You might not think the traditional Norwegian hardinger fiddle of Nils Økland would be compatible with the deviant post-rock electric guitar and drums of Per Stainar Lie and Ørjan Haaland.
You’d be wrong. Since 2010, this trio have forged an expressive musical language that hovers between the quadrants of cosmic rock haunted by Hawkwind and the down-to-earth twanging tremolo found in the time-folded psychedelic Americana of Six Organs Of Admittance. This curious amalgamation of styles and eclectic cultural call-back shouldn’t connect but it most assuredly does. Økland has previously appeared on ECM as a solo artist and his facility with a keening folk melody certainly leads the group towards a rich tonality feeding off the vivid wall-of-sound backing which Stainar Lie and Haaland generate between them. Underpinning it all, as the title suggests, are cavernous drones whose ponderous thrum reaches down into occluded and pensive territory, gradually running free into an open, blissed-out cathartic release. Encompassing both formally written and improvised modes, Lumen Drones manages to be both contemplative and visceral.
