Skuli Sverrisson/Bill Frisell: Strata
Author: Andy Robson
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Musicians: |
Bill Frisell (g) |
Label: |
Newvelle Records |
Magazine Review Date: |
July/2021 |
Media Format: |
DL |
RecordDate: |
Rec. June 2017 |
A re-formatting of a vinyl-only release from 2017, programmed to fit with the A/B side nature of an LP; so some of that sense of a half time caesura is lost; the qualities of vinyl are also marginally dissolved in a digital format, while the necessary brevity of a vinyl release rarely sits easy in a digital locus. Given all that, this is still a beautiful sonic experience. Sverrisson and Frisell had never met let alone played together before this three-day New York session. But Sverrisson is a long-time Frisell devotee, and his songs organically fit with Frisell's melodically melancholic, more Americana stylings. Each miniature is a standout, such as ‘Vanishing Point’ that glistens with harmonics like sun dazzles on a wing mirror as you motor down a black top towards a horizon that hovers tantalising distant. Sverrisson often plays arpeggiated acoustic bass guitar, providing textures rather than a rhythmic bottom, leaving Frisell airy space for his spare and suggestive phrasing. Brief in time as Strata is, so intense and allusive is the writing and playing, it remains a shock when the music resolves to its final stratum: silence.

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