Espen Jørgensen — On The Great Alkali Plains

After the surprising move of releasing jazzrock in the form of the Anthony Curtis album, this all acoustic endeavor is a new turn to prove that the Jester label will not let itself be pushed in a corner of a specific genre. Jørgensen presents on On The Great Alkali Plains friendly and dreamy guitarmusic, with a generous amount of atmosphere.

The music has an obvious Scandinavian signature, not so much by the mild Nordic folk influences, but more by the spacious sound that automatically leads you to the music from up north that was released on the ECM imprint. Some might think of new agey things right now, but Jørgensen isn’t that clean cut. Where new age likes to forget about ‘ugliness’ and ‘earthliness’ On The Great Alkali Plains is not afraid for such things as fretnoises and breathing of the performer, stuff that gets polished out all too often. No, what you basically get is one guy, beautifully playing guitar without overdubs. Honest and direct.

Although made with only one instrument, there’s plenty of dynamics, take for instance a rhythmic piece like Move Ahead – Quickly. It is followed by a more contemplative and melancholic song like Mirabell. In the following Barren some percussion (bowed metals, it seems) is added to create a darker atmosphere. and The Woods is also augmented with extra percussion that sounds like: wood. It’s one of the folkier tunes on this album, also because the use of the jaw harp. In the last song Himmelsangen there’s made use of an echo-machine to a sparkling and hypnotic effect.

Norway may have a reputation of ice and snow, Espen Jørgensen provides an audial warm blanket by the simple means of one guitar. Music that soothes and pleases without becoming cheesy, just by keeping it simple. Not that the playing itself is, because that’s topnotch: the type that makes you jealous of the performer’s skills to be able say so much with his instrument.