Country : Norway Label : House of Mythology Genres and styles : Art Rock / Experimental Rock Year : 2020

Redundance

· by Michel Rondeau

Westerhus follows an atypical path. Just like his music. A guitarist, his language consists of dark masses that collide and dislocate, energy that rumbles, pounces, and stomps. It is far from the measured chords and flights of fancy of his peers. In fact, the source instrument is almost unrecognizable as a guitar. After two solo records of this raw material for the Rune Grammofon label, and brief collaborations, notably with the group Jaga Jazzist on the album One-Armed Bandit and Nils Peter Molvaer on Baboon Moon, Westerhus made two records of dazzlingly inventive improvisation with his compatriot, the avant-garde singer Sidsel Endresen. We then found him in a trio, for one record, in a context of experimental rock with the band Pale Horses, on which his astonishing voice revealed itself. This was followed in 2016 by Amputation, another solo album, powerful and disturbing, where the wound left by the ablation is still raw, but which was only the prelude to this one.

So far all the covers of his records have been black and white, dark for the most part, abstract and, with one exception, devoid of any human element. With the cover of Redundance, not only does Westerhus show himself for the first time in all his vulnerability, but his solarized portrait is haloed with a vibrant red. Change of tone. Radical. Thanks to his voice, surprisingly expressive and polymorphous, his music, from the cerebral, has become touching. Shocking even. And then there’s his very own way of constructing his songs, the bitterness competing with the sublime, with dazzling sounds that capsize the listener. I’m still shaken by it all. An epic winner.

Latest 360 Content

Transforming Hiroshima mon amour into contemporary opera: Christian Lapointe and Rosa Lind tell the story

Transforming Hiroshima mon amour into contemporary opera: Christian Lapointe and Rosa Lind tell the story

Sparks – MAD!

Sparks – MAD!

Peter Murphy – Silver Shade

Peter Murphy – Silver Shade

Ken Pomeroy – Cruel World

Ken Pomeroy – Cruel World

Art of the Line: Klangkarussell’s Euro Vision at SAT

Art of the Line: Klangkarussell’s Euro Vision at SAT

Centroamérica – a powerful docu-play about truth and connection in an age of distance and denial

Centroamérica – a powerful docu-play about truth and connection in an age of distance and denial

Lido Pimienta – La Belleza

Lido Pimienta – La Belleza

Tamir Barzilay – Phosphene Journal

Tamir Barzilay – Phosphene Journal

The best ‘’Candlelight concert‘’ ever.

The best ‘’Candlelight concert‘’ ever.

Men I Trust – Equus Caballus

Men I Trust – Equus Caballus

The Halluci Nation – Path of the Baby Face

The Halluci Nation – Path of the Baby Face

A lap steel guitar choir and an angel to end the Innovations en concert 24-25 season

A lap steel guitar choir and an angel to end the Innovations en concert 24-25 season

The OSM and Abel Selaocoe: Evenings When You’d Like to Stop Time

The OSM and Abel Selaocoe: Evenings When You’d Like to Stop Time

Reaching for the sky: Francis Choinière’s challenge to end his OPCM’s 10th season

Reaching for the sky: Francis Choinière’s challenge to end his OPCM’s 10th season

Piknic 3: A Little Bit of Everything Under the Sun

Piknic 3: A Little Bit of Everything Under the Sun

Cazzu – Latinaje

Cazzu – Latinaje

Stereolab – Instant Holograms On Metal Film

Stereolab – Instant Holograms On Metal Film

SMCQ | In memoriam Jocelyn Morlock

SMCQ | In memoriam Jocelyn Morlock

Abbey Road at Festival Classica

Abbey Road at Festival Classica

Mira Choquette – Hier encore

Mira Choquette – Hier encore

Jared Dunn; Anna Gorecka – Gorecki’s World of the Piano

Jared Dunn; Anna Gorecka – Gorecki’s World of the Piano

Cyrille Dubois; Tristan Raës – Dupont : The Complete Songs

Cyrille Dubois; Tristan Raës – Dupont : The Complete Songs

Subscribe to our newsletter