Trond Kallevåg – Minnesota

Hubro

Norwegian composer and guitarist Trond Kallevåg‘s latest album ruminates on the relationship between Norway and the United States, particularly on the flow of migrants in the nineteenth century.

Having spent some time on the remote island of Træna, he uncovered correspondence and photographs sent between siblings who had never met as one had emigrated to Hawai’i, and there is something in the dichotomy between two different civilisations that has been captured here.

Trond is accompanied on this journey by fellow travellers Gard Nilssen on percussion, Mats Eilertsen on bass and Tuva Halse adding piquant violin to Trond’s guitars and synths. As well as the initial recordings, Trond then added various overdubs to colour in some of the spaces. The sleepy acoustic and pedal steel that open the album play a heartfelt tune that perfectly merges the modern Nordic folk tradition with the sway of Hawai’ian guitar. It is tinged with melancholy and the players sweep along, embellishing the fragile melody.

There is a real sense of yearning here, with sufficient space between the lingering, distant percussion and subtle bass. Plenty of fresh air to breathe as the disparate correspondents look out over their diverse landscapes. The fiddle adds further emotion, its keening notes adding to the sense of loss.

Found voices echo like ghosts in the background with the guitar leading them slowly, the fiddle shadowing, sketching. There is an air of restraint as if afraid of losing the moment; so it comes as a surprise when Gard ads heft, imbuing momentum, an idea of long distances travelled.

The gentle interaction between different cultures also contains an air of innocence and the unbounded sound of dreams and imagination, trying to picture a life so distant yet emotionally so close, a landscape unimaginable except through blurred black and white images in books.

In contrast, side two opens dramatically with a cinematic rhythmic crash that descends into a flurry of fiddle that brings to mind some of the early Calexico experiments and continues with lovely percussive shimmers. Here you imagine the long-distance brother attempting to put into words what he knows his sister will never see. The dance of the violin and guitar brings to mind The Dirty Three and feels like two sides of a conversation, while drifting dreaminess encapsulates the day-dreaming that must have taken place after the letters were received and consumed.

Towards the end of the album there is a lively swagger which somehow speaks of familiarity and security, knowledge of a journey completed safely and lives lived well and concluding with a lullaby-like calm, a half-remembered folk idea sent out into the wide unknown.

The album is a testament to the imagination of the artists and also a profound impression of lives lived so separately yet conjoined at a spiritual level. It is a lovely memorial for those brave souls and for those who were left behind.

-Mr Olivetti-