OLSO – Elliot Sharp, John Andrew Wilhite-Hannisdal – Zoar Music
(John Andrew Wilhite-Hannisdal – Bass; Elliott Sharp – Strandberg Boden 8 String Electric Guitar)
John Andrew Wilhite-Hannisdal plays the doublebase with the elegance of a viola and the intensity of a chain saw. His music reflects both his academic background and a streetwise instinct that cannot be formally taught. Born in Virginia, but now based in Oslo, Wilhite-Hannisdal holds a master’s degree in performance and composition from the Norwegian Academy of Music and an undergraduate degree from Portland’s Reed College. His credentials also include a stint at the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music where he was a student of Reggie Workman. His inspiration is drawn from a broad range of sources that include East European folk song, opera, semiotics, as well as the mating calls of codfish.
Long time New York City avant-garde mainstay, Elliott Sharp, has done everything with everybody from David Torn and Vernon Reed to Debbie Harry, the Kronos Quartet as well as the sufi musicians of Jajouka. In this trans-Atlantic collaboration Sharp restrains from shredding his instrument and instead choses to pluck, distort, muddle and gently shake the Vikings out of their longboats one sailor at a time directly into eye of the maelstrom.
POETIC REVIEW by Casey Bush
DARKLAW
The Moon descends into the throat of a volcano. Chain mail and horned helmets cannot protect us from molten lava. Is there an echo that doesn’t imitate, repeat or ring like a bell? Certainly we’ve got another think coming. Slow down on the curves. Keep your eyes on the road. Ravenous wolfhounds devour the spiral arms of our Milky Way. Evil has been allowed to flourish just in order to thicken the plot. Beyond grip and grasp, verdict and appeal, censure and closure, lies the invisible and invincible. There’s a dwarf in the goatshed who demands an extra tankard of golden mead.
OLSO
Tracklist:
Járnsaxa – 4:32
Greip – 8:28
Jaki – 11:55
Hati – 10:51
Sköll – 11:05
Breiða – 5:38
Suttungr – 3:50
More information through Elliot Sharp
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