Member of:
Jaga Jazzist and
The National Bank +
The Ex-Dancers
Influences
Bernard Hermann
Jean-Claude Vannier
Wilco
Robert Wyatt
Jim O..Rourke
John Fahey
Radiohead
Charles Mingus
MGMT
Gil Evans
Elephant 9
Colin Blunstone
Dr.John
Steve Reich
Cornelius
Sonic Youth
Supersilent
Eleni Karandrui
Woody Allen
Michel Gondry
John Szwed
Sun RA
Jon Balke
Van Dyke Parks
David Lynch
Yma Zumac
Dungen
Can
Tortoise
Fleet Foxes
Sounds Like
Discography:
SOLO:
Lars Horntveth-Kaleidoscopic
2008 (Smalltown Supersound)
Lars Horntveth-Pooka
2004 (Smalltown Supersound)
Lars Horntveth-Joker EP
2004 (Smalltown Supersound)
Four Tet-Remixes
2006(Domino Recording Company USA)
With Jaga Jazzist:
What We Must CD + Vinyl
2005 (Ninja Tune/Smalltown Supersound/Sonet)
What We Must Special Edition - Including "Spydeberg Sessions"
2005 (Ninja Tune/Smalltown Supersound)
Magazine - Reissue, International Edition / New Kim Hiorthøy cover art
2004 (Smalltown Supersound)
Day 12” + CD EP - Including remixes by Matthew Herbert and Dat Politics + 4 Live
2004 (Ninja Tune / Smalltown Supersound)
Motorpsycho + Jaga Jazzist Horns
In the fishtank - CD + Vinyl
2003 (Konkurrent)
The Stix CD + 2xVinyl - International Edition / New Kim Hiorthøy cover art
2003 (Ninja Tune / Smalltown Supersound)
Animal Chin EP 12” + CD
2003 (Golden Standard Labs)
A Livingroom Hush – CD + Vinyl, International Edition / New Kim Hiorthøy cover art
2002 (Ninja Tune / Smalltown Supersound)
Days 12”
2002 (Smalltown Supersound)
The Stix
2002 (Smalltown Supersound / Warner Music Norway)
A Livingroom Hush - Japanese Edition (3 bonus tracks)
2002 (Beat Ink)
Going Down 12"
2001 (Smalltown Supersound)
Airborne/Going down EP
2001 (Warner Music Norway)
A Livingroom Hush
2001 (Warner Music Norway)
Jaga Jazzist Magazine EP
1998 (Dbut Records)
Jævla Jazzist Grete Stitz
1996 (Thug Records)
SOLD OUT!
SEE KALEIDOSCOPIC LIVE AT THE OYA FESTIVAL 2008 HERE
I STRONGLY RECOMMEND TO CHECK OUT WWW.MARTINHAGFORS.COM OR WWW.MYSPACE.COM/HAGFORS . NEW ALBUM PRODUCED BY LARS HORNTVETH
KALEIDOSCOPIC IS NOMINATED TO THE NORWEGIAN GRAMMY IN THE "OPEN CATAGORY".
THE NORWEGIAN GRAMMY "SPELLEMANNSPRISEN" IS SET TO JANUARY 24.
I AM ALSO PARTICIPATING ON THESE NOMINATED RECORDS:
Thom Hell - God If I Saw Her Now (Male Artist & Music Video)
Ingrid Olava - Juliet's Wishes (Female Artist & Best New Artist)
Lester - This Village (best pop group)
Here is the bio written for the forth-coming album Kaleidoscopic.
Lars Horntveth
Kaleidoscopic
(Smalltown Supersound)
Smalltown Supersound is proud to present Kaleidoscopic, the follow-up to the critically acclaimed debut album, Pooka, by Jaga Jazzist and The National Bank leader Lars Horntveth. Kaleidoscopic consists of one 37 minute long composition and was recorded with 41 members of the Latvian National Orchestra (34 string players, 3 percussionists, clarinet, flute, bass trombone and one harp), with Lars Horntveth himself playing piano, horns, and clarinets. The orchestra was lead by the Norwegian conductor Terje Mikkelsen, who now conducts the St. Petersburg Philharmonic and the Moscow Radio Orchestra. While Mikkelsen conducted the orchestra over a two day span in a small church in Riga, Latvia, Lars and producer Jørgen Sir Dupermann Traen concentrated on listening to the takes and commenting on which direction they wanted the music to take.
Lars' dogma in creating this album was to write the music chronologically into an open, endless score, similar to a diary. Intending for the music to flow from idea to idea, Lars wanted the score to grow and develop along with his state of mind. Rather than create ten songs for an album and then sequence the tracks to have a smooth curve of tension and release, Lars wanted to make a larger, more encompassing curve, and accomplish it in just one song. The album is a journey in sound, it’s form fitting somewhere between Steve Reich's Music For 18 Musicians and KLF's Chill Out. It is a musical experience from start to finish, an auditory trip into very different rooms and moods, with great contrast and surprises from one musical genre to the next. In a recent interview with a Norwegian newspaper, Horntveth explained that he was inspired musically by Jim O' Rourke's guitar playing, Robert Wyatt’'s use of contrasts, Stereolab..s playfulness, the soulful and inventive drumming on Dave Brubeck'’s Take Five, Joanna Newsom..s unconventional take on pop, Hitchcock-composer Bernard Herrmann’'s moods, and Jean-Claude Vannier’'s string arrangements for Serge Gainsbourg.
Kaleidoscopic was launched in Norway at the Oya Festival where the whole album was played in its entirety by Horntveth and the Norwegian Broadcasting Orchestra. Amongst many of the glowing reviews, Pitchfork wrote “It sounded lovely and professional, quite a bit like Jaga's sprightly yet severe post- rock/jazz, with a more classical bent."
Horntveth..s musical skills are self taught, starting Jaga Jazzist when he was 15 years old. Since then he has created five albums with the band. He debuted with his solo album Pooka in 2004 to wide critical acclaim. The album was awarded two different Norwegian Grammies: The Spellemann Prize, and the more alternative-leaning Alarm Prize. Horntveth has contributed to and written music for over 50 albums, including Turbonegro, Magnet, and Motorpsycho, among others. He has written three film scores, as well as music for several radio plays and theatrical productions. Kaleidoscopic is the largest and most challenging project Lars has accomplished to this day.
Kaleidoscopic’s artwork is by Kim Hiorthoy and it’s liner notes were written by John Szwed, author of Space is the Place: The Lives and Times of Sun Ra and So What: The Life of Miles Davis.
