Erik Wøllo’s Timelines: Echoes February CD of the Month

Erik Wøllo’s Timelines
Echoes February CD of the Month

It’s a cliché, I know, but as soon as an Erik Wøllo album starts,
you know you are on a journey.  It’s like the moments before take-off, only Wøllo’s ascent doesn’t throw you back in your seat with G-Force thrust.  It’s a gentle rise into euphoric space. Timelines is a beautifully sculpted example of that.

Wøllo is a Norwegian musician who has been recording since 1984, releasing 18 solo albums in that span plus collaborations with musicians like Steve Roach, Ian Boddy and Kouame Sereba. From his 1988 album Traces (recently reissued on Spotted Peccary Records along with other Wøllo titles) Wøllo showed a command of detailed orchestrations and dramatic melodies. A guitarist and keyboardist, both elements come together in intricate and unexpected ways on Timelines.

Erik Wollo Live on Echoes 2010

Wøllo’s recent albums, Silent Currents and Airborne, have taken him into the drone zone inhabited by Steve Roach, but Timelines is a return to form for this guitarist who is more at home in a world of melody.  But you can hear those abstract influences in his electronic percussion palette which reflects the influence of his collaborations with Roach on Streams of Thought and Road Eternal.

The central core of this album is acoustic guitar, on which Wøllo composed all of the tracks, except I suspect, the spacey closer, “Ocean.”  On “Blue Rondo,” an acoustic guitar arpeggio seems to reveal itself out of an electronic swirl, merging with glurpy water drip electronic percussion, soaring synth pads and growling electric guitar drones before evolving into a gently percussive piece with some searing ebow guitar leads.

Erik Wollo Live on Echoes 2010

“Visions” is the centerpiece of the album, a slowly building work of interlocked percussion, electronic cycles and that ebow guitar that seems to emerge like a stealth bomber out of the storm clouds. Maybe that imagery is a little foreboding, but that’s what draws me to Wøllos music.  A track like “Along the Journey” could be a gentle walk through a Norwegian forest and easily devolve into New Age prettiness.  But throughout the walk, Wøllo has ambient atmospheres swirling at the edges, leaving them unfocused and mysterious.  There’s a darkness that balances the light, a dark undertow that serves to put his melodies in beautiful bas relief.  And then of course, there’s the thudding percussion and spiraling ebow solo that reveals this is no country walk.

Erik Wøllo has had a few CD of the Month picks in the past.  It’s hard not to.  Time is suspended when you cross Erik Wøllo’s Timelines.

John Diliberto (((echoes)))
Read more about Erik Wøllo
Gateway CD of the Month
Erik Wøllo & Steve Roach Interview

Join the Echoes CD of the Month Club.  Erik Wøllo’s Timelines is our February CD of the Month.  You’ll get great CDs and help support Echoes at the same time.   You can do it all right here.

OR

Pick Up  TRANSMISSIONS:
THE ECHOES LIVING ROOM CONCERTS VOLUME 19

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Busking to Beauty: Ane Brun Interviewed on Echoes

Tonight on Echoes we revisit our interview with Anne Brun.

Norwegian-born, Sweden-based  singer-songwriter Ane Brun creates a dreamy, folk-based music. She looks back on her 10 year career and new double CD retrospective Songs 2003-2013.  But she started out as a busker.  There are thousands of them around the world:  Musicians playing on street corners, in cafes and any other place an audience might stroll by and listen.  Some of them are young musicians getting their music together, some just make their living as a busker, scrounging quarters and quid into something resembling a living.  Few of them actually break through to become recording musicians.  I can think of some, Kaki King, Portico Quartet, The Angels of Venice.  Add to that small list Ane Brun.  I talk to her about her 10 year career tonight on Echoes.  Since we interviewed her, Brun has released a second compilation, Rarities.

Highlights:

Ane Brun on her jazz Influences:  I think my voice is influenced a lot by jazz singers, actually.  I grew up with listening to vocal jazz a lot, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and the big legends.  So I was singing along to like Aretha Franklin and Ella Fitzgerald and that kind of stuff.

Ane Brun on the melancholy of Scandanavian music:  That’s true, it’s what we have.  I, I think it’s the long winters, it might be, and also the Lutherism and all that stuff.

Hear Ane Brun talk about her music tonight on Echoes.

John Diliberto (((echoes)))

ECHOES CD OF THE MONTH SPECIAL.

Join now and get Moby’s Innocents album, our November CD of the Month and a BONUS CD of Bombay Dub Orchestra’s Tales from the Grand Bazaar.  You’ll get great CDs and help support Echoes at the same time.  You can do it all right here.get You can join them in getting a great CD every month by signing up for the Echoes CD of the Month Club.  New members will get

Now you can go Mobile with Echoes On-Line. Find out how you can listen to Echoes 24/7 wherever you are on your iPhone, iPad or Droid.

Join us on Facebook where you’ll get all the Echoes news so you won’t be left behind when Dead Can Dance appear on the show, Tangerine Dream tours or Brian Eno drops a new iPad album. Or Follow us on Twitter@echoesradio.

Ane Brun Interviewed on Echoes Podcast.

