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Reviews

Erik Wøllo — Solastalgia
(Projekt PRO00421, 2024, DL)

by Peter Thelen, Published 2024-12-18

Solastalgia Cover art

I looked it up in my big five-inch thick Webster’s Unabridged dictionary, but it wasn’t even there, and then it occurred to me that dictionary is from the mid-1990s and the word probably didn’t exist yet, so I gave Wikipedia a try, and they (cutting to the chase) define it as such: “Solastalgia… describes a form of emotional or existential distress caused by negatively perceived environmental change.” So you can refer to Wøllo’s Projekt label Bandcamp page (link below) to explore the composer’s thoughts on the subject. Mostly, though, I’m here to write about the music, and if one knows any of Wøllo’s releases from the mid-80s onward, on Projekt, Spotted Peccary before that, Origo Sound, and any other labels along the way, Solastalgia is pretty much what one would expect to hear at this point on his current trajectory — a potent mixture of colorful melodic ambient sounds that mix freely in space, created with analog and digital synthesizers, sequencers, ambient electric guitar techniques, fiery lead guitars, percussion, and various software instruments perhaps; some of the pieces pulsate with energy, while others take a more gentle approach, though everything is very effective and sometimes quite stunning and beautiful. Standout tracks like the eleven-minute “Light Pillars,” “Shoshin Voyage,” “Tree of Life,” “Forever River,” “Sellafield,” and “Wanderer Above” are exemplary pieces, among Wøllo’s very best compositions and arrangements here. Wøllo seems to be one of those recording artists who believes that if a listener loves forty or fifty minutes of their music, then they will really love 130 minutes of it, but that’s the main problem with Solastalgia, it’s just way too long to listen to in one sitting, 21 tracks that average around six or seven minutes apiece, and given that all are instrumental, most are similarly arranged, it gets a little tiring. I hate to say that about music that’s so brilliant and well executed; I think breaking it up into two consecutive releases would have been a better strategy. I’ll shut up now.

Filed under: New releases, 2024 releases

Related artist(s): Erik Wøllo

More info
http://projektrecords.bandcamp.com/album/solastalgia

 

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