I edited my profile with Thomas Myspace Editor V4.4 (www.strikefile.com/myspace)
PITCHFORKMEDIA
Lars Horntveth
KaleidoscopicV
[Smalltown Supersound; 2009]
7.7
Post-rock is stuffed with overrated albums, so it's extra-exciting to find an underrated one, like Jaga Jazzist's What We Must . Its flirtation with smooth jazz is the probable sticking point. Fey reed instruments are laden with uncool associations-- it's all good to graft some severe classical strings to your rock music, but heads turn when you start fucking with Kenny G. Even their name downplays the fact that they're a rock band (understandably-- "Jaga Rockist" is problematic). It's too bad, because What We Must brims with indelible melodies set in muscular rhythms: the lively, interlocking motifs so much post-rock forsakes for morose blears.
If Jaga Jazzist excels at weaving together striking set pieces, Kaleidoscopic insinuates that Lars Horntveth is the band's driving force. In this 37-minute composition, his sprightly themes seem like glass cases in a museum, both self-contained and part of a greater narrative. At the beginning of the piece, Horntveth returns to a cunning device used on Jaga songs like "All I Know is Tonight": By setting an eerie lead melody against a quiet shimmer, he makes it contort gracefully in an isolated field. Then come the piles of gushy strings (the orchestra contains 34 string players), the glinting harps, the sly pizzicato sub-rhythms, the unfurling brass, and coiled woodwinds. On the whole, it suggests Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf minus the Boris Karloff narration: jaunty, temperate, and willfully naïve. It improves upon Horntveth's solo debut, Pooka, by desegregating his instrumentals, making them talk to each other.
Kaleidoscopic occupies the ambiguous region between classical and pop/indie-- the same one occupied by Horntveth's stated influences, including Joanna Newsom, Robert Wyatt, Stereolab, and Jean-Claude Vannier. On one hand, it was recorded in a small church in Riga with 41 members of the Latvian National Orchestra (Horntveth himself plays piano, clarinet, and horns) and conducted by Terje Mikkelsen of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic and the Moscow Radio Orchestra. On the other, it isn't grounded in any cultural meta-narrative or musicological doctrine. Instead, it takes up that indie-est of subjects: his emotions. Horntveth has said that Kaleidoscopic sought to document his evolving state of mind, which sounds like a fancy way of saying that he wrote whatever he felt like writing and then knitted it together. In the same year when Arvo Pärt addresses himself to the book of John (on his new release, In Principio), Horntveth takes up the book of Lars. The self is the new culture.
This explains the album's roundabout, intuitive progression, and gives one the impression that Horntveth is a pretty sanguine guy. Only the mildly menacing piano of the middle section disturbs the beatific mood, which is rather refreshing at a time when menace's currency seems drastically inflated. For the most part, the album wavers between pensive happiness and outright ecstasy-- a tingly shine constantly attends it, like the air just above a glass of something highly carbonated. If this makes Kaleidoscopic sound a bit lightweight, that's because it is-- a charming, unapologetically frothy bagatelle, more concerned with spontaneous inspiration than formal rigor. But I had the pleasure of seeing its premiere performance at Oslo's Øya Festival last summer and can attest that the skill of the players belies the lack of ambition Horntveth's vague thematic content might imply. In fact, this ambiguity-- this tinge of slackness and self-obsession-- might make it the consummate indie-symphony: navel-gazing, capricious, influence-heavy, and broadly accessible.
— Brian Howe, March 12, 2009
The Guardian
4/5
Reeds player Lars Horntveth was one of the brains behind Jaga Jazzist, the clubby, noisy mini-big band who gave an extra jolt to the already buzzing Norwegian scene several years ago. His new album, Kaleidoscopic, is more self-consciously grown-up, and, by its very nature, poses several interesting challenges. For a start, it is a continuous 37-minute piece for orchestra - a one-track CD that bucks the trend for shuffle-listening. Like a musical interpretation of Saul Steinberg's single-line installations, it delineates a rambling, picaresque fantasy that moves steadily through different moods and timbres. There are moments best described as classy post-rock; others are minimalist or even "light classical". There are portamento-heavy ambient strings, with echoes of Ryuichi Sakamoto, and Bernard Herrmann-like theme developments. It's no magnum opus, but what Kaleidoscopic lacks in single-minded intensity is balanced by its generous evocation of an expansive, continuous panorama of textures and motifs, given human scale by Horntveth's agreeably gruff bass clarinet.
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Kaleidoscope Ears
Norwegian multi-instrumentalist Lars Horntveth has recorded a wordless, film-music-inspired 37-minute suite with the Latvian National Orchestra — and instead of the pretentious mess you might expect, the resulting album, Kaleidoscopic, is a wildly delightful success.
Best-known as the leader of the experimental rock band Jaga Jazzist, Horntveth combines familiar sounds into strange new forms: orchestral folk songs, neoclassical electronica, ambient jazz, lonely-highway tango. The shifting flow of styles and melodies evokes Bernard Herrmann’s scores for Alfred Hitchcock’s films — but this “soundtrack” doesn't need a movie to come to life.
Timeout(London) 5/6 stars
MIXMAG 5/5 stars
MOJO 4/5
Delightful orchestral manoeuvers from Norwegian wunderkind. When Oslo..s Lars Horntveth isn..t lending his instrumental talents to one of the 50-plus albums he..s thus far guested on, he..s helming brass heavy soundscapers Jaga Jazzist and composing lovely chamber works such as those captured on his 2004 solo debut, Pooka. Not bad for a twenty something. Kaleidoscopic, recorded in Riga with the 41 piece Latvian National Orchestra, expands ambitiously on it..s predecessor – effectively one 37 minute composition offsetting Horntveth..s deadpan piano and discreet electronics with blissful, cinematic string cadences, querulous woodwinds, rippling harps and twinkling xylophones. Morphing from minimalist arpeggio to grand symphonic sweep at the drop of a baton , at times it recalls Basil Kirchin..s jazzily affable film music, at others it..s like Steve Reich..s Music For 18 Musicians glimpsed through an Ennio Morricone prism. Its hugely impressive and you get the feeling Horntveth is still just warming up” (, David Sheppard, MOJO
iDj
LARS HORNTVETH KALEIDOSCOPIC Smalltown Supersound, Norway, STS097CD One track, 37 minutes, 34 string players, 3 percussionists: the numbers all add up to a wild ride through Jaga Jazzist's main man Lars Horntveth's vivid musical imagination. The players come courtesy of the Latvian National Orchestra, recorded at a church in Latvia and sounding sheeit hot. If you've got the cochones this would make a great start to a mixtape - or even a mixtape in itself. Stunning stuff: check it out. 4/5 Cal Gibson
Lars Horntveth, Kaleidoscopic (Smalltown Supersound) Remix Magazine
Jan 20, 2009 7:35 PM Christine Hsieh (Writer)
Orchestrals from Jaga Jazzist master
The wistful opening notes of Kaleidoscopic languish uncertainly, backed by tremulous strings as the sound swell opens into a lush sweep of melody before pulling back again. And so it goes with Horntveth’s 37-minute composition recorded with the Latvian National Orchestra. Vignettes surface and dissolve, pizzicato begins and ends tentatively, and warbly keys step forward and recede. When the tremolos give way to firmer melodies, the piece hangs on the verge of coalescing. But just as quickly, the crowd disperses and we’re left with a haunting, forlorn coda that fades away. [4 out of 5 stars]
Lars Horntveth is a co-founder of Jaga Jazzist, arguably the most influential experimental jazz troupe from Scandinavia. Aficionados have learned not to expect hard bop on Jaga’s albums, and the group’s members have made a habit of straying even further upstream for their solo albums.
