Håkon Stene release the CD Lush Laments Lazy Mammal. I've listened to it.

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Stene has a very diverse musical past. He has collaborated with musicians within the genres folk, electronica, baroque and contemporary music. In The CD Lush Laments for Lazy Mammal he made interpretations of compositions by Laurence Craine and Gavin Bryars, and the Norwegian jazz musician Christian Wallumrød.

Håkon Mørch Stene also plays a big variety of msical instruments on this release. It's all about the vibes, quarter-tone vibraphone, marimba, guitars, keyboards and piano. He brings alongthe musicians Heloisa Amaral on piano, Hans Kristian Kjos Sørensen on cimbalon, Tanja Orning on cello and Christian Wallumrød on piano.

It's Laurence Craine who has composed most of the pieces, and these compositions are influential in this release, that it is a demanding exercise to categorize. It involves meditative, hushed music with slow tempo. It is tempting to point to the border area between contemporary music and jazz, although it has to be the part of jazz where the rhythm is not dominant. Christian Wallumrød`s music has a far more obvious leg of jazz, and it is perhaps his presence that makes me at all resort to this tag. It is also possible to make associations with expression in parts of electronic, despite the fact that this is primarily acoustic music.

It is also tempting to draw a slight parallel to the release Cantus with percussionist Kuniko Kata on Linn Records, which I reviewed here . It is particularly Steve Reich's works in this release that are reminiscent both to Craine`s compositions, but also to the composition Hi Tremolo by Gavin Bryars. But Arvo Part's meditative style as it is interpreted by Kuniko Kata also allows for connections with Lush Laments Lazy Mammal. It is quite obvious that it is the meditative athmosphere that is the essence of the music, which sometimes seems very fascinating. On most pieces we are not talking about any kind of virtuosic tendencies in the performance, which  also explains the fact that Stene also plays instruments he would otherwise have been shelved.

The sound

The recording is done in Kampen Kirke, and Lindemansalen. It's hard to characterize this as an issue with audiophile sound, and it becomes in a sense irrelevant. I do not get the impression that it was the intention to create a sound production with the utmost sonic transparency, but rather to create a "sound" that is going in as part of the musical whole. It is partly a question of an almost trance-like remoteness of the musical expression, and this is substantiated by the sound. If my assumption that this is the intention is correct, I will also say that the sound is successful and good.

The record company Hubro has released an exciting and challenging CD in "Lush Laments for Lazy Mammal". The album has release date 21 March and recommended to anyone who wants to be fascinated by the music hardly heard before, and perhaps were not aware that they would ever hear.

More information at Hubro.