Splashgirl + Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe: More Human

Years after Splashgirl's first album, Doors. Keys (Aim Records, 2007) was recorded, it is a pleasure to welcome their seventh album, their sixth on Hubro, particularly as years have elapsed since their last release, Sixth Sense (Hubro, 2018). The trio at the core of Splashgirl have known each other since 2000—Jo Berger Myhre on bass, Andreas Vold Løwe on keyboards, and Andreas Lønmo Knudsrød on drums, with all three also employing electronics.

Joining that trio is American musician, composer and sound artist Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe....or he should have been joining them. When everything was ready for recording at Ocean Sound Recordings in Western Norway, in autumn 2021, Lowe and producer Randall Dunn— who had previously produced Field Day Rituals (Hubro, 2013) and Hibernation (Hubro, 2018)—were denied entry to Norway under the Covid restrictions. In the circumstances, Splashgirl and Lowe did what many other musicians did during the pandemic; Splashgirl recorded at Ocean Sound Recordings, and Lowe and Dunn recorded at Circular Ruin Studio in New York. Both teams went into the studio on Monday November 29th, 2021, and worked until December 5th.

The Splashgirl team recorded a piece of music which was then sent westward for processing and overdubs by the Lowe and Dunn team. The following day Lowe and Dunn recorded music which was sent to Norway for Splashgirl to process and add overdubs to. The two teams alternated their roles until they stopped.

The six tracks that comprise the album vary considerably; some were improvised based on instructions about tempo, mood, mode and key from Dunn, while others had been composed in advance by Myhre and Lowe. During the studio sessions one track was composed with the idea that Lowe would sing his own lyrics over it; the resulting song, "Afterlife Like," was composed by Myhre with lyrics by Lowe. The album's most surprising song is a version of "Taphead" which was originally on the album Laughing Stock (Polydor, 1991) by the English band Talk Talk.

Although the album has a duration of thirty-eight minutes, with its shortest track clocking in at 3:29 and the longest at 11:43, it is coherent and atmospheric from the first note to the last. It would be difficult to spot which tracks were recorded in Norway and which in New York. Although it will be sought by devotees of Splashgirl, it will appeal to a far larger audience than that.

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