Horntveth’s last album, Pooka, was all about the pairing of acoustic, orchestral sounds with electronic strains. Think beats and bassoons. The best moments of that album came when Lars pushed both tendencies to the extreme, either focusing on one at a time, or better yet, smashing the two against each other and finding a really new space for his vision to play out.
The same is mostly true of Kaleidoscopic, though Horntveth seems to be working mainly on his symphonic side this time, turning in a 37-minute composition performed with the help of 34 players from the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra. The electronic underpinning expresses itself mainly as rhythm and occasional melodic elements supporting the strings. The few times the keyboards and computers do take the lead, the orchestra mostly disappears, and its usually after the orchestra has been dominating completely for a few minutes.
Horntveth deserves credit for his continued efforts to make something new, but he hasn’t pushed too much farther forward this time. There are unfortunate moments in which you can’t help but think of Mannheim Steamroller, and at times, Kaleidoscopic actually hearkens backwards to Mike Oldfield and other prog-smiths of the early ‘70s. Unless you like that sort of thing, it makes it difficult to be fully pleased with Horntveth’s latest work. Matt Slaybaugh
********************************************* Self-titled Mag's Long Player of the Day review http://www.self-titledmag.com/home/2009/02/12/long-player-of-the-day-lars-horntveth-kaleidoscopic-smalltown-supersound/more-1278
LONG PLAYER OF THE DAY: Lars Horntveth, “Kaleidoscopic” (Smalltown Supersound)
Posted on February 12, 2009 Filed Under Buy It, Burn It, Skip It, Long Player of the Day, Reviews |
What is this? Fantasia? Not exactly, although Lars Horntveth’s restless 37-minute composition could easily be set to a series of scenes involving magical mice and dancing brooms. Or at the very least, whatever’s playing at the local planetarium this week.
A truly kaleidoscopic recording beyond its title and starry night sleeve, Horntveth’s second solo album must be consumed in one sitting, preferably as a backdrop to such menial tasks as editing a daily web site about music. Now that isn’t to say that this record is the equivalent of slapping gray wallpaper on white walls to “spice things up a bit”; quite the contrary. With a real deal conductor (Terje Mikkelsen) guiding a 41-piece Latvian orchestra (34 string players, three percussionists, a clarinet, a flute, a bass trombone and a harp) through Horntveth’s multi-movement piece, the entire recording sounds classic yet contemporary. Keys creep and caress, guitars whine, strings swoon and sweep, and Horntveth’s own blend of horns, clarinets and wildly-expressive piano chords color outside the lines with a palette so bright it’d blind the first 10 rows of your local Philharmonic.
Beyond how mesmerizing “Kaleidoscopic” sounds—at times, it’s as loud and frantic as whatever rock show is happening around the corner from your friend’s Lower East Side apartment—Horntveth’s composition is an immersive experience. Yes, it’s best in the background, but we’ve listened to it all the way through five times in the past 24 hours and we’re still discovering numerous nuanced details that make the disc take on a filmic quality we’d revisit like one of our scuffed-up DVDs. While Horntveth’s fulltime band, Jaga Jazzist, imagines a jazz session between Ornette Coleman, Buddy Ritch and Aphex Twin, his solo work is exactly the sort of thing we love to see at, say, New York’s “Wordless Music Series.” Classical music, yes, but classical music that cuts to the bone enough for low-brow folks like self-titled to pay attention.
*********************************************
Wired's Underwire Blog interview http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2009/02/lars-horntveths.html
Lars Horntveth's Classical Experiment Goes Kaleidoscopic By Scott Thill EmailFebruary 12, 2009 | 1:50:00 PMCategories: Music
Larshorntveth_johannesworsoe
When composer and saxophonist Lars Horntveth launched Norway's avant-garde jazz collective Jaga Jazzist in 1994, he was barely in his teens. His group's epic, hybrid music eventually influenced American prog-rockers like The Mars Volta, but Horntveth has taken a detour into experimental classical music in his latest solo effort, Kaleidoscopic.
How experimental? The record consists of a single, 37-minute composition that compresses electronica, ambient, indie, jazz and further evocative soundtracking through Horntveth's encyclopedic musical filter, which is lined with inspiration from artists as different as David Lynch and Dr. John.
Created with the Latvian National Orchestra and released last month on Smalltown Supersound, Kaleidoscopic is a gorgeous exercise in influence and ambition from a prodigal musician who has yet to enter his 30s.
Wired.com caught up with Horntveth by e-mail to discuss the origin and goal of Kaleidoscopic, the lasting impact of Alfred Hitchcock's musical collaborator Bernard Hermann, and how someone with zero musical education can lead not just a stellar Scandinavian jazz outfit but also a 41-member orchestra.
Wired.com: This is beautiful music. Where did the idea come from?
Lars Horntveth: Thank you. I had this idea of doing an album of just one piece for a few years. I felt that making songs in the pop format was really difficult during this time. Tired of the verse/bridge/chorus thing you might say. So the record is really kind of an audio diary from the period August 2006 to February 2007.
Wired.com: It's a pretty wide-ranging composition. Where did you draw inspiration from?
Horntveth: Lots of different music I was listening to at the time, including Eleni Karandrui, Gil Evans, Bernard Hermann, Jean-Claude Vannier, Robert Wyatt, Jim O'Rourke, John Fahey, Astor Piazzolla, Colin Blunstone, Dr. John, Steve Reich, Van Dyke Parks, David Lynch and Yma Zumac.
