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Concert Mon Mar 10 2008
Saturday: Norweggie Electronica Showcase @ the Bottle
For over a decade, Oslo has been one of Europe's most active hotbeds of creative energy. This has been doubly true of the city's music scene -- especially in the domains of experimental jazz, electronica, and indie rock. And perhaps no other person has epitomized that fervent activity than the multi-talented artist Kim Hiorthøy.
Hiorthøy first gained attention as one of Oslo's most promising and distinctive talents on the international graphic design market. As a visual artist, illustrator, photographer, and filmmaker, he's most known outside of Norway for the sleeve work he's done as the in-house artist and designer for the experimental music label Rune Grammofon. But in 2001, Hiorthøy made his recording debut when he released his album Hei via the Smalltown Supersound label. The album quickly proved a blueprint for what some would later dub the "folktronica" scene, and to this day remains one of the subgenre's richest and most elegant moments.
The tracks on Hei set the tone of Hiorthøy's subsequent work -- a modus that involves an inventive blending of organic and synthetic sounds. As with his visual work, he has a knack for maximized simplicity and intriguing juxtapositions. Over the demure sputter and thump of digital rhythms, Hiorthøy interweaves acoustic and electronic instruments, found sound and field recordings -- the creaking tones of a raspy old violin, a looped slide guitar riff, a children's choir rehearsal as overheard through an open window. It all makes for a rich musical tapestry in Hiorthøy's hands.
On his most recent album, 2007's My Last Day, the 35-year old Hiorthøy favored an old upright piano to flesh out the parts of the melody for most of his tracks. The instrument's sound -- rustic, dampened by its frame -- brings an impressionistic mood to the work, evocative of how everyday sensations can coax emotions and recollections from the the dustiest, most remote, and rarely visited recesses of memory.
Kim Hiorthøy will be playing a headlining set at the Empty Bottle this Saturday evening. (The story has it that his live sets are usually many times more lively and uptempo than than most of his recorded output.) For the occasion, he'll be joined on the evening's lineup by fellow countrymen and labelmates diskJokke and Bjørn Torske. DiskJokke (aka Joachim Dyrdahl) and Torske are both longterm denizens of Oslo's leftfield electronic scene, each having their own crafty and eccentric contributions to that city's thriving musical underground. Saturday's show is being billed as the Smalltown Supersound Showcase, since it involves a fortuitous, one-night-only convergence of all three artists' U.S. touring schedules here in Chicago. 1035 N. Western Ave. Showtime is at 10pm, and tickets are $10.
[video]: Kim Hiorthøy - "Alt Måste Bli Anorlunda"
[mp3]: diskJokke - "Some Signs Are Good"
