Hitra - Transparence [Amp Music & Records 085]

Coming in via a letter from Paris-based musician Alessandro Sgobbio is "Transparence", the soon to be released album by the freshly formed multinational quartet Hitra which is comprised of the members Hilmar Jensson, Jo Berger Myhre and Øyvind Skarbø alongside Sgobbio himself. Scheduled for February 19th, 2k21 on the Norwegian imprint Amp Music & Records as the labels cat.no. 085 and spread out over the course of 33 minutes runtime we see the group on an explorationary journey into a new sonic realm, opening with the fascinating combination of dreamy, partially acoustic, inward looking and somewhat PostRock-oriented guitar licks and a raw, gnarly, highly experimental foundation of brooding, tectonically shifting bass layers as well as distorted, electrically buzzing feedback fragments which provide a running theme, a red ribbon on this longplay debut whilst cuts like "Künftiges" even feature ProgRock-leaning, singing electric guitar solos transferred into a well intimate Jazz context, "The Perfect Light Of Sandstad" dabbles with panoramic, yearning, maritime Ambient Jazz for sunsets in conjunction with a short, slightly dubbed out and Illbient-reminiscing intro sequence, "Cite Des Poetes" indulges in waves and waves of thundering piano experimentation whereas the final "Lebenslauf" enters an environment of luxurious, most classy cocktail serving spots for those who like their Jazz subtle, yet are drawn towards a more experimental and advanced subset of the genre just to name a few. Deep.

Album artwork on Instagram!