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Russell / Beresford / Edwards / Liavik Solberg: Will It Float?
ByOnce formed, Liavik Solberg arranged for the quartet to play a concert in November 2013, at St Mary's Old Church, Stoke Newington, an intimate venue with great acoustics. The concert was recorded for this album. Cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm, another former band mate (in VCDC) of Liavik Solberg, got the task of mixing and mastering the album. This meant Lonberg-Holm had to deal with the limitations of the dynamic of the music, as outlined by Liavik Stolberg; specifically, these concerned taking Russell's acoustic guitar into account plus the "challenging and different soundscape" created by Beresford's electro-acoustic sound palette. No worries, Lonberg-Holm did a fine job and all four players can be heard clearly and in balance on the released version.
Across four tracks, totalling just under forty minutes, the quartet's music is classic improv spiced up by the inclusion of Beresford's objects and electronics, which make it unmistakably of the twenty-first century. The balance between the players is even; with none of them dominating, all four can be judged as equally responsible for the final soundscape.
Liavik Solberg makes his presence felt throughout, giving the music a rhythmic pulse that he does not allow to flag and which the other three all help maintain. In particular, the drummer combines well with Edwards, the two not functioning as a conventional rhythm section, but working in tandem and clearly being tuned into each other's instincts. While the momentum is maintained, the pieces have more than enough surface detail to make them interesting beyond the rhythm; Beresford is the most obvious source of such detail but the others all contribute to it, reacting and responding to the rapidly evolving soundscape. The end results make stimulating listening time after time, each repeat hearing revealing more than the last. Will It Float? is available on heavy black vinyl in an edition limited to 300 copies. Unmissable.
Track Listing
Will It Float?; Light Impermeable; Buoyant; The Third Time.
Personnel
John Russell: guitar; Steve Beresford: objects & electronics; John Edwards: double bass; Ståle Liavik Solberg: drums and percussion.
Album information
Title: Will It Float? | Year Released: 2015 | Record Label: Va Fongool
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Russell / Beresford / Edwards / Liavik Solberg
CD/LP/Track Review
Ståle Liavik Solberg
John Eyles
Va Fongool
United Kingdom
London
John Russell
John Edwards
Steve Beresford
Will It Float?