Weathering by Kvien & Sommer

"Weathering" is a mini-album by Norwegian duo Kvien & Sommer, comprised of four broken suites for voice, modular synthesizers, bagpipe and various sound objects. A work of pristine, strange beauty.

Kvien & Sommer surely let themselves shine on "Weathering", it's fantastic to hear a work that encompasses such disparate approaches and methods. Reaching beyond genre tags and international scenes, the recording is a richly textured miasma of deep reverberant throbs, phasing pulses and highly addictive half-melodies – a proper trip with surprises hidden throughout. This is contemporary sound of Bergen.

Kvien is Mari Kvien Brunvoll, one of the country's leading improvisers and best voices, too. Having recently gained an unexpected fanbase amongst Ricardo Villalobos's followers after "Everywhere You Go" remix 12", Mari never ceases to amaze and inspire. A graduate of Grieg Academy in Bergen, Brunvoll has performed solo and in groups at some of Europe's best jazz clubs and festivals and released twisted albums on labels like Jazzland Recordings and Hubro.

Sommer is Espen Sommer Eide, a composer and musician who's also heavily involved in Bergen's experimental music scene. He is the person behind solo electronics masterpieces for Rune Grammofon as Phonophani; and is also 1/2 of the legendary group Alog who even won the "Norwegian Grammy" (Spellemannprisen). Espen is not just a multi-instrumentalist, but also an instrument-builder and is famous for mixing live instruments and natural sounds with purely electronic / digital signals.