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Reviews

Erik Wøllo — Aeris Suite
(Projekt no#, 2025, DL)

by Peter Thelen, Published 2025-11-02

Aeris Suite Cover art

When we last caught up with the Norwegian composer and guitarist earlier this year, he had just released his panoramic epic Where the River Widens, something unexpected and quite beautiful. His latest, Aeris Suite, is a completely different animal, a long-form piece in seven parts, clocking in just shy of 31 minutes. Each of the sections crossfades beautifully into the next. The focus is on the floating ambient and textural aspect of his work, mostly using his custom electric sustain guitar, perhaps with some loopers and of course an arsenal of effect pedals and more, that often create a wall of sound that more resembles synthesizers and sequencers, but we know better having seen him create these kind of sounds live at Soundquest Fest a few years back — the guitar is his primary tool of expression. Each of the seven parts introduces itself, elaborates majestically, and then fades until another section takes over, with some of the sections like “Obscure Trail,” “Sinuous Path,” “Celsius,” and “Aeris” seeming to have a special significance amid the piece’s entirety. While many of the parts explore the melodic, the changes are slow, measured, and dreamlike, with shimmering overtones and drifting shadows that pique the imagination, creating spellbinding harmonics and wandering introspective imagery that reaches from the heart and soul of your being into the furthest depths of outer space. My only reservation about it is that I wish it was a little longer — I know in the past I’ve complained about Wøllo going on too long at times (Solastalgia for example) but here I’m left wanting a bit more. Since this is a download, it comes with a complete ‘gapless’ version following the seven parts (which don’t have any gaps, at least for me), so you’ll get to hear the whole of Aeris Suite twice anyway. Another positively engaging masterwork from Wøllo.

Filed under: New releases, 2025 releases

Related artist(s): Erik Wøllo

More info
http://projektrecords.bandcamp.com/album/aeris-suite

 

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