MYHRE, JO BERGER
UNHEIMLICH MANOEUVRE (RARENOISE)
Norwegian bassist, composer and producer Jo Berger Myhre has long thrived on collaboration, bringing his distinctive voice to a wide variety of adventurous projects.
He is best known as one-third of the exploratory electro-acoustic trio Splashgirl and a member for the last seven years of the Nils Petter Molvær Quartet, with whom he's recorded and co-produced two albums: 2016's Buoyancy and this summer's Stitches.
He's also a frequent duo partner of multi-instrumentalist Olafur Björn Olafsson and has performed and/or recorded with the likes of Mariam the Believer, Jenny Hval & Susanna, Geir Sundstol and Finland, the improvising alt-rock quartet of Pål Hausken, Morten Qvenild, Ivar Grydeland and Myhre.Now, Myhre makes his solo debut with the release of the captivating and mysterious Unheimlich Manoeuvre, The title is an obvious play on the life-saving technique, though whether the added negation makes the threatening or simply subverted remains ambiguous.
More to the point, the English translation of unheimlich is "uncanny" or "eerie" - an apt descriptor for the sounds that Myhre creates.
To borrow a phrase from David Lynch's Twin Peaks, Myhre conjures aural landscapes that suggest "a place both wonderful and strange," stunning in their beauty with something alluringly unsettling lurking just Underneath.