Reviewer: Mufaor, KZSU ---
Very diverse music, haunting. The two long, mostly solo cello tracks rank right up there with Joelle Leandre and Eugene Chadbourne, as far as wild passionate and extremely diverse playing goes. Spooky, dark, dissonant, often psychedelic.
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Reviewer: Aquarius Records review ---
For those of you, like us, who may only know the Swedish cellist Helena Espvall from her work with the recent crop of neo-psych folk artists like Espers, Fursaxa, and Samara Lubelski, as well as being a member of Vashti Bunyan's touring band, you may be surprised, like we were, at the avant-garde leanings on her solo debut Nimis & Arx. However, after learning that Espvall has played with numerous free improv, dance and theater groups as well as with 20th century avant luminaries Pauline Oliveros and Eugene Chadbourne, we shouldn't really be surprised at all. With production and electronics provided by George Korein of Infidel?/Castro!, Nimis & Arx is a free improv maelstrom of cello, recorder, guitar and voice that is equal parts beautiful, difficult, tense and transcendent. Even the late, great Arthur Russell had not dragged his cello this far out into uncharted waters and that's saying something!
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Reviewer: Guy Montag, KFJC On-Line Reviews ---
Laborious avant classical sawing cello action slits the throat. The spirit escapes through the slash wound to gather its surroundings. Faintly whispering strings moan & mourn. Moving forward beyond death’s door finds us hovering through ethereal alter realities both foreign & stunning. Serene Central Asian recorder glides smoothly over plink & pluck harp tones and deeply chilling audio manipulations. Venial violoncello sins are cleansed and pronounced purgatorial sounds flicker down vaulted marble corridors. Lamenting liturgical litanies grieve out from Espvall’s inspired instruments. Her angelic voice sobs softly, frustrated and torn over death’s bittersweet invitation into the afterworld. Rather than embrace Heaven or take the straight line leading to Hell, her tormented ghost climbs from the crypt, clinging to an empirical realm where she wails woeful cello psalms and semi-disturbing haunted hymns. This might just creep you out as well as offer strange comfort. 3WR: Devotion Through Damnation.
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Reviewer: Mike Wood, Foxy Digitalis ---
The debut solo release from Swedish cellist and guitarist Helena Espvall, currently also in folk-psych band Espers. She’s already covered a wide range of music in her career, having played rock as well as experimental composition, working with the likes of Pauline Oliveros and Eugene Chadbourne. In each of these genres, she has held her own, and made a significant contribution, gaining the ability to use all her experiences in her own playing and writing. All of which is to say that she has a fairly deep and rich relationship to sound and gesture, making for a smart, evocative release. “Multiplication Broken and Restored,” parts 1 &2, are mini-masterpieces of restraint and generous emotion. Similarly, “The Straight Line Leads to Hell” is equally gorgeous and passionate. As with “Tidepools”, the title track mixes experimentation with the classic, and draws power from both sides of her expertise, and shows a maturity and vision that will only grow. Her solo career seems ready to blossom in many incredible directions. -Mike Wood
Remember this now, and remember this forever, speak to yourself, yet more so, the One Greater, that permeates every fiber of your being, your Angelic Soul, Creating Spirit, and Serving unto these, a Tenaciously healthy Vessel, you may call your body, home, castle, and living being. To come forth, live and be, no matter the short coming opinions of others, You, a Lady, are an adorable Queen, a living Gift, to this Generation forever be.
Hello Helena! The Danish composer Per Nørgård's music has been much on my mind the past few years. Arguably the most important now living Scandinavian composer also has a remarkable output for the guitar. I spent a couple of years working with the composer on this repertoire, spanning from 1973 to 2000, in order to embrace the emerging performance practice associated with his work.
I have just uploaded 10 new tracks, all taken from "Tales From the North", my double CD box with the complete guitar works of Danish composer Per Nørgård. Also, in my latest blog you will find recent reviews of this release.
For further reading about the composer, this is an excellent website, with articles by a series of scholars and performers that have dedicated much study to his work:
A Good day flow'n with you Malady, do remember to reach down deep, thro' layers of greatness that be within this young Queen seen, and pull to the surface, the aris'n frequency, that will ignite joyful creative greatness within and thro' others, spread'n across this land, this generation, and century, with speeds more grand than any sight could see, truly beyond the 400 galaxies that be. Welcome to this day, it's flow'n better because of you, continue to be, if you please. friend! Robert Foster
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