JAN BANG & ARVE HENRIKSEN “After the Wildfire”

ARTIST

Jan Bang & Arve Henriksen

ALBUM TITLE

“After the Wildfire”

LABEL

Punkt Editions

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Commissioned by the Skopje Jazz Festival, where it premiered in 2023, the composition that gives the album its name stands as a stylistic bridge between genres and forms. It blurs the distinction between composition and improvisation, including both real-time manipulation of acoustic sounds and post-production in the digital domain. Bang and Henriksen are widely regarded as masters of electronic music production, a term that only hints at the breadth of their craft. Over time, this artistic approach has evolved into something akin to a genre of its own, transcending its initial sources and developing precise aesthetic characteristics.

After the Wildfire, conceived as a composed work and then further shaped in the studio, is a true hypostasis of this poetics. It contains sequences of ambient scenes, evocations emerging from a narrative flow, and undulating melodies that assert themselves and then dissolve, like narrative fragments adrift in a vast and abstract sea in motion. The human element is supplied by the voices, whether the choir or Henriksen’s trumpet, which at times functions almost phatically.

This is not easy listening. Its contemplative character often inclines the emotional dimension toward pain, a natural implication of the underlying theme: the impermanence of human actions when confronted with the force of nature. Nonetheless, we strongly recommend listening under the right conditions, for its undeniable artistic value and the many moments of striking beauty it contains.

Sandro Cerini

DISTRIBUTED BY

punkteditions.bandcamp.com • janbangarvehenriksen.bandcamp.com

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