Joe Harvey-Whyte and Geir Sundstøl – Langeleik

Hubro

The coming together of pedal steel aficionados Joe Harvey-Whyte and Geir Sundstøl has created an album of languorous drifting beauty that follows the folds of rivers and the pale glint of sunlight on sleepy backwaters in a series of ten surprisingly diverse and meditative musical mantras.

Having been in touch since 2016, a chance visit to Oslo found Joe hooking up with Geir and laying down the intuitive tracks here in a matter of days. As well as the two pedal steel guitars, there are also other guitars, an optigan, a shruti box, and percussion and double bass from Jo Berger Myhre, Anders Engen and Erland Dahlen.

Inspired by rivers and waterways in as diverse places as Lofoten in Norway and East London, the soporific glide of the pedal steel is the first thing we encounter on Langeleik. Gentle and welcoming, their differing tones immediately open up lazy images in the mind; but with the addition of a beat it starts to gently swing, touches of percussion chiming. The pair of guitars are different enough in tone and style as to produce conversations that run on like sun-dappled duets.

There is a sense of distance and padded mystery at some points as we are caught in the drifts of sound, and the mantra element is introduced by a circular motif that is gentle and consuming. The textured percussion is delightful and I was brought to a similar feeling of comfortable remove that Tarentel used to produce. A watery reverb swirls the sound with a distorted quality that hints at dub giving darker echoes, as if here the water is passing through more shrouded places; but it isn’t long before the languorous dream is reinstated with just the two guitars and a heartbeat.

Midway through, poet Ivar Orvedal joins the group and his deep tones and careful enunciation suit the optigan whirling quietly in the background. There is a caring intensity to the sound, but also that feeling of joyful open space that puts me in mind of the scene in The Good, The Bad And The Ugly where the characters make it across the river and the glorious lush but remote landscape opens up in front of them. The musicians’ ability to transport the listener is great and the fact that each track gives a slightly different perspective from the amorphous drift of a monochromatic lowering tide to the wistful interplay between drone, melody and harmony.

The pedal steel has a way of reinforcing a detachment from the everyday when moving through a beatless drift; an ebbing tide far from anywhere interspersed with the cry of distant birds, while the album’s sleepy farewell consolidates what has come before, ensuring a hushed send-off as the water continues to flow.

Langeleik is a hushed delight from start to finish with plenty of texture to keep the imagination engaged as you allow temptation to take you away. It gives another perspective to the pedal steel and its use with the river imagery is a refreshing one.

-Mr Olivetti-