Hear Ane Brun interviewed in the Echoes Podcast.

Norwegian-born, Sweden-based  singer-songwriter Ane Brun creates a dreamy, folk-based music. She looks back on her 10 year career and new double CD retrospective Songs 2003-2013.  But she started out as a busker.  There are thousands of them around the world:  Musicians playing on street corners, in cafes and any other place an audience might stroll by and listen.  Some of them are young musicians getting their music together, some just make their living as a busker, scrounging quarters and quid into something resembling a living.  Few of them actually break through to become recording musicians.  I can think of some, Kaki King, Portico Quartet, The Angels of Venice.  Add to that small list Ane Brun.  I talk to her about her 10 year career in the Echoes Podcast.

Highlights:

Ane Brun on her jazz Influences:  I think my voice is influenced a lot by jazz singers, actually.  I grew up with listening to vocal jazz a lot, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and the big legends.  So I was singing along to like Aretha Franklin and Ella Fitzgerald and that kind of stuff.

Ane Brun on the melancholy of Scandanavian music:  That’s true, it’s what we have.  I, I think it’s the long winters, it might be, and also the Lutherism and all that stuff.

Hear Ane Brun talk about her music in the Echoes Podcast

John Diliberto (((echoes)))

Sign up for Echoes CD of the Month Club.   CD of the Month Club members will be getting Darshan Ambient’s Little Things 10 days before its released.  Follow the link to the Echoes CD of the Month Club and see what you’ve been missing.

Support Echoes by becoming a member of the Echoes Sound Circle.

Think of the great artists you love on Echoes. Think of the informative interviews and exclusive live performances. Then, think of a world without Echoes. You can make sure that never happens by becoming a member of the Echoes Sound Circle.

Echoes is a non-profit 501(c3) organization just like your local public radio station. And all donations are tax deductible. You can support Echoes with a monthly donation that will barely disturb your credit card.

Join the Echoes Sound Circle and keep the soundscapes of Echoes flowing!

Busking to Beauty: Ane Brun Interviewed on Echoes

Norwegian-born, Sweden-based  singer-songwriter Ane Brun creates a dreamy, folk-based music. She looks back on her 10 year career and new double CD retrospective Songs 2003-2013.  But she started out as a busker.  There are thousands of them around the world:  Musicians playing on street corners, in cafes and any other place an audience might stroll by and listen.  Some of them are young musicians getting their music together, some just make their living as a busker, scrounging quarters and quid into something resembling a living.  Few of them actually break through to become recording musicians.  I can think of some, Kaki King, Portico Quartet, The Angels of Venice.  Add to that small list Ane Brun.  I talk to her about her 10 year career tonight on Echoes.

Highlights:

Ane Brun on her jazz Influences:  I think my voice is influenced a lot by jazz singers, actually.  I grew up with listening to vocal jazz a lot, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and the big legends.  So I was singing along to like Aretha Franklin and Ella Fitzgerald and that kind of stuff.

Ane Brun on the melancholy of Scandanavian music:  That’s true, it’s what we have.  I, I think it’s the long winters, it might be, and also the Lutherism and all that stuff.

Hear Ane Brun talk about her music tonight on Echoes.

John Diliberto (((echoes)))

Sign up for Echoes CD of the Month Club.   CD of the Month Club members will be getting Darshan Ambient’s Little Things 10 days before its released.  Follow the link to the Echoes CD of the Month Club and see what you’ve been missing.

Support Echoes by becoming a member of the Echoes Sound Circle.

Think of the great artists you love on Echoes. Think of the informative interviews and exclusive live performances. Then, think of a world without Echoes. You can make sure that never happens by becoming a member of the Echoes Sound Circle.

Echoes is a non-profit 501(c3) organization just like your local public radio station. And all donations are tax deductible. You can support Echoes with a monthly donation that will barely disturb your credit card.

Join the Echoes Sound Circle and keep the soundscapes of Echoes flowing!

Northern Lights – The Chilled Sound of Scandinavia.

Echoes explores the chilled world of music from Scandinavia with electronic sounds from Norway, dream pop from Denmark, downtempo electronics from Sweden and ambient chamber music from Iceland.

Iceland’s Ólafur Arnalds and Sigur Ros; Denmark’s  Agnes Obel and Manual, Norway’s Terje Rypdal and Green Isac; Sweden’s Solar Fields and more.  Turn out the lights.  The only illumination you’ll need is Northern Lights on Echoes tonight.

Here’s some video tastes for you.



John Diliberto (((echoes)))

Sign up for Echoes CD of the Month Club. With the Echoes CD of the Month Club, you get great CDs like Rachel Zeffira’s The Deserters. Follow the link to the Echoes CD of the Month Club and see what you’ve been missing.

Now you can go Mobile with Echoes On-Line. Find out how you can listen to Echoes 24/7 wherever you are on your iPhone, iPad or Droid.

Join us on Facebook where you’ll get all the Echoes news so you won’t be left behind when Dead Can Dance appear on the show, Tangerine Dream tours or Brian Eno drops a new iPad album. Or Follow us on Twitter@echoesradio