Ensemble Neon - Neon [Aurora]

After being formed and founded in 2008 we see the Norwegian group of twelve Oslo-based experimental musicians known as Ensemble Neon coming up with their  debut album "Neon" in late 2016. Put on the circuit via the Aurora label we see individual members of the twelve artists circle Ensemble Neon consists of contributing to this album, instead of the bunch of them performing as a full group. With Kristine Tjøgersen's opener "Travelling Light 2" we're taken into a sphere of tense, yet ultrasparse minimalism combining experimental (ab)use of wind instruments, a hammering piano sequence and what seem to be a few scattered electronic elements - an amalgamation with a certain crime scene / film noir flavour that finds its continuation in Jan Martin Smørdal's "My Favorite Thing 2", a more lively and rhythmic composition that picks up on the vibe of the opener despite adding a varied amount of instruments, some of more squealing nature. Following up is "Monocots", a conjunctional work of Oren Ambarchi and James Rushford which, as one might've already guessed from Mr. Ambarchi being involved here, deals with contemplative, inward looks PostRock minimalisms with a stop-and-go attitude accompanied by decent electronic textures and Field Recordings of water being poured before Alvin Lucier's eighteen-minute spanning epos "Two Circles" leads us into a world of Deep Listening Music touching both the borders of Piano Ambient and high frequency Drone manipulations. Finally Julian Skar's solo work "Kunsten A Tvile 2" starts out on a deep, ambient'ish tip as well before suddenly, after a few minutes of floating along, unleashing havoc in form of a seemingly improvised, Free Jazz and theatre informed musical tilt mode, raw and overwhelming like an epileptic seizure, suddenly coming to halt again to make way for an episode of alienated flute tones and further scattered eruptions of madness, showcasing the most experimental nature of the group named Ensemble Neon. Recommended for those loving their conceptual music from the very depths of their hearts.

Album artwork on Instagram!