Field Day Rituals was the fourth album by Norwegian dronejazztrio Splashgirl.
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On “Field Day Rituals” the doom piano trio Splashgirl exceeds the high expectations that have been building up since the release of the group’s album “Pressure” in 2011. That album was described as “an instant classic” by Uncut Magazine and “a triumphant artistic exercise” by Jazzwise, and won a place on a number of “year’s best” lists. With its fourth album, “Field Day Rituals”, the group is taking yet another giant step up and forward.
The album is detail-rich, dramatic, full of atmosphere and massive, despite the sometimes viscous and reserved quality of the music. The players themselves describe the music on the album as “lighter and more optimistic than on the previous album”, although the soundscape remains so bass-heavy that the average kitchen radio will be under threat of extinction. Here Splashgirl refines its personal idiom, although at the same time the influences of post-rock, classical music and, not least, jazz are even more apparent this time around. The album was recorded in the course of two intense weeks at Avast Studio in Seattle, USA, together with engineer and producer Randall Dunn (Akron/Family, Black Mountain, Sun City Girls, Boris, Kinski, Sunn O))) and Earth). This recording marks the first time the trio has given a producer the authority to take decisions on behalf of the band. “We found that Randall evoked qualities in the music that we ourselves had overlooked. He has an impressively broad musical perspective, and heard the music from angles that were often totally new for us. He got us to play some of the music as though it were classical jazz, which we haven’t done for a long time. Randall inspired us to take a favourable look at jazz again.” Violist Eyvind Kang (Beck, John Zorn, Marc Ribot) plays on three tracks, and Timothy Mason’s subtle modular synths are a welcome surprise in several places on the album.
Available as CD/DL and in a deluxe 2LP edition (500 copies, gatefold cover, 180g vinyl, 45 rpm)
released February 1, 2013
Andreas Stensland Løwe - piano & synths
Jo Berger Myhre - double bass
Andreas Lønmo Knudsrød - drums & percussion
Eyvind Kang - viola
Tim Mason - modular synths
Recorded, mixed and produced by Randall Dunn at Avast!, Seattle.
Mastered by Jason Ward.
