HÅVARD VOLDEN - Small Lives

Håvard Volden is best known as a member of Lost Girls, the duo he shares with Jenny Hval. He is also one of the guitarists who, for more than a decade, has sent the psychedelia of Moon Relay into orbit. Earlier still, he played experimental jazz in Flymodus alongside trombonist Martin Taxt, whom he later reunited with in Island Band. Under his own name he has released half a dozen albums, the latest of which, “Space Happy”, dates back to 2018.

In the summer of 2025, Håvard returns with a new band and a new album, “Small Lives”, joined by Lithuanian multi-instrumentalist Guoste Tamulynaite (synthesizers, samplers) and fellow Norwegians Adrian Myhr (electric bass) and Jan Martin Gismervik (drums), the latter a seasoned rhythm section veteran of countless Scandinavian bands.

Volden immerses memories of nocturnal jazz and solitary improvisations in rock marathons that pay tribute to Velvet Underground and Television. Besides playing guitars, the Norwegian musician builds retro-futuristic landscapes with vintage synthesizers, field recordings, a Revox 77 and assorted percussion. Always faithful to his first love: the electric guitar.

“Seedling” opens the proceedings in the best possible way: a bath of over twelve minutes of lunar ambient-jazz, with guitars illuminating the coordinates of spatial trajectories through unconventional tunings and a literally explosive drum part. Barely time to shake off the jet lag before the following “Soaring” transports us to the most dreamlike New York of the ’70s, complete with guitar rides through the clouds and a Revox on the boil.

“From Dirt” is a little over three-minute experiment, suspended between tape loops and ostinatos in the manner of Jonathan Kane. On the title track “Small Lives”, Håvard Volden shows he can write a delightful pop ballad that has nothing to envy in the softer classics of the celebrated Bill Frisell.

After the languid ambience of “Dog Happy”, the album closes with the ending of “Oryzae”, a celestial vision in which Terje Rypdal meets the ghost of Tom Verlaine.

The album, produced by Håvard Volden himself, was recorded by Magnus Skavhaug Nergaard at the Flerbruket studio in Hemnes, near Oslo, mixed by Kyrre Laastad and mastered by Lasse Marhaug.

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16/08/2025