Vesslefrek ~ Valse Mysterioso
Vesslefrek released
their eponymous debut a decade ago, after which the trio joined forces with
Helge Sten (aka Deathprod) and renamed themselves Supersilent. Valse Mysterioso
is a more consistent though perhaps less experimental work than its predecessor.
From its first moments it conveys a pronounced feeling of the preternatural
conjured by Ståle Storløkken's Theremin-like keyboards, Jarle
Vespestad’s bleached bone percussion and Arve Henriksen’s beyond-the-veil
trumpet. Valse Mysterioso presents a delicate, finely balanced but highly
durable architecture. There’s a sense of each musician constructing
a latticework through which silence could be heard at any given moment. The
music mixes a number of different strains: Joe Zawinul's reflective lyricism
heard on the quieter passages of Miles Davis’s Fille De Killimanjaro;
the pride and pathos of folk musics; a sense of fin-de-siecle elegance. Despite
the frequent presence of Storløkken’s synthesizers the music
has a febrile, acoustic feel which charms without overwhelming. Valse Mysterioso
is a thing of rare beauty: crepescular, strange and haunted.
Colin Buttimer
September 2004