The Norwegian experimental musician Håvard Volden has the CV of a lifer. For over a decade, he has played in the experimental rock band Moon Relay. For coming up on two decades, he has been a collaborator with the Norwegian singer and songwriter Jenny Hval. So it’s fitting that his new record is called Small Lives. It’s full of jazzy, experimental guitar music that lives on the edges of multiple genres, which is also befitting of an artist whose seasoned approach to the guitar is accommodating of a variety of methodologies and traditions. As a whole, it’s a pleasant listen, its moderate dissonance taking on a vaguely ECM feel at times, its guitar playing nodding to folk and rock and drone, its tactile electronics dancing in the corners of the composition. What is the ideal listening environment for this record? Headphones and a couch wouldn’t hurt.
- editorial