”Cascades” påverkar på ett liknande sätt den får en att tro att man hör – till och med ser! – sådant som inte finns där. Filmen i sig är en av de mest suggestiva som har gjorts, och musiken ett av de mest effektiva soundtracks jag känner till. Norwegian, Bergen-based guitarist Stephan Meidell-known as a member of the experimental-improvising trio Cakewalk (Wired and Transfixed, Hubro, 20)-solo debut puts him in the same league of other Norwegian guitarists as Eivind Aarset and Stian Westerhus who redefined and re-conceptualized the role of the electric guitar…Bold, weird but ultimately arresting in its strange beauty.ĭen starkaste associationen jag får är till filmmusik, för att vara exakt till den i originalversionen av ”The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”.
While it’s understandably not as dynamic as Cakewalk’s late-2013 release Transfixed, Cascades nevertheless provides a satisfying document of Meidell as a solo artist and showcases its creator’s fine-tuned appetite for sound texture and design. “Serene,” for example, is representative of the album in the way it spreads guitar strums across a broad, six-minute terrain otherwise speckled with textural treatments. Though the drum machine also figures into the design of “Stage,” Meidell typically eschews beat patterns in favour of a slow-moving, meditative style that allows for ample breathing room between the notes. The motorik drum patterns and bass pulses that chug through “Sedate,” the album’s longest piece at nine minutes, give it a somewhat krautrock-like quality, but that kind of treatment is more the exception than the rule.
Noe mindre imøtekommende, men absolutt givende på Hubros vinterliste er…den temmelig unike gitarplaten «Cascades» signert Stephan Meidell hovedsakelig en utforskning av de spesielle akustiske flatene i de snart forsvunne lokalitetene til Bergen Kjøtt. Meidell tar lytterne ut av sine sedvanlige omgivelser og plasserer dem i et rom av lyd han selv har konstruert, og det med usedvanlig spennende virkninger. The second floor of Bergen Kjott is now dampened, but the sound that was is now on tape.” Stephan Meidell – Bergen, September, 2013.Īlle stykkene har en grunnstemning som berører, en brennende stillferdighet som spenner lyttebuen This the sound of acoustics that probably will never be heard again. You can hear some noise from the room, from the effect pedals and me moving around, and minor “accidents” along the way.
It is not merely free improvisations, but I have tried not to treat the music to surgically. Putting together material from different improvisations, adding rhythm to some, changing the tonality to others etc. This layering of sounds has become the foundation for “Cascades”. It is – at the core – the sound of three different room characteristics (mis)treated by an improvising guitarist. “Suspire” is a layering of recordings from that concert and the Bergen Kjott sessions with parts re-recorded in the vast space of the big freezer hall of Bontelabo (Europe’s biggest?). In 2012 I performed a commission for Ny Musikk Kristiansand at a big silo at the Architect School of Bergen, and found that some of the material from that space worked great together with the material from Bergen Kjott. I later did some recordings in my studio, and have been working on this music on and off for the last two and a half years. I ended up with a lot of hours of material, and gradually started going through it the following months. I did this for four days straight, and in the end I was exhausted – both by the cold (the room had no heating), and trying to wreck my brain to find new ways of exploring the factory-like acoustics. Placing mikes all around the room, I had no special plan – just improvise and see where it got me.
Music studios were already up and running in the house at this time, so to be able to record, I had to start around 6 in the morning, before they came to work.
The acoustics of the space was going to be treated with plates to dampen the reverb, so I had to act quickly. The second floor was big and spacy, and would later be used for concerts, exhibitions etc. “This project began in January 2011, when I wanted to test out the acoustics of an old margarine factory and meat storage space that was being built into a culture house. Available as DL and in a LP edition limited to 200 copies. Stephan hails from Kristiansand but resides in Bergen. Impressive debut album from adventurous guitar player Stephan Meidell is a guitarist and improviser and plays with the bands Cakewalk, The Sweetest Thrill, Vanilla Riot and Krachmacher.