REVIEWS
E-MIX REVIEWS (U.K.):
Erik Wollo is a multi-talented Norwegian whose music includes an all-synthesizer album, "Transit", an avant-garde
guitar project, "Guitar Nova", and various ambient side projects. But this is an earlier album dating from 1982,
when Wollo was playing strictly guitar and accompanied by Oystein Sevag on keyboards, Inge Norum on percussion and
Jan Erik Salater on fretless bass. As such, the album is more ECM than Hearts of Space; the title track features
flowing acoustic and electric guitar
reminiscent of Pat Metheny, while elsewhere plaintive oboe intertwines
with vibes and cool organ chords.
There are plenty of string snapping and harmonic techniques on show, but there is some cosmic synthesizer stuff too - the
closing 21-minute "Searching For Hidden Pictures" suite starts with deep, droning bass which is later overlaid by a shaker
reminiscent of Pat Metheny's "As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls". Guitar harmonics are played like a sequenser pattern
and intertwined with synths, piano and what sounds like a stabbing guitar synthesizer part (shades of Pat Metheny again).
It's a strongly anthemic track, ending with more acoustic guitar, strings and thumb piano -
a quirky end to a quirky anddistinctive album.
**** Four Stars - an excellent album of its kind
AMAZING SOUNDS MAGAZINE (Spain), review:
This reissue of an album originally released in 1983 not only offers the improvement of a digital CD (remastered in 1999)
versus vinyl. It also presents a difference with respect to the old version: It includes some extra tracks from Dreams of
Pyramids (a LP released in 1984). The composer is in charge of guitars, whereas several musicians accompany him with
other instruments: Oystein Sevag (keyboards), Brynjar Hoff (oboe), Inge Norum (percussion), Rob Waring (vibraphone), Jan Erik Salater (bass on "Step Into"). The expressivity that Wollo achieves with his acoustic and electric guitars is remarkable
indeed. From his hand, the guitar appears at the same heights as any other orchestra instruments among those which are
best appreciated in the role of soloists, like for instance the piano.
PASCUAL JURADO
CD Services (U.K.):
Emanating from 1982, for the first time on CD, and with a bonus track in the form of half of the follow-up album, ‘Dreams Of Pyramids', nearly twenty years on, this album sound every bit as fine as it did way back when. With a core line-up of Wollo
on acoustic and electric guitars, plus oboe, keyboards, percussion and vibraphone, this is a truly magical instrumental album, one that would have settled perfectly at home in the days when the ECM label was at its height, with many of the passages
on this album proving to be an absolute delight to fans of musicians such as Terje Rypdal, John Surman, and similar. The
winding melodies from the instruments and exotic drums/percussion, are genuinely timeless, the sort of music that will
sound perfectly good in another twenty years, let alone now.
If you have ever been into the most breathtaking moments of the ECM label or the tastier end of the melodic, atmospheric fusion market, then this is your sort of album, for sure. The bonus track gives more prominence to the synths, largely
replacing the oboe, and its inclusion only serves to add to the gorgeous multi-textural delights of the album as a whole,
maintaining the feel and atmosphere, but with keyboards and guitars as the new co-leads as the unbroken 20+ minute track sails onwards, with wondrous electric bass lines and delicate percussion work.
*****
NORWEGIAN REVIEWS:
INSIDE: Dette er rett og slett et mesterverk som kan fenge alt fra tilhengere av samtidsmusikk til Pink Floyd - fans. Om du ikke har hørt noe av Wøllo tidligere, er dette stykket norsk musikkhistorie verdt å få med seg!
HAMAR ARBEIDERBLAD: platen er meget elegant utført, med vakker stemningsmusikk. Erik Wøllo klarer ved hjelp av
dynamiske og harmoniske virkemidler å skape høydepunkter og spenning i musikken.
FREDRIKSTAD BLAD: Platen viser at allerede i 1983 var Wøllo en eksperimentell komponist som likte å blande ulike genre.
BACKSTAGE: Det som forbauser oss aller mest er at denne nyutgivelsen etter 16 år fortsatt virker både aktuell - og
nyskapende. Wøllo regnes i dag som en av våre fremste samtidskomponister, men hans lyriske sans og sterke personlige
særpreg er så vidt dominerende at tilgjengeligheten til musikken hans ikke er spesielt vanskelig. Har man lyst til å stifte
bekjentskap med Wøllo, er denne debutplata fra 1983 en meget fin inngangsnøkkel.
AFTENPOSTEN (14/9/ 1983 ): Erik Wøllo imponerer såvel som komponist og solist på diverse akustiske og elektriske gitarer.
Ungt og Fascinerende!
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