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
Concert review Rock/Americana
Coup de cœur francophone | David Bujold and Bandit Voyage
By Michel Labrecque
Interview Brazilian/Moyen-Orient / Levant / Maghreb/percussions
Coup de cœur francophone | Mônica Freire: When Brazil Meets the Middle East… in French.
By Michel Labrecque
Interview Jazz/Soul/R&B/nu-jazz
PHI Centre | GeminiCrab… Malika Tirolien… Caulder Nash… Sign’O the Times!
By Alain Brunet
Interview Electronic/art-folk/expérimental / contemporain
Coup de cœur francophone | Nicolet Launches Orées, Suggestions From The Unconscious
By Alain Brunet
Interview opérette
Festival du Monde Arabe 2024 | The enchantment of Lebanese operetta
By Frédéric Cardin
Concert review Classical/classique
Festival du Monde Arabe 2024 | Sainte Marine: a character and a opera between two worlds
By Frédéric Cardin
Concert review classique
Jason Xu, first saxophonist to win top honors at the OSM Competition
By Alexis Desrosiers-Michaud
Concert review Jazz
ONJ, Miho Hazama and the Power of Women in New Jazz For Large Ensembles
By Vitta Morales
Concert review Classical/classique
L’Ensemble ArtChoral | Autumn Colors in Half-Tone
By Alexandre Villemaire
Interview Chanson francophone/Classical/classique
ArtChoral Plays in Les feuilles mortes
By Alexandre Villemaire
Album review expérimental / contemporain/Electronic/Experimental / Contemporary/Modern music 2024
Juan J.G. Escudero – Ice Door
By Frédéric Cardin
Album review Experimental / Contemporary/expérimental / contemporain/Americana/Modern music 2024
Angell & Crane
By Frédéric Cardin
Album review Electronic/Modern music 2024
Stefan Smulovitz – Bow & Brush: 12 Scores of Nadina Tandy
By Frédéric Cardin
Interview Chanson francophone/Rock
Coup de cœur francophone | Daran at the Grand Hôtel Apocalypse
By Alain Brunet
Interview Classical/classique