Larshorntveth_johannesworsoe2Wired.com: Holy crap, that's a long list.
Horntveth: Right, but when I write music, I tend to go for my gut feeling rather than trying to copy something else. My goal wasn't to make my debut as a classical composer. I just wanted to make my kind of music using an orchestra instead of a band.
The composition itself is very much based on what I want to listen to myself. I'm a person that loves albums more than singles, and I'm very interested in how an album can work from song to song, what I call its curve. With this record, I tried to make that curve in one song that stretches from the very soft to the very intense.
Wired.com: So would you call this classical music?
Horntveth: I don't think of this album as a classical composition, more like classical music for people who come from my kind of indie, jazz and electronica background.
Wired.com: It's definitely going to get love from the Hermann nuts who listen to it.
Horntveth: I'm a huge Bernard Hermann fan. I think some people will recognize that in Kaleidoscopic, especially in its first 10 minutes. Apart from that, the composition goes quite fast from theme to theme, from one room to another room, hence the title. That was the idea: a stream of music evolving from soundtracking to tango to folk to electronica, all played by an orchestra.
Wired.com: Speaking of, how did you get on with the Latvian Symphony Orchestra?
Horntveth: Working with the Latvian Symphony Orchestra was great fun. We had two days in Riga with my producer Jørgen Træen and conductor Terje Mikkelsen. Intense work, but very satisfying.
Wired.com: Have you ever played with a full orchestra before?
Horntveth: I have worked quite a lot with the Norwegian Broadcasting Orchestra as an arranger. That's how I learned to score for bigger ensembles.
Wired.com: What's next for your band, Jaga Jazzist?
Horntveth: We've just finished recording a new album, with songs that have many orchestral elements, but they all are played by Jaga. There are no other musicians involved. I think it's very natural for me to put in more references from classical music. It also makes Jaga's music wider and more complex, which I like.
Wired.com: Has this experience altered the way you compose, for Jaga Jazzist or for yourself?
Horntveth: I feel I am very much a beginner in this field. But I think it's very stimulating and challenging. That's what made it so much fun. I don't have any music education, so I pretty much had to learn it by doing it. And also by borrowing music theory books from the library!
www.organart.demon.co.uk
ALBUM OF THE WEEK LARS HORNTVETH – Kaleidoscopic (Smalltown Supersound) – The follow up to his rather acclaimed debut album Pooka. Lars Horntveth is Jaga Jazzist leader by day, this is the second album under his own name. Kaleidoscopic is one delicately refreshing thirty-seven minute composition recorded with forty-one members of the Latvian National Orchestra (34 string players, 3 percussionists, clarinet, flute, bass trombone and one harp) with Lars himself playing piano, horns and clarinets. The orchestra was lead by Terje Mikkelson, who now conducts the St. Petersburg Philharmonic and the Moscow Radio Orchestra. Kaleidoscopic is a flowing piece, ever shifting in the most subtle of ways, evolving quietly without you really noticing the flowing change of dynamic or the increase/decrease of instrumentation. Always smooth, always soothing, never difficult, always inviting – an accomplished curve as it were. A journey via orchestrated sound that musically feels somewhere near Steve Reich, a more subtle flavour akin to Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells, specks of John Adams and his avant vastness here and there - nothing obvious, just hints, flavours (and we are skating around architecture here using mere words on electronic paper to try and convey this creative beauty once more). There’s a delicate playfulness to the orchestration and the way if flows and takes you with it, indeed if Kaleidoscopic was to be summed up in just one word than that word would have to be lovely. “This is Lars Horntveth’s largest and most challenging project yet” we’re told by the press release, sound like he accomplished rather a lot - this is a beautiful piece of work, a flowing, refreshing, graceful, soothing piece of classical experimentation, a meticulous journey to take yourself on again and again. Highly recommended
PowerofPOP.com
LARS HORNTVETH Kaledoscopic (Smalltown Supersound)
Much is to be said when time has to be scheduled to listen to an album. It’s been a long time coming and that is what Kaleidoscopic had me doing.
Kaleidoscopic is the follow-up to the critically acclaimed debut album, Pooka, by Jaga Jazzist and The National Bank leader Lars Horntveth.
Comprising of one composition spaced out in 36:47 minutes, Kaleidoscopic can be very easily labelled as cinematic – One can’t help but see various scenes play out before your eyes as the strings and horns blend and bleed from one emotion to another. Guided by 41 members of the Latvian National Orchestra led by Norwegian conductor Terje Mikkelsen, with Lars himself playing piano, horns and clarinets – your senses are immersed in the electro-tinged ambience, orchestral carpet rides and a frantic race to a place only you know.
This album is above all an auditory trip that harnesses a listener’s visual power – a little frightening even but beautifully seamless as the shifts and switches in moods with key instruments, paint your inner world with a touch of noir, epic and vast horizons, tranquil and forest-lush hideaways, and even a simple side walk at dusk, with just a pluck of a harp. My favourite ride on this journey began at the 27thminute mark - strings and Horntveth’s own piano playing wrap up the trip over the final ten minutes. An album that will be savored by any ardent fan of visual music journeys.
Best known for starting the unique entity known as Jaga Jazzist, a band hellbent on fusing contemporary “electronica” with trad-jazz chord sequences to enchanting effect, Lars Horntveth is back with his sophomore album ‘Kaleidoscopic’. An ambitious and sprawling audio document, ‘Kaleidoscopic’ is the largest and most challenging project Horntveth has accomplished and features 41 members of the Latvian National Orchestra. Intending for the music to flow from idea to idea, Horntveth wanted the score to grow and develop along with the state of his mind and thusly wrote the music chronologically into an open, endless score, similar to a diary.
The sprawling 37minute composition is in-keeping with its title as Horntveth assembles and records a 41 strong orchestra whose spectral sound he, alongside producer Jorgen Traeen, sculpts into a progressive and ever-transforming concatenation of glistening instrumental soundscapes that move fluidly from story to story with a classical yet new-age aesthetic. The result is a sweeping multi-movement symphony of astral atmospherics that intersects the points between contemporary classical, electronic-ambience and somber post-rock. The label notes that ‘Kaleidoscopic’ is a journey in sound that fits somewhere between Steve Reich’s ‘Music for 18 Musicians’ and KLF’s ‘Chill Out’, and we are inclined to agree. Covering a spectrum of dispositions whilst all-the-time keeping the concept of melody at its core, the elongated composition develops along an all-encompassing curve of tension and release designed to re-create a dreamy and theatrical spectacle in ones mind.
