Mariska Baars / Niki Jansen / Rutger Zuydervelt: Hardanger (digital, LAAPS, November 2024)

I guess this record could be considered a bit of retro, if you’re the kind of geeky individual who can get nostalgic about a kind of electroacoustic drone music which was ‘popular’ in (I would say) the early ’10s but isn’t made so much any more. Reader, I am that geeky individual.

So… Improvised tunes played on a Scandinavian folk instrument: check, courtesy of Jansen on the titular fiddle. Responses on guitar that often doesn’t sound like guitar and wordless vocals: check, courtesy of Baars (aka soccer Committee [sic punctuation]). Subtle electronic treatments: check, courtesy of Zuydervelt (aka Machinefabriek). Two long tracks: check. Your humble author in his happy place: check!

I wouldn’t for a moment want to give the impression that this record is unoriginal. One of the great joys in music is finding someone building something fresh and new based on a familiar template. And this album is just such a joy. (It helps that I am a sucker for the template in question.)

The first track is perhaps the more what you’d expect: the drone elements layer up, the folky melodies drift in and out, the sparingly-used vocals float over the top, and the whole thing is gently transporting. The flip is a touch more experimental: it leads with an acapella vocal to which the instruments seem to respond, the hand of Zuydervelt seems more apparent (the odd sine wave, and delicate swirls of echo), and it’s bolder with its dissonance. The effects they’re able to achieve with the juxtaposition of such simple elements is breathtaking.

I think I used to overuse phrases like ‘quiet magic’ when writing about this kind of stuff. Well, I’m reaching for that one again, because it really does perfectly capture how I feel about this album. Thrilling stuff.

I bought this from Machinefabriek’s bandcamp page.