Stein Urheim – Speilstillevariasjoner

Stein Urheim has been a mainstay of Norway’s alternative music scene – and in particular, those acts gathered around the brilliant indie label Hubro – for almost thirteen years. With his wide-ranging and constantly shifting approach to genre, he is something of a flagship for an entire scene, bringing jazz-prog guitar workouts, spacy synth atmospherics, folk-adjacent improvisation and minimalist composition together under one roof. Speilstillevariasjoner is his seventh album for the label and sees him dig deeper into a mode of expression he has touched on a few times before: short, experimental compositions played on fretless guitars with unconventional tunings, inspired by Chinese and Norwegian folk music as well as the microtonality and minimalism of composers like La Monte Young.

Urheim’s tunings create restrictions and constraints, but like certain experimental composers of the twentieth century (the Fluxus group, for instance), and like the literary movement Oulipo, he sees constraint as a form of liberation, as a way of channelling something new and unexpected out of his instrument, himself and his collaborators. This keen sense of exploration is felt instantly on Speilstillevariasjoner’s opening track; Speilstemt sets out an uncompromising modus operandi, featuring cascading strings and clattering percussion. It would be easy for this kind of music to sound busy or messy, but Urheim makes sure he clears space where strange snippets of melody or near-melody can bloom like flowers of unexpected colours.

Although most of these pieces are relatively short, there is a continuity that gives the whole recording an organic feel: the first two tracks, for example, are linked by Ikue Mori’s twittering electronics, which themselves mirror the field recordings that run through the album. The slightly longer pieces, like Speiler Seg Stille, are slow-building and meditative, though not without their surprises, jumping from stretched-out, ambient astral prog to pastoral folk courtesy of Hans Kjorstad’s flighty violin. Kjenn Gravitasjonen begins with warped, eastern psychedelics and then adds off-kilter rhythmic strums and minimal violin notes and a clatter of Siv Øyunn Kjenstad’s free jazz drums. Kartlav Er Ukjente Kontinent seems to tell a strange, subtle story with its picturesque guitar melodies, moving from languid introspection to a conclusion of quickness, force and repetition.

Ferskvannsdelfinens Blues – the album’s centrepiece, if an album this off-centre can be said to have such a thing – begins with impressive fingerpicked guitar worthy of Fahey or Basho. Urheim takes his instrument on a gentle odyssey, culminating in a synth-heavy final section, which is almost trance-inducing. A similar mixture of the cosmic and the restful is put to work on the beautiful Speilbølger, though its conclusion is more fraught, full of strange leaps, cut-up electronics, and the occasional spark of Sam Gendel’s saxophone.

The short violin piece Det Knaser I Planeten is almost baroque in its prettiness until you realise it has completely stopped conforming to any traditional idea of melody, at which point it becomes even more interesting. Spor I Lyngen sounds like music made by benevolent but inscrutable elves, and closer Larson is a vivid but relaxed tableau, Urheim’s notes falling like droplets and accumulating into a rich, tranquil whole. And it is that sense of wholeness that ends up being the abiding characteristic of Speilstillevariasjoner. This is music that constantly has its eyes wide open, both in wonder and in anticipation of the next new and interesting path. Urheim has, yet again, proved himself to be Norway’s premier musical explorer.

Speilstillevariasjoner (31st January 2025) Hubro

Pre-Order: https://hubromusic.bandcamp.com/album/speilstillevariasjoner

from https://klofmag.com