From romanticized and temperate neo-classical passages to increasingly edgy build ups that result in full bodied clashes of percussion, bass and trombone, and then back to lengthy, atmospheric and star-speckled valleys of glistening harp and flute accompanied by restrained strings, Horntveth has arranged this work with a keen focus on the gelling together of dynamic shifts. Melodic motifs jump out of the speakers with an enchanting sense of rhythm, their warm and analog production values making for a fuzzy and three-dimensional listen that keeps you riveted through-out the pieces many twists and turns.
Proving to be a perfect hallucinatory tool for scoring ones dream-sequences, ‘Kaleidoscopic’ is a progressive and melody-laced body of sound that more than delivers on its premise thanks to its expertly arranged, played and produced exercise in tension and dynamics. (KS)
For fans of: Tangerine Dream, Steve Reich, KLF
ALLABOUTJAZZ.COM Kaleidoscopic Lars Horntveth | Smalltown Supersound (2009)
By John Kelman Discuss
As a younger demographic increasingly accepts cross-pollination and challenges simple stylistic categorization, there's an increasing number of artists for whom defying boundaries has long since transcended conscious consideration and become, instead, an organic and completely natural modus operandi. Norway's Jaga Jazzist both regularly and successfully disregarded narrow confines and became, instead, something no longer resembling any of the markers that positioned it, while undeniably referencing the multiplicity of influences that made it such a popular group and launching pad for up-and-coming artists including trumpeter Matthias Eick and multi-instrumentalist Lars Horntveth. Horntveth's Pooka (Smalltown Supersound, 2004) was an engaging album of instrumentals, but Kaleidoscopic is a more profound effort—a 37-minute composition that, in its combination of acoustic and electric instruments and the participation of members of the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, represents classical music for a new generation. Horntveth's intention was to write a continuous piece akin to an ongoing diary, the result being a piece that shares little with the thematic continuity so often definitive of concept albums in, for example, the progressive rock community. Nevertheless, Kaleidoscopic demonstrates a flow that's equal parts Steve Reich's minimalism, Robert Wyatt's stylistic divergence, Stereolab's hypnotic, experimental ambient rock, Bernard Hermann's cinematic dramaturgy, and a taste of Bill Frisell's Americana roots music—all wrapped into a bundle equal to far more than the sum of its parts.
With 34 string players from the symphony orchestra, Kaleidoscopic is, at its core, based on a lush soundscape, although Horntveth's blend of pedal steel and harp lends its opening a curious oriental tinge while avoiding overt reference. Peaceful, with melodic tints to allow the music a freedom to explore any possible avenue, Horntveth also utilizes tuned percussion to create repetitive motifs that, when blended with consonant long tones, are trance-inducing despite lacking the iterative development so definitive in Reich's minimalism. And while some passages are clearly electronic in nature, they seamlessly mesh with the organic landscapes, feeling neither excessively artificial nor unnatural.
Rhythm-heavy percussion also features heavily in parts of Kaleidoscopic, even as soaring strings blend with finger-picked acoustic guitar, and even as a quirky combination of saxophone, tremolo'd vibraphone, and acoustic guitar lead into the piece's final minutes with a deceptively complex combination of contrapuntal ideation that's as evocative as it is cerebral.
Composing largely for orchestra while avoiding its stylistic pitfalls makes Horntveth's writing process for Kaleidoscopic a challenging one, as he ambitiously looks for new ways to utilize texture and stylistic ambience with centuries of preconception. In attempting to essentially create a new kind of classical music that, with its seamless integration of sonics not normally associated with it, Horntveth challenges its most glaring trappings, creating a work of great emotional depth that embraces tradition while relentlessly avoiding the beacons that set unnecessary expectation and precedent. Kaleidoscopic is a rare piece of music that sounds both familiar and new, intimate and beautiful while, at the same time, broad-scoped and expansive.
Hermitosis Blog interview - http://hermitosis.blogspot.com/2009/01/interview-lars-horntveth-releases.html
College Times - http://media.www.ecollegetimes.com/media/storage/paper991/news/2009/01/15/Music/Cd.Review.Lars.Horntveth-3587372.shtml CD Review: Lars Horntveth Nate Lipka Issue date: 1/15/09 Section: Music Media Credit: Johannes Worsoe Berg
The search for the “perfect song” – that which can match one’s mood and mindset, its rhythms and melody seemingly walking along at the listener’s side as a faultless companion – is almost always a fruitless one. Humans are ever-evolving beings, shifting in disposition and location too often for almost any artist to keep pace for more than a few minutes.
So the idea of a musical work operating in exactly the opposite way is an intriguing one, an idea that makes Lars Horntveth’s Kaleidoscopic a sweeping stab at a modern score, quite enjoyable.
Checking in at 37 minutes, the album is a single track that ventures into soft, electro-tinged ambience, roaring, frantic orchestral racing and everything in between. It’s a comprehensive grab-bag of moods and influences, a rainbow of sound-suites built by Horntveth’s own work on piano, clarinets and brass and 41 members of the Latvian National Orchestra.
Despite the manic, jagged switches in style, it swoops along rather seamlessly, displaying a power to actually mold a listener’s mood to fit its quick-shifting ridges. It’s a little bit frightening in that respect, but altogether pleasant.
One of the most common (and commonly annoying) tendencies among both professional and amateur music journalists is their liberal use of the word “cinematic.” Taken to suggest a song’s visual power – as well as a writer’s limited vocabulary – “cinematic” is one of those words that crops up most often in the context of music employing the use of strings, run times over 10 minutes, or album titles containing the phrase “Original Score.”
That said, Jaga Jazzist and National Bank figurehead Lars Horntveth will have every reviewer sounding lazy in lieu of a listen to his sophomore album, Kaleidoscopic. The Norwegian multi-instrumentalist has dabbled in film scores before on three occasions, but this idea was different: Instead of being commissioned specifically for a movie, Horntveth began with the idea of an open score, an initial idea to be toyed with and manipulated as time progressed and his own personal moods changed. In collaboration with producer Jorgen Sir Dupermann Traen and 41 members of the Latvian National Orchestra, Horntveth delivers an ambitious break from the post-rock and free-jazz pursuits of his main band.
Kaleidoscopic is one track that clocks in just shy of 37 minutes. It features 34 string players, three percussionists, clarinet flute, bass trombone, piano and a harp. The liner notes are penned by John Szwed and give a short overview of the relationship between film and music. Horntveth makes clear the premise, then uses multiple takes of his time with the orchestra over a two-day period in Riga to sculpt the sound he was after.
