• List Price: $16.99  
• Your Price: $16.99
• In Stock: 3

You must login to place orders.




Not purchasing for a business? See our consumer site.

Stylistically, most of the music on Voi River reflects the fact that he has lived in Hammerfest, a small town in the high north of Norway, for more than a decade.

It is tempting to describe the music as minimalistic, but it is perhaps more correct to call it transparent, or ''not saturated''. The titles of the compositions give room to the listener's imagination, and the music is characterized by melodic lines and riffs, dressed suitably with harmony and color.

Besides the original compositions, the album also include George Harrison's ''Here comes the sun'' and ''Langt igjen'', the latter honoring the legacy of Gjørvad's friend, the late Geggen Mauno.

Track Listing

Press Quotes

While there isn't a real river named Voi (the phrase is a Norwegian expression that could signify amusement or excitement among other things), Voi River rather evokes a sonic portrait that could apply to most any such waterway in the world. For a drummer, Sverre Gjørvad leads a recording markedly light on rhythm here and uses his tools just as much for coloring. The other elements (guitar, bass, keys and some odd flavorings like wood taps) don't build actual songs so much as float and swirl in flowing grooves. Even the lone cover tune is slowed to a peaceful drift, bringing out its calmer shades like a blooming sunrise while keeping the optimistic heart.

That's often the case throughout this often-leisurely excursion, though with some exceptions. ''The Year of the Lemmings,'' the longest jaunt here, starts with a slinky quasi-folk motif before shifting to a weird daydream that becomes increasingly unsettling. Others such as ''Do the Math'' or the fast-clattering ''Tinkle'' go even farther in coloring the improvisations with impressionistic sounds. If the pieces don't happen settle into particular forms, well, that's rather the point. Letting things naturally be as they are is the theme of the day for this purposefully meandering excursion, whether idle or abstract or both.

     —Geno Thackara, allaboutjazz.com 5/28/2020