HUNTSVILLE - Bow Shoulder

A crossover between two groups that, on a superficial look, wouldn't seem to have anything in common. On one side, Wilco, now a household name even in the mainstream, and on the other, Huntsville, a strictly niche outfit. Yet after some time spent sizing each other up, the members of the two bands found remarkable common ground and plenty to interest one another, eventually coming together for a session of improvised music that would gather dust for 10 years before finally being released in 2020. That, in short, is the story behind this "Bow Shoulder", which finds the Norwegian trio Huntsville in splendid synergy with Nels Cline and Glenn Kotche of Wilco, bassist Darin Gray (Dazzling Killmen, Yona-Kit, Brise-Glace, You Fantastic!) and keyboardist Yuka Honda (Cibo Matto).

At this point there's nothing left to do but rewind the tape back to the spring of 2006. We're at the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville, in Quebec, Canada. On the bill, among others, are guitarist Nels Cline (performing in a trio with keyboardist and accordionist Andrea Parkins and drummer Tom Rainey) and Huntsville. Ivar Grydeland, guitarist of the Norwegian trio and a lifelong Wilco fan, only realizes on that occasion that Cline had recently become a full member of Jeff Tweedy's band. For his part, Nels Cline had been so struck by Huntsville's on-stage chemistry that he raided the Norwegians' merchandise table. The union was inevitable, helped along by a ride the guitarist got on the trio's small tour bus along the Canadian roads.

The promise of a meeting materializes a year later, when Huntsville and Wilco both appear on the bill of the Kongsberg Jazz Festival. On that occasion, Nels Cline and Glenn Kotche (Wilco's drummer) take the stage in the Norwegian town to join Huntsville for the inevitable encore. The understanding and chemistry between the musicians was so exhilarating that the extended version of "Eras" they played together takes up the entire second half of "Eco, Arches & Eras", the trio's 2008 album.

In the summer of 2010, Huntsville land in the US to play at Chicago's Millennium Park alongside On Fillmore, the duo of Kotche and bassist Darin Gray, and what could have been more natural at that point than meeting up the next day at the famous The Loft, Wilco's rehearsal space and studio in Chicago? Ivar Grydeland (guitars, pedal steel, banjo and electronics), Tonny Kluften (bass) and Ingar Zach (drums and percussion) are joined in the studio by Nels Cline, Glenn Kotche, Darin Gray and keyboardist Yuka Honda, at the time Cline's partner (not yet his wife) and co-founder of Cibo Matto. What followed was a fully improvised session, chaotic if you like, but one that allowed Huntsville to broaden their sonic range and send them zigzagging down bold alternative paths.

It took 10 years and a pandemic for Grydeland to finally find the time to assemble and clean up those recordings in the studio, giving them a shape that is at last definite and definitive. The vitality of those improvisations could easily have lost its focus and suffered somewhat from the sheer number of instruments involved, but in fact the sensitivity and personality of the musicians involved wonderfully broaden the Norwegians' dark melodicism. Right from the long opening "Side Wind", guitar and banjo weave circularly over Zach and Kotche's clattering percussion, Kluften's bass and Gray's double bass, continuing their journey through ethnic and western abstractions widened by layers of keyboards. A microcosm of dense yet elastic, vibrating tensions.

The following "Higher" and "Lower" live up to their names. While the first is built from circular guitar and pedal steel arpeggios and vaporous keyboards that soar skyward, recalling some moments of Tortoise's "TNT", the second sees the percussion transfigured, turning from hushed and creeping into messengers of convulsive tribal rhythms rising from underground, while the two guitar lines turn into electrified shards.

Closing the circle is the shortest composition of the bunch, "The Unshot", which in seven minutes gives voice to this stimulating and complex improvisation session, adding an evanescent layer of banjo to close out a splendid sonic ride.

"Bow Shoulder" comes across to our ears as a kind of radio transmission from the past, where the contribution of the excellent guests and the thrill of improvisation manage to enrich Huntsville's sound, at once giving them a more complex interplay and an awareness of their status as extraordinary musicians.

Ride the wave of great music

Add OndaRock to your favorite sources on Google Discover. Don't miss our reviews, milestones and latest news straight in your feed.

Follow on Google

14/01/2021