Inspiration for the music draws from sources such as Terry Riley, Joanna Newsom, Eleni Karaindrou, and Stereolab. Piano and strings set the course of the first recognizable melody, but after nine minutes the sound shifts to feature the bass trombone and three percussionists in a climax John Williams would be proud of. The ensuing dynamic shift, which leaves only the quiet pluck of a harp, is one way Horntveth keeps the listener’s attention throughout Kaleidoscopic; another is a quick skim of Jaga Jazzist territory near the midway point, a jazzy groove that lasts some eight minutes. Strings and Horntveth’s own piano playing wrap up the piece over the final ten minutes.
In recent interviews for this album, Horntveth has said that his goal was to create a balance between intensity and calm. As a logical progression from 2004’s Pooka, Kaleidoscopic achieves that goal by never languishing in any one section for too long. It seems appropriate that the only way to enjoy Kaleidoscopic is to play it from start to finish. After all, it’s cinematic.
Essentially a one movement symphony, Lars Horntveth's latest album Kaleidoscopic is a 37 minute excursion into instrumental music utilizing an orchestra, electronics, and lots of ideas. Utilizing the Latvian National Orchestra, Lars was able to create an ocean of sound in which the listener could swim around in which is something he's be unable to do before.
Kaleidoscopic is epic in scope with a multitude of emotions and sounds fading in and out from minute to minute. It is a beautiful piece of of modern composition
that brilliantly mixes modern ideas and electronics with traditional classical instrumentation. It's impressive to hear Lars' ideas come to life as the music blends and flows from one genre to the next while maintaining a coherent core. For example, Kaleidoscopic easily flows from violins to tablas, tablas to violins, and violins to classical guitar almost as if these sudden changes were second nature. It's truly exquisite stuff that sounds as if it's composer, Lars Horntveth, has been writing modern classical music his entire life.
Whether or not Kaleidoscopic was originally intended to be so rooted in classical music is unknown, but Lars Horntveth has done a spectacular job here at composing a work of majestic sounds and ideas. That the Latvian National Orchestra was able to bring those ideas to life in fine fashion is a tribute to how versatile their orchestra is. While Kaleidoscopic may not be classical repertoire, give it time it might very well be. In the mean time, Lars Horntveth's Kaleidoscopic is a work that both his fans and classical music fans will enjoy.
****************************************** Boston Phoenix - http://thephoenix.com/Boston/Music/75342-KALEIDOSCOPIC/
Review: Lars Horntveth's Kaleidoscopic Smalltown Supersound (2009) By MICHAEL PATRICK BRADY | January 20, 2009
Lars Horntveth creates worlds of his own with this 36-minute voyage, which never feels reliant on anything but itself (unlike most "cinematic music").
As a member of Norwegian experimenters Jaga Jazzist, Horntveth has been tagged with the "nu-jazz" label. Kaleidoscopic might be described as "nu-classical," a mixture of traditional orchestration, electronic flourishes, and blissfully meditative ambient passages that will endear it to fans of post-rock. With the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra in tow, Horntveth charts a course through swelling strings and quiet melodic interludes, a stream of consciousness that can't be anchored to any predetermined imagery.
It's easy to be swept away by the seamless progression of the arrangements, and the shifting themes and genres make Kaleidoscopic pass by quickly. Too quickly — some sort of epilogue might have made this relatively short album feel less ephemeral. It's still a refreshing opportunity to engage the imagination, if only for a short while.
Lars Horntveth: Kaleidoscopic (Smalltown Supersound)(Norway) Norway’s Smalltown Supersound imprint is no stranger to 30 minute plus epic tunes-look no further than Lindstrøm’s latest album for proof of that fcat. However the sophomore album Kaleidoscopic from Jaga Jazzist leader Lars Horntveth takes that extreme to its logical conclusion with an album that is 37 minutes long and composed entirely of one track-”Kaleidoscopic”.
Do I dare call this a single and how much will it cost if I buy it on iTunes? Performed by Horntveth and the 41 piece Latvian National Orchestra the album is a concept soundtrack to an imaginary movie and what a movie it must be.
Lars Horntveth Kaleidoscopic (Smalltown Supersound)
Similar Sounds: Jaga Jazzist, Peter and the Wolf, Supersilent, John Williams
The 36-minute "Kaleidoscopic" goes beyond the boundaries of pop, rock, indie, jazz, avant, noise--anything usually smothered and covered by us music journalist-types. As it happens, the piece and album known as Kaleidoscopic is a piece of composition. The sort of music one would devour in a three-piece suit as a polite crowd quietly anticipates the frenzied climax of strings and brass. The soundtrack to your latest jaunt to the art museum to catch the latest work of an under-appreciated painter/sculptor.
Lars Horntveth, of Jaga Jazzist, is no stranger to melding together sounds to create sonic texture. Yet Kaleidoscopic takes those tools and puts them to a different use. Hints of Jaga Jazzist, as well as Horntveth's 2004 pop-oriented solo work Pooka, invade Horntveth's swashbuckling composition, letting "Kaleidoscopic," swish and sway with the quietiest hush and the subdued clatters of percussion and cartoon music. The piece is versatile, fitting into any scenerio you wish to thrust upon it.
The only challenge to be found within "Kaleidoscopic" is what you garner from its fruit-riddled branches. Though the composition may seem down-to-earth amidst a sea of experimentalists and over-hyped indie phenomenons, the rich textures of "Kaleidoscopic" can appease, tease, and entice anyone with a musical ear ready for something as unusual as it is strangely familiar.?
SOUNDVENUE The world's only definitive weekly dance music reviews
Lars Horntveth 'Kaleidoscopic' (Smalltown Supersound)
Lars Horntveth is one half of Jaga Jazzist, and his second album 'Kaleidoscopic' was recorded with most of the Latvian National Orchestra. If you liked Johann Johannsson's outstanding 'Fordlandia' album towards the end of last year you'll definitely go for this, though on this occasion it's one, through-composed track that clearly gains intensity through its 37 minute span, as Horntveth tightens the screw. Best listened to in a quiet room to appreciate the softer textures, it hardly has any beats - but when percussion is introduced there is a pretty strong sense of rhythm. Even more effective are the sweeping unison string themes that bring extra warmth to the cool exterior. When listening to this you could almost be watching the Northern Lights, as textures dance and shimmer - and for staying in music in the January chill, it's a piece that takes some beating.
