely interknit acoustic interaction that explores the dynamic in the static, and the repetitive, the whole transforming into weightlessness. The trio use individual experiences of improvisation and folk music in search of common roots and unexplored areas in the music, or to perhaps create new spaces. The musicians seamlessly move between improvised pieces, beats by Viken, and fragmentary themes by Myhre, in a highly democratic soundscape where interaction is central. Particularly striking are the unison lines woven between Viken's octave fiddle and Myhre's string bass, suggestive of the sound of an entirely new instrument. Before, behind, between and beyond these two, Strønen engages with his characteristic drumming that orchestrates, elaborates, and drives the music further.

Each member of this trio is individually established and lauded in various branches of the creative Norwegian music scene, where they long ago made a name for themselves with their distinctive solo projects, and their collaborations with innumerable musicians, artists and bands. With "Djupet", they find the cohesiveness within their individual musics for the first time. The music is characterized by subtlety, effortlessly digging deep for an introverted, but unsubdued, ecstasy.