Cokemachineglow
:: Record Review
Lars Hornthveth
Kaleidoscopic
(Smalltown Supersound; 2009)
Rating: 70%
It’s thought that urban sociologists and musicologists had finally relegated classical music to some harmless cult status, a protectionist bastion for dabblers in the elite and exclusive, obsessive compulsive fetishists of technicality, and the odd armchair provocateur. But today we find ourselves with a retrospectively predictable inverse. Independent and urban music traffics in exclusivity via style and cool; classical music, for some, became the realm of the intensely personal, the authentic, and permanency rather than transience—the hot bath of subcultures breeding the bacteria of real art. Composers Stravinsky, Prokofiev, and Ravel were the uninitiated neo-classissists of their day; one wonders if albums by Gunther Schuller, Alexander Goehr, Glenn Branca, John Zorn, and even Nico Muhly qualify as today’s.
So when Jaga Jazzist leader Lars Horntveth offers an album with liner notes by John Szwed, author of Space is the Place: The Lives and Times of Sun Ra and So What: The Life of Miles Davis, it’s not all that surprising. The decision to compose a classical album is today posited in modalities of opposition, subcultural declarations that also, interestingly, suggest that the action is instantaneously ready for biography. It’s a thorny contradiction, one that states otherness while seeking instant credibility on the basis of an anachronistic and inaccessible canon.
Horntveth describes Kaleidoscopic as an attempt to sound as open-ended as a diary. Today’s cultural context is one that suggests that if one wants to say something, one simply picks up a guitar, grabs a mic, and says it. If divorced from that context, of course the album surrenders itself to a simpler aesthetic balancing of dynamic themes and movements. But then it wouldn’t be Kaleidoscopic; the action that is most important here is the non-vocal declaration of self, and the entitlement that comes with one’s name on an album cover and the music therein being entirely wordless with an emphasis on technicality. Thus, a confessional/instrumental album, as much about what Hornthveth chooses not to do as what he does. He’s unapologetically near the romantic—that straight-and-narrow conception of the gradual, modal build towards sweeping gestures affected by strings and cinematic strokes—and stays well clear of the conceptual, the textural, the minimalist, the counter-intuitive. Counterpoise this gesture to, say, Herbert’s appropriation of the classical, the big band, and whatever else he wants in service of often political tracts, or Hauschka’s microscopic specificity. All the more pleasant, some might say, for Kaleidoscopic‘s insistence upon itself. Nonetheless accomplished, I’d append. The album’s execution is flawless, if anything, leaving only its choices to doubt.
Horntveth’s bio, meanwhile, describes Kaleidoscopic as “37 minute long composition […] recorded with 41 members of the Latvian National Orchestra (34 string players, 3 percussionists, clarinet, flute, bass trombone and one harp).” In that description is the crux of its possible relevance: the unmitigated effort afforded its creation and undeniable vision is the stuff of easy praise. There is nothing not to like about Hornthveth’s subtlety, the careful accumulation of tones around space before transition to the next movement. Electronics and conventional instruments are blended without an overt attempt to clash the two. Around the sixteen-minute mark, bubbling tones introduce a central section that eventually complements, rather than contrasts, the emergence of strings. Like the album in context, each instrument is subsequent and deferent to the notion of Kaleidoscopic as a work.
This all leaves Hornthveth quite open to ridicule in the context of indie music. Were he to assemble 700 drummers in a park somewhere and ask them to play variations on a polyrhythmic scheme he’d get a pass simply for the notion that the sights and sounds produced thereby are uncommon and remarkable. But by subjecting himself to an established music oceanic in its depth and breadth, to say nothing of teeming with fish far bigger than himself, Hornthveth’s bravery is something that is again personal rather than musical. Removing this effort from that framework would be titanic disservice to both listener and artist.
:: myspace.com/larshorntveth
Conrad Amenta :: 26 January 2009 |
Beatcrave.com (linked to Wired interview)
http://beatcrave.com/2009-02-18/lars-horntveth-of-jaga-jazzist-goes-classical-with-kaleidoscopic/more-11096
PopMatters.com
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/70597-lars-horntveth-kaleidoscopic
Lars Horntveth
Kaleidoscopic
(Smalltown Supersound)
US release date: 27 January 2009
UK release date: 26 January 2009
by Nils Jacobson
The second solo album from the young Norwegian leader of Jaga Jazzist is orchestral, like his first, but it consists of only one winding 37-minute track. The intention here, underscored by John Szwed’s liner notes about the cinematic sound, is to draw listeners along through the rise and fall of the music, pausing in various chambers along the way. In that sense Kaleidoscopic is magnetic and attractive, never harsh or unrelenting. Its themes mutate and interweave, rarely climaxing, yielding a sort of magical, otherworldly glow. The counterpoint and multiple overlays draw from minimalism, but the verdant sound and reliance on extension reflect impressionism… in any case, those links are neither derivative nor blatant. Horntveth’s acoustic approach, like what he’s done with Jaga Jazzist in a more electronic setting, draws its main strength from narrative and evolution. All that said, Kaleidoscopic is best suited for listeners attuned to its subtlety and lush, string-rich orchestral sound.
* * Multiple songs MySpace
RATING:
— 19 February 2009
****************************************
Minneapolis City Pages
http://www.citypages.com/2009-02-25/music/the-songs-we-can-t-escape
The Songs We Can't Escape
By Ray Cummings
Published on February 23, 2009 at 4:36pm
LARS HORNTVETH
"Kaleidoscopic"
Here we have a dreamy, post-Tortoise conservatory suite of such extraordinarily refinement that it could slip, almost unnoticed, into some late-night NPR classical playlist. For reasons I can't explain, I like to pretend that this aural spectacle takes place in an enchanted forest and that each symphonic element represents some woodland creature, so that as the various movements are revealing themselves, receding, and sometimes colliding; cats, bears, squirrels, and birds are shifting in artificial patterns behind my mind's eye, like some sort of bizarro Bollywood/Disney synthesis.
****************************************
KEXP blog
Weird at My School: Kaleidoscopic
by DJ El Toro
I grew up surrounded by classical music. My father was a member of the Musical Heritage Society, which delivered new LPs of great masterworks to our door every few weeks. But like most adolescents, I assumed anything endorsed by my parents was square. So I never dug into Dad’s record library. Sure, Beethoven, Bach and Brahams came with impressive pedigrees, but I was otherwise engaged. I had Yaz albums to memorize.
As college approached, I lifted my ban on Dad’s record collection, at least for a single LP. Maybe my brain was aching from so many synthesizers, or perhaps it was simply because I’d never actually heard my father play it, but I became obsessed with his copy of Debussy’s 1905 impressionist landmark La Mer. In later years, I would learn that Debussy had revolutionized harmonic language with this piece, and received heaps of scorn for his innovations. But at the time, I was simply responding to the music. Unlike most symphonic works I’d been exposed to, the movement within La Mer seemed organic and intuitive, not mathematical. When nobody else was home, I would crank the stereo and dance about the living room. In time, I knew the entire piece, all three movements, in my very bones.
Today, I feel a similar affection for Kaleidoscopic, the sophomore album by Lars Horntveth. The Norwegian composer is perhaps best known as a member of experimental jazz ensemble Jaga Jazzist, but Kaleidoscopic has more in common with La Mer than Sun Ra. Recorded with assistance from 41 players from the Latvian National Orchestra, this is a single, 37-minute instrumental piece — not a series of interconnected vignettes or songs — and is meant to be listened to as such.
Initially, I balked at Kaleidoscopic. I’ve become so accustomed to digesting music via individual mp3 files, and that protracted running time — longer than a sitcom! — seemed daunting. But after a cursory listen or two, I found myself returning to Horntveth’s work. Ambient keyboards wafting over slow-moving strings… soft, pizzicato passages peppered with upper-register woodwinds… sections with exotic, percussive timbres (”is that a prepared piano?”) that recalled Debussy’s fixation with the Balinese gamelan… Kaleidoscopic may be at odds with the verse-chorus-verse structures my brain has become addicted to, but over time, its ever-unfolding form has managed to engage my frontal lobe in a manner that feels relaxed and unregimented. A welcome respite from pop songs.
Suffice to say, I am smitten. Thanks to Lars Horntveth, my repertoire of works for solo interpretative dance in the living room (which, in addition to La Mer, also includes John Adams’ The Chairman Dances) has been enriched anew. I am learning the twists and turns of Kaleidoscopic via my knees and elbows. I’ve even considered sending a copy of the record to my father. The old man might not have come to appreciate the genius of Yaz yet, but I reckon we can still meet somewhere in the middle.
DJ El Toro is the host of the overnight show In Between Sleep & Reason, Wednesday mornings from 1 AM to 6 AM on KEXP 90.3 FM Seattle and kexp.org. His column, Weird At My School, appears every Monday on the KEXP Blog.
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Så stille kan altså 42 personer låte
Lars Horntveth var alltid den mest «klassiske» av Jaga Jazzist-gjengen, noe han beviste med den vakre lille «Pooka» i 2004. Og selv om ikke «Kaleidoscopic» er lettere tilgjengelig, med sine sammenhengende 37 minutter, er den på mange måter vakrere.
Med hjelp fra et 41 mann stort orkester i Latvia, har Horntveth skapt et luftig fargespill av inntrykk og kaleidoskopiske noteganger. Det begynner kanskje litt sørgmodig, men snart møter vi både den gjenkjennelige Jaga Jazzist-lyden, samt klanger som kommer helt annetstedsfra.
Tro heller ikke at 41 mann låter overlesset, for Horntveth lar like gjerne elektronikken (det må da være elektronikk?) spille duo eller trio med andre instrumenter.
Slik går «Kaleidoscopic» mellom høyt og lavt, stort og lite. Steve Reich er blitt nevnt, og det er ikke så dumt. Men det låter også umiskjennelige horntvethsk.
WALTER N. WEHUS
Dagbladet
Ternnkast 5
Dramakonge.
Sven Ove Bakke
Kaleidoscopic
Artist: Lars Horntveth
Plateselskap: Smalltown Supersound
CD: «Litt Disney, litt 90-talls Tom Waits, litt Morricone og litt Magnet,» sa Lars Horntveth selv om solodebuten «Pooka». Ta en slik blanding, gjør den mørkere, mer sorgfull, ettertenksom, dramatisk og ulykkelig romantisk, og du har den 37 minutter lange oppfølgeren «Kaleidoscopic». Det er kompromissløst å la plata være ett langt spor, men det understreker også ambisjonen om å sy med usynlig tråd. Horntveth graver i mange av sine gamle gruver, her er blåssignaturer fra Jaga-tida, korte passasjer man kunne laget National Bank-låter av, Tortoise-inspirerte sekvenser, atmosfærisk elektronika og svulmende orkesterpartier med cineastiske anslag. Men hans ambisjon og visjon blir aldri pretensiøs eller klamt kompleks, og melodiøsiteten, flyten og bruddpunktene er av en slik art at man kan fint høre «Kaleidoscopic» som årets lengste, tristeste og vakreste norske popsang.
Tønsbergs Blad
Terningkast 6
Himmelsk Horntveth
Lars Horntveth: "Kaleidoscopic"
(Smalltown Supersound)
Anmeldt av
Hans Christian Moen
Det er umulig å la sekseren ligge når Lars Horntveth åpner porten til sin musikalske verden. Selv uten lokalpatriotisk anheng (Jaga Jazzist-etterslepet er det mest spennende Tønsberg kan by verden på av musikk), så troner Lars Horntveth med sin siste plate, "Kaleidoscopic", langt over det meste som blir gitt ut i Norge.
40 minutter vakker lyd for absolutt alle musikkinteresserte mennesker. Fremført av et vasst orkester og fintfølende musikere.
"Kaleidoscopic" kan muligens kalles en jazzplate, men påvirkningen av klassisk musikk fra den romantiske perioden synes også stor.
Skiva veksler mellom moderne uttrykk og elektronika til rene jazztoner og enorme symfoniske strukturer.
Fellesnevneren er et meget vakkert, variert og sart tonespråk som har fellesnevnere med Jaga Jazzist og Jørgen Munkebys musikk, men dette er mer intenst følsomt, mye mer poetisk, mye større – heldigvis aldri svulstig.
Kaleidoskopisk er akkurat det rett ordet på denne skiva. For tonene triller og renner og svever og drypper og veksler – akkurat som lys og farger bryter i speilene i et kaleidoskop mens man vrir på det. Ved å følge Horntveths bruksanvisning ("hør hele uavbrutt"), sitter man med en følelse av vektløshet og en enorm ro.
Coveret har også fanget denne himmelske, drømmende stemningen perfekt. Kim Hiorthøys sirkulære bilder minner om en jordklode, men det er flytende himmelmaterie og milliarder av små stjerner som fyller ut sirkelen. Omslagskunsten beskriver plata perfekt.
Horntveths musikk er musikk for astronauter. Horntveths musikk er svevende heismusikk for den heisen du håper aldri stopper: Den beste skiva som er gitt ut av en tønsbergmusiker på mange år.
Lars Horntveth (of jaga jazzist)'s Friend Space (